“People who send word they are coming on Saturday shouldn’t come on Friday,” said Aunt Jamesina.

“I fancy it was Roy’s mistake,” said Phil.  “That boy isn’t really responsible for what he says when he talks to Anne.  Where is Anne?”

Anne had gone upstairs.  She felt oddly like crying.  But she made herself laugh instead.  Rusty and Joseph had been too awful!  And Dorothy was a dear.

Chapter XXXVII

Full-fledged B.A.’s

“I wish I were dead, or that it were tomorrow night,” groaned Phil.

“If you live long enough both wishes will come true,” said Anne calmly.

“It’s easy for you to be serene.  You’re at home in Philosophy.  I’m not—­and when I think of that horrible paper tomorrow I quail.  If I should fail in it what would Jo say?”

“You won’t fail.  How did you get on in Greek today?”

“I don’t know.  Perhaps it was a good paper and perhaps it was bad enough to make Homer turn over in his grave.  I’ve studied and mulled over notebooks until I’m incapable of forming an opinion of anything.  How thankful little Phil will be when all this examinating is over.”

“Examinating?  I never heard such a word.”

“Well, haven’t I as good a right to make a word as any one else?” demanded Phil.

“Words aren’t made—­they grow,” said Anne.

“Never mind—­I begin faintly to discern clear water ahead where no examination breakers loom.  Girls, do you—­can you realize that our Redmond Life is almost over?”

“I can’t,” said Anne, sorrowfully.  “It seems just yesterday that Pris and I were alone in that crowd of Freshmen at Redmond.  And now we are Seniors in our final examinations.”

“‘Potent, wise, and reverend Seniors,’” quoted Phil.  “Do you suppose we really are any wiser than when we came to Redmond?”

“You don’t act as if you were by times,” said Aunt Jamesina severely.

“Oh, Aunt Jimsie, haven’t we been pretty good girls, take us by and large, these three winters you’ve mothered us?” pleaded Phil.

“You’ve been four of the dearest, sweetest, goodest girls that ever went together through college,” averred Aunt Jamesina, who never spoiled a compliment by misplaced economy.

“But I mistrust you haven’t any too much sense yet.  It’s not to be expected, of course.  Experience teaches sense.  You can’t learn it in a college course.  You’ve been to college four years and I never was, but I know heaps more than you do, young ladies.”

     “’There are lots of things that never go by rule,
     There’s a powerful pile o’ knowledge
     That you never get at college,
     There are heaps of things you never learn at school,’”

quoted Stella.

“Have you learned anything at Redmond except dead languages and geometry and such trash?” queried Aunt Jamesina.