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diff --git a/25448.txt b/25448.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..1a7e0c1 --- /dev/null +++ b/25448.txt @@ -0,0 +1,6561 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Peggy, by Laura E. Richards + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Peggy + +Author: Laura E. Richards + +Illustrator: Etheldred B. Barry + +Release Date: May 12, 2008 [EBook #25448] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK PEGGY *** + + + + +Produced by Suzanne Shell, Emmy and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net + + + + + + + + + + + +PEGGY + + + + +_Books by Laura E. Richards._ + + +"Mrs. Richards has made for herself a little niche apart in the literary +world, from her delicate treatment of New England village +life."--_Boston Post._ + + +THE CAPTAIN JANUARY SERIES. + +=CAPTAIN JANUARY.= 16mo, cloth, 50 cents. + +A charming idyl of New England coast life, whose success has been very +remarkable. One reads it, is thoroughly charmed by it, tells others, and +so its fame has been heralded by its readers, until to-day it is selling +by the thousands, constantly enlarging the circle of its delighted +admirers. + +=SAME.= _Illustrated Holiday Edition._ With thirty half-tone pictures +from drawings by Frank T. Merrill. 4to, cloth, $1.25. + +=MELODY.= The Story of a Child. 16mo, 50 cents. + +"Had there never been a 'Captain January,' 'Melody' would easily take +first place."--_Boston Times._ + +=SAME.= _Illustrated Holiday Edition._ With thirty half-tone pictures +from drawings by Frank T. Merrill. 4to, cloth, $1.25. + +=MARIE.= 16mo, 50 cents. + +"Seldom has Mrs. Richards drawn a more irresistible picture, or framed +one with more artistic literary adjustment."--_Boston Herald._ + +"A perfect literary gem."--_Boston Transcript._ + +=NARCISSA=, and a companion story, =IN VERONA=. 16mo, cloth, 50 cents. + +"Each is a simple, touching, sweet little story of rustic New England +life, full of vivid pictures of interesting character, and refreshing +for its unaffected genuineness and human feeling."--_Congregationalist._ + +=JIM OF HELLAS; or, IN DURANCE VILE=, and a companion story, =BETHESDA +POOL=. 16mo, 50 cents. + +=SOME SAY=, and a companion story, =NEIGHBOURS IN CYRUS=. 16mo, 50 +cents. + +=ROSIN THE BEAU.= 16mo, 50 cents. A sequel to "Melody." + + +=ISLA HERON.= A charming prose idyl of quaint New England life. Small +quarto, cloth, 75 cents. + +=NAUTILUS.= A very interesting story, with illustrations; uniquely +bound, small quarto, cloth, 75 cents. + +=FIVE MINUTE STORIES.= A charming collection of short stories and clever +poems for children. Small quarto, cloth, $1.25. + +=THREE MARGARETS.= One of the most clever stories for girls that the +author has written. 16mo, cloth, handsome cover design, $1.25. + +=MARGARET MONTFORT.= The second volume in the series of which "Three +Margarets" was so successful as the initial volume. 16mo, cloth, +handsome cover design, $1.25. + +=PEGGY.= The third volume in the series of which the preceding ones have +been so successful. 16mo, cloth, handsome cover design, $1.25. + +=LOVE AND ROCKS.= A charming story of one of the pleasant islands that +dot the rugged Maine coast. With etching frontispiece by Mercier. Tall +16mo, unique cover design on linen, gilt top, $1.00. + +_Dana Estes & Company, Publishers, Boston._ + +[Illustration] + + + + +PEGGY + +BY LAURA E. RICHARDS + +AUTHOR OF "CAPTAIN JANUARY," "MELODY," "QUEEN HILDEGARDE," ETC. + +Illustrated by ETHELDRED B. BARRY + +[Illustration] + + BOSTON + DANA ESTES & COMPANY + PUBLISHERS + + + + + _Copyright, 1899_ + BY DANA ESTES & COMPANY + + + Colonial Press: + Electrotyped and Printed by C. H. Simonds & Co. + Boston, Mass., U. S. A. + + + + +CONTENTS. + + + CHAPTER PAGE + + I. A NEW WORLD 11 + + II. THE BOX FROM FERNLEY 31 + + III. IN THE "GYM." 51 + + IV. ENTER THE SCAPEGOAT 72 + + V. TO THE RESCUE 89 + + VI. THE OWL'S NEST 102 + + VII. WEDDING BELLS 121 + + VIII. BY MOONLIGHT 141 + + IX. FACULTY MEETING AND BEDLAM 160 + + X. TEACHER AND PUPIL 182 + + XI. DECORATION--AND OTHER THINGS 194 + + XII. AN ADVENTURE 210 + + XIII. PEGGY VICTRIX 224 + + XIV. ON SPY HILL 240 + + XV. WHAT WAS THE MATTER WITH LOBELIA PARKINS? 