Public-domain ebook
Language: en4,638 downloads on Project Gutenberg
Subjects
In: Children & Young Adult Reading·Humour·Novels
Public-domain ebook sourced from Project Gutenberg #20821.
The novel is the senior installment of Edith K. Dunton’s “Betty Wales” series, a continuation of the college‑life saga that began with “Freshman,” “Sophomore,” and “Junior.” The opening chapter drops the reader back onto the bustling Harding campus as senior Betty Wales, bright‑cheeked and hurried, reunites with her longtime friends after a train ride. Through a lively roll‑call of characters, Rachel Morrison, Mary Brooks, Helen Adams, and the rest of the “Merry Hearts” circle, the narrative sketches the close‑knit social world that has evolved from off‑campus boarding houses to the campus itself, hinting at upcoming events such as a Belden House party, a mountain outing, and the seniors’ final attempts to guide incoming freshmen.
Dunton writes in a breezy, dialogue‑rich style that captures the genteel yet spirited atmosphere of early‑20th‑century women’s colleges. The prose is peppered with period details, train platforms, tea gatherings, and fashionable “shirt waists”, and conveys a tone of affectionate nostalgia mixed with youthful ambition. Readers who enjoy light‑hearted coming‑of‑age tales, ensemble casts of spirited young women, and a glimpse into the social rituals of a bygone academic era will find this volume an engaging continuation of Betty Wales’s collegiate adventures.
The opening · free to read
For the information of those readers who have not followed Betty Wales through the first three years of her college career, as described in "Betty Wales, Freshman," "Betty Wales, Sophomore," and "Betty Wales, Junior," it should be explained that most of Betty's little circle began to be friends in their freshman year, when they lived off the campus at Mrs. Chapin's, and Mary Brooks, the only sophomore in the house, ruled them with an autocratic hand. Betty found Helen Adams a comical and sometimes a trying roommate. Rachel Morrison and Katherine Kittredge were also at Mrs. Chapin's, and Roberta Lewis, who adored Mary Brooks and was desperately afraid of every one else in the house, though Betty Wales guessed that shyness was at the bottom of Roberta's haughty manner. Eleanor Watson was the most prominent member of the group that year and part of the next. Betty admired her greatly but found her a very difficult person to win as a friend, though in the end she proved worthy of all the trouble she had cost.
At the beginning of sophomore year the Chapin House girls moved to the campus, and "the B's" and Madeline Ayres, who explained that she lived in "Bohemia, New York," joined the circle. In their junior year Betty and her friends organized the "Merry Hearts" society, and Georgia Ames, a freshman friend of Madeline's, amused and mystified the whole college until she was finally discovered to be merely one of Madeline's many delightful inventions. But the joke was on the "Merry Hearts" when a real Georgia Ames entered college. It was when they were juniors, too, that the "Merry Hearts" took a vacation trip to the Bahamas and incidentally manoeuvred a romance for two of their faculty friends--which caused Mary Brooks to rename their society the Merry Match-makers.
And now if any one wishes to know what Betty Wales and her friends did after they left college, well--there's something about it in "Betty Wales, B.A.," "Betty Wales & Co.," "Betty Wales on the Campus," and "Betty Wales Decides."
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