253 + + XVI. THE TERROR BY NIGHT 268 + + XVII. WAITING 279 + + XVIII. THE END AND THE BEGINNING 297 + + + + +LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. + + + PAGE + + "'PEACE BE TO THIS DWELLING'" (p. 79) _Frontispiece_ + + "'BERTHA, LOOK AT THIS, WILL YOU?'" 36 + + "UP THEY WENT, HAND OVER HAND." 69 + + THE GRAND TELL IN THE OWL'S NEST 120 + + "'HERE! TAKE MY HAND AND SCRAMBLE OUT'" 207 + + "WITH ONE OF HER SUDDEN MOVEMENTS SHE HAD THROWN OFF + HER ASSAILANTS" 237 + + "'OH, GRACE, SHE HAS FAINTED!'" 272 + + "'WE FOUR AGAINST THE WORLD!'" 308 + + + + +PEGGY. + + + + +CHAPTER I. + +A NEW WORLD. + + +"Miss Montfort!" said the Principal. + +Peggy looked about her. + +"I wonder if it's another cousin!" she said to herself. "It can't be, or +Margaret would have known. Dear Margaret! now if she were only here, she +could answer, and everybody would--" + +"Miss Montfort!" said the Principal again, rather sharply. + +"Isn't that your name?" whispered the girl who sat beside Peggy. "You'll +have to answer, you know!" + +Peggy started violently, and, looking up, met the Principal's eyes bent +upon her. She struggled to her feet, feeling herself one blush from +head to foot. + +"I--I beg your pardon!" she faltered. "I didn't suppose--did you mean +me?" + +"You are Miss Montfort, are you not?" + +"Oh, no! my cousins are both--that is,--I am just Peggy!" + +There was a general titter, which the Principal checked with her pencil. +"Young ladies!" she said in a warning tone. "Miss Montfort, you will +have room No. 18, in the second corridor. You will be alone for the +present." + +"Oh, goody!" cried Peggy. "I mean--I'm ever so much obliged, thank you! +Can I go now?" + +"You _may_ go now!" said the Principal, with a slight emphasis on the +auxiliary. + +Peggy stumbled over the foot of the girl next her, stepped on her own +dress, tripped and came to her knees; picked herself up, with a sound of +rending cloth, and finally got out of the room. This time the titter was +not so easily checked. Peggy heard it rippling behind her as she fled. +Even Miss Russell smiled as she rapped on the desk, and said one word +to herself: "Untrained!" + +But the girl who had sat beside Peggy rubbed her foot, which hurt a good +deal, and said three words: "Poor little thing!" + +No. 18 in the second corridor was a good-sized room, with two windows, +one of them crossed on the outside by a fire-escape. Its present aspect +was bare and unhomelike. The furniture consisted of an iron bedstead, a +bureau and wash-stand, two chairs and a small table, all neat, but +severely plain. The small square of carpet on the floor was a cold gray +mixture with brown flowers on it. As Peggy Montfort looked about her, +her heart sank. Was she to live here, to spend her days and nights here, +for a whole endless year? She thought of her room at home, the great +sunny room that she shared with her sister Jean. That had four windows, +which were generally flung wide open; it was bare, because she and Jean +liked to have plenty of space for gymnastics and wrestling; but that was +a homelike, accustomed bareness, and they loved it. The great old +four-post bed, with the round balls on which they loved to stand and +perform circus tricks; the hammock slung across one end; the birds' +nests and hawks' wings that adorned the walls in lieu of pictures; the +antlers on which they hung their hats,--all these, or the thought of +them, smote Peggy's stout heart, and sent it lower and lower down. + +A maid knocked at the door: here was Miss Montfort's trunk, and would +she unpack it, please, as the man would be coming again to take the +empty trunks to the attic. + +Peggy fell to work with ardour; here, at least, was something to do, in +this strange, lonesome place. Arriving in the afternoon, a day or two +after the beginning of school, her lessons were not to begin till the +next morning. + +Every dress, as she lifted it out, seemed a bit of home. Here was the +triangular tear in her blue gingham, that Jean mended for her. One could +hardly see it now! Dear Jean! she was neat-handed, and she had a little +look of Margaret, the same soft hair and clear, quiet eyes. Here was her +beloved bicycle skirt! Ah, there was something heavy in the pocket. +Peggy explored, and drew forth an apple; that brought the tears, which +were not very far off in the first place, and there was a good deal of +salt in the apple as she ate it. She was so determined to make the best +of everything, however, that she fought back the homesickness that was +rising like a flood within her, and even managed to whistle a tune as +she hung up her dresses and laid her stockings and handkerchiefs in the +drawers. Then the shoe-bag must be hung against the closet door, the bag +that Margaret had made and worked with her initials. Dearest Margaret! +and here was the pincushion that Flora gave her, and the writing-case +from Brother Hugh-- Oh! she would write to him every week of her life, +indeed she would! and so on and so on. + +When the trunk was empty, the room looked less forlorn, though still +pretty bare, for in Peggy's home little thought was given to anything +not of practical use. The door was open, and happening to look up she +caught a glimpse of the opposite room, on the other side of the narrow +corridor. Here, too, the door stood open, and Peggy gazed open-eyed. A +greater contrast could hardly be imagined. Here every available inch of +wall-space was covered, with photographs, with Japanese fans and +umbrellas, with posters and ribbons and flags. The room itself was +choked, it seemed to Peggy, with chairs and tables, low tables covered +with books, with cups and saucers, with knickknacks of every possible +description. The whole effect was bewildering, but so gay and cheerful +that Peggy sighed as she glanced back at her own bare white walls, at +the bureau with its sober brush and comb, and the polished table where +the writing-case lay in solitary state. She could not imagine living in +a room like that other: she should stifle, and throw half the things out +of the window; but it would be nice to have just a few more things! If +she had only thought! Jean would have been glad to share the nests with +her, and she could have had the rattlesnake skin, for had she not killed +him herself? and then there were the fossils! + +As Peggy meditated, steps came along the corridor, and halted at her +door. A face peeped in. "May I come in?" asked the girl who had sat +beside her in the class-room. + +"Oh, do! I wish you would!" cried Peggy, eagerly. "I am so glad to see +you! Sit down! I wanted to tell you--you were awfully kind to let me +know she meant me. You see, I never was called Miss Montfort in my life +before." + +The girl sat down, and looked kindly at Peggy. She was a +singular-looking girl, short and dark, with a curious effect of +squareness in her thickset figure. Her face was plain, but one forgot +that when one met the bright, intelligent gaze of her dark eyes. + +"I ought to introduce myself!" she said. "My name is Bertha Haughton. +I'm a neighbour of yours. No!" she added, laughing, as Peggy glanced +involuntarily across the way. "That is Vanity Fair. I don't live there; +I live in the Owls' Nest, some way down the corridor." + +"Are all the rooms named?" asked Peggy, wondering. + +"Most of them, on this corridor, at least. There's Vanity Fair and Rag +Fair and the Smithsonian Institute on the other side--oh! and the China +Shop and the Corner Grocery, too. And on this side is ours, the Owls' +Nest, and Bedlam, and the Soap Factory, and the Nursery, and this room +of yours." + +"Oh, how interesting!" cried Peggy. "Do tell me what the names mean! Why +Owls' Nest?" + +"Oh, well, we got the name of studying hard, that's all. We don't study +harder than ever so many others, but in our freshman year we--my chum +and I--passed an examination that a good many failed in, and so we got +the name of owls. That's really all! And the China Shop--well! Ada Bull +had it last year, and she had a mania for china-painting; and that with +the name, together, you see! Then there is the Soap Factory,--that is +quite a story! you really want to hear it? well! + +"You know we are not allowed to buy candy, or to have it sent to us. +This girl's mother--I won't tell her name, she's in college now--was a +very silly person, and she sent her a great box of chocolate, five or +six pounds (though she knew the rules, mind you!), all done up like +soap." + +"Like soap!" repeated Peggy. + +"Yes! the box was marked soap, and the chocolate was in little cakes, +just like the little sample cakes of soap they send round, don't you +know? and each cake wrapped up in paper, with '_Savon de Chocolat_' +stamped on it. It came from Paris, I believe. + +"Well, of course the girl ought to have told Miss Russell at once, but +she didn't. She kept the box under her bed, and told all the girls she +knew; and of course they kept coming into her room all day long, and her +pocket was always full, and, however it happened, at last Miss Russell +suspected something. One day she came suddenly upon Margie in the hall, +and saw that she was eating something, and asked her what it was. We're +not allowed to eat going about the house, of course. Margie had just +bitten off half a cake, and she had the other half in her hand, with the +printed side up, '_Savon de Chocolat!_' and she said 'Soap!' + +"'Soap!' said Miss Russell. + +"'Yes!' said Margie. 'Soap, Miss Russell.' + +"The Principal looked at her a minute, and then I suppose she smelt the +chocolate. She told her to wait, and then she went into her own room and +came out with a little cake of tar soap--sample cake--that looked for +all the world like chocolate soap. + +"'Pray try this!' she said, as grave as a judge. 'I am sure you will +find it excellent. I must insist upon your trying it, since you have a +taste for soap.' + +"Poor Margie! she had a good deal of pluck, and when she saw there was +no help for it, she took a bite of the soap. But it was too horrid; she +couldn't swallow it. She choked, and ran to her own room; the Principal +followed her, and then the whole story came out. Margie never told us +just what Miss Russell said. The chocolate was sent to the Orphans' Home +next day, and she was a pretty serious girl for some time after. So now +you know why that room is called the Soap Factory." + +"That's a splendid story!" cried Peggy. "Why, I think this is great. Did +this room have a name, too? I'm sure it must have! Do tell me what it +is!" + +A queer look crossed the dark girl's face. + +"It has been called Broadway!" she said. "I hope it may be changed now." +She hesitated, and was about to speak again, when two girls came along +arm in arm. + +"Look!" said Bertha Haughton. "There are your opposite neighbours, +Vanity and Vexation of Spirit. I'll call them over and introduce them." + +"Oh, please don't!" cried Peggy, under her breath, catching her +companion's arm. But it was too late. + +"V. V.," called Bertha, in her clear, hearty voice, "come and be +introduced to Miss Montfort." + +The girls turned and came forward, one eagerly, the other rather +unwillingly. + +"Miss Viola Vincent, Miss Vivia Varnham," said Bertha Haughton, "this is +Miss--Peggy, did you say?--Miss Peggy Montfort." + +Miss Varnham simply bowed, but Viola Vincent advanced with outstretched +hand. + +"How do you _do_?" she cried; and she lifted Peggy's hand to the level +of her chin, and shook it gently from side to side. "Awfully glad to see +you! It's been too perfectly horrid to have this room empty; hasn't it, +V?" + +"A great bore!" assented Miss Varnham, who looked thoroughly bored +herself. + +Both girls had entered the room, and were standing, looking about them. +Peggy stood, too, feeling unspeakably shy and awkward, and not knowing +what to say. Bertha Haughton gave her a quick, friendly glance, and made +a slight motion with her head toward a chair. Peggy started, and +coloured violently. + +"I beg your pardon!" she stammered. "Won't you sit down? here are two +chairs; and you and I can sit on the bed!" she turned to Miss Haughton +with an air of relief; she seemed already an old friend. + +Peggy's timid glances at the newcomers showed her that they belonged to +a species unknown to her. Living on a great prairie farm, she had known +no girls save her sisters and the two cousins with whom she had spent a +happy summer at Fernley House, the home of her uncle, Mr. John Montfort, +a year before. + +But neither sisters nor cousins, nor Bertha Haughton herself, bore any +resemblance to the two young women who now seated themselves on her two +straight-backed chairs. Both were dressed in the extreme of the fashion, +which was not a specially graceful one. Both wore their hair elaborately +dressed, with a profusion of gold and silver pins, a passing fancy +easily carried to extravagance. Both were pretty, and there was even a +kind of likeness between them, though it vanished when one looked +closely. Viola Vincent had limpid blue eyes, and long lashes which she +had a way of dropping, as she had been told that they looked well on her +cheek, which was clear and delicately tinted. She smiled a good deal, +and in doing so showed a pretty dimple in one cheek. In spite of a +certain affectation, Peggy thought her charming. + +Vivia Varnham was less attractive, in spite of her bright hazel eyes +and pretty fluffy hair; there was a supercilious lift to her eyebrows, +an unamiable droop to the corners of her mouth. Peggy did not make this +analysis; she only thought, "I shall not like her, I know I sha'n't!" + +The girls chattered away without much regard to her, and she only half +understood their talk. + +"My dear! _Have_ you heard?" This was from Viola to Bertha Haughton. She +patted herself all over while she talked, now her hair, now her collar, +now her blouse, little approving pats. + +"You never hear anything, you owls! When _is_ the Snowy coming back? She +has been away forty years! I simply can't exist without her. Why, my +dear, we are to have the straw-ride after all. Miss Russell says we may. +Isn't it perf'ly fine?" + +"Are you sure?" said Bertha Haughton, doubtfully. "You know last time +she said we couldn't go again, because Grace acted so, pulling out the +linch-pin and dropping us all into the road." + +"My dear, I know! that's just it! The Goat went to her this morning and +said she would stay at home and do double lessons if the rest of us +could only go. Noble of the Goat, I call it; only it won't be half so +much fun without her, and Billy gone, too. Oh, you can't possibly +imagine how we miss Billy. How forlorn this room looks without all her +pretty things!" She glanced about the room. "Perf'ly awful, isn't it?" +she said. + +Poor Peggy flushed scarlet. Bertha Haughton flashed her a glance of +indignant sympathy. + +"Billy had the room simply ridiculous!" she said, hastily. "Almost as +bad as your toyshop, Vanity. I can't abide a frippy room!" + +Viola Vincent opened her blue eyes wide. "What ruffled you up, Fluffy?" +she said. "I didn't say anything about the Nest." Then, happening to +glance at Peggy, she realised what she had said, and blushed a little +herself. + +"I'm sure I didn't mean anything!" she cried, with a little giggle. "Of +course when Miss Montfort gets all her things out and arranged, it will +be quite charming, I'm sure it will." + +"I haven't any more things!" said honest Peggy. She managed to keep her +voice steady, but the tears would come into her eyes, and she raged at +herself. + +"Oh, you'll accumulate them!" said good-natured Viola, who liked to have +people comfortable, if it did not take too much trouble. "Won't she, V.? +We had hardly anything when we came, had we, V.? Barns, my dear, were +nothing to us, were they, V.?" + +"Oh, of course not!" assented Miss Varnham; but her smile was so like a +sneer, and her glance about the room so cold and contemptuous, that +Peggy felt dislike hardening at her heart. + +"What is all that noise in the entry?" exclaimed Bertha Haughton, +anxious to change the conversation. "It sounds as if an elephant were +coming to call." + +Viola Vincent fluttered to the door, patting her waist affectionately as +she went. + +"My _dear_!" she cried, in high-pitched staccato tones. "It's a box, an +express box. Oh, it's a perfect monster, a mammoth! Vi, this must be +your dresses. Hurrah! we'll have a grand trying on." + +Vivia Varnham looked out. A burly expressman was staggering forward with +an enormous box, almost as big as a packing-case. + +"Take it in there!" she said, imperiously, motioning across the +corridor. "Put it down carefully, mind! Miss Varnham, is it?" + +"No, miss," said the man, respectfully. "Miss Montfort!" + +"Me!" cried Peggy, starting to her feet. "Oh, there must be some +mistake. I wasn't--there's nothing coming for me." + +"It must be for you!" said Bertha Haughton. "There is no other Miss +Montfort in the school. Look at the address, and you may know the +handwriting!" + +Peggy looked. In a clear, bold hand was written: + + Miss Peggy Montfort, + At Miss Russell's School, + Pentland. + + Glass, with care. All charges paid. + +"Oh!" she cried, clasping her hands. "It _is_ for me! It's from Uncle +John! Oh, what do you suppose--what can it be?" + +"Bring it in here, please," said Bertha Haughton, quietly, to the man, +who still stood balancing the box. "There! set it against the wall; +thank you! Now," as the man departed, "we need a screw-driver. Have you +one, Viola?" + +"My _dear_! I had one, but the Goat broke it, using it for a step, you +know, to get up to the next story. I use a can-opener now, but that will +only do for small boxes. I don't have--well, State Houses, coming every +day," she added, with a good-natured laugh, glancing at the great box. + +Bertha Haughton ran to fetch a screw-driver from her room, and the other +two girls moved toward the door. Vivia Varnham looked black. She had +made sure the box was for her, and felt aggrieved at the stupid freshman +who appropriated it. Viola Vincent, on the other hand, was delighted. +"I'm awfully glad!" she said. "It's simply dandy, having a box come. Ta, +ta! I hope it will be something perf'ly splendid, dresses and hats and +all kinds of giddiness. I love giddiness! When you want to be giddy, you +must come to us; the Owls are too worthy. There's Fluffy back again with +the screw-driver. Ta again! Awfully glad!" + +Peggy was half inclined to ask Viola to stay, but still it was rather a +relief when the opposite door closed. Whatever the box contained, she +could not have enjoyed it with those sharp, cold eyes of Viola Varnham +looking on. + +"Here is the screw-driver!" cried Bertha, out of breath with her flight +along the corridor. "It's very strong, you need not be afraid of +pressing on it. Can I do anything more to help you? If not, I must go. I +hope it is something very nice indeed!" + +"Go! you!" cried Peggy. "Oh, must you? Can't you stay and help me see +what it is? It isn't any fun opening boxes alone," she added, piteously. + +The girl does not live who would not rather unpack a box than eat her +dinner. "If you are sure you want me," said Bertha. "I didn't want to +be in the way, that was all." + +"In the way! Oh, Miss Haughton! Why, you are the only friend I have here +in this lonesome place." + +"If I am going to be your friend, I am not going to be Miss Haughton +another minute. Do you really want me to stay, Peggy?" + +"I do, Bertha, indeed I do." + +"Honour bright?" + +"Honour brightest!" + +"Hurrah, then! And now for the box!" + + + + +CHAPTER II. + +THE BOX FROM FERNLEY. + + +The box was no ordinary rough affair, knocked together for simple +purposes of transportation. It was neatly and carefully made, the edges +fitting closely together, the lid furnished with hinges. + +"We must take care how we open this!" said Bertha. "It would be a shame +to spoil such a fine box." + +Peggy was used to tools of every description, and she drew out the +screws deftly, then lifted the lid. Both girls bent eagerly forward. +Nothing was visible but white paper, neatly fitted to the top of the +box. Yes! on the paper lay a card, on which was written, "For Peggy's +housekeeping. From Uncle John and Margaret, with best love." + +The handwriting was Margaret's, and Peggy seized and kissed it before +going further. "It is Margaret!" she said. "Dear, darling Margaret, the +best friend I have in the world. Oh, how dear and kind and lovely of +them both! What _do_ you suppose they have sent me?" + +"Suppose we see!" said Bertha Haughton. Yet both girls lingered a +moment, tasting the joy of suspense. + +It was not a joy to be long indulged, however. Together they lifted the +paper, and lo! more paper, but this time enveloping various mysterious +packages neatly tied with pink tape. + +"Margaret's tape!" cried Peggy. "Uncle John gave her a great big spool +of it, because she said she had never seen enough in her life. Oh, what +a fat bundle! You shall open it, Bertha, because you have been so good +to me." + +"Open your bundle!" cried Bertha. "Indeed I will not! I never heard of +such a thing. Be quick, though, for I do want to see." + +The big square parcel revealed an afghan, knitted in long stripes of +red and blue, the colours rich and warm, and harmonising pleasantly. + +"Oh, what a beauty!" cried Bertha, while Peggy gazed in silent delight. +"My dear, it warms the whole room! and the length of it, and the +breadth! why, it will go on double. I never saw such a splendid one." + +Indeed, the great afghan had been Margaret's "pick-up work" ever since +she first heard that Peggy was going to school, and loving thoughts were +knitted into every stripe. + +"What next?" said Bertha. "My dear, sofa-pillows!" + +So they were, four of them, each prettier than the other. + +"But what shall I do with them?" said Peggy, with a comical glance +around the room. "There's no sign of a sofa. Never mind! they are +perfect beauties. Oh, and what can this be? Oh, Bertha, see, it is a +bookcase!" + +The six pieces of polished wood were quickly fitted together, and there +was indeed a bookcase, not very large, but still ample to contain all +the books Peggy would be likely to need. + +"Where are your books?" asked Bertha, innocently; and Peggy hung her +head. + +"My Bible is in my drawer," she said. "I--I didn't bring any other +books. I'm a dreadful dunce," she added, timidly. "I might as well tell +you now, for you'd find it out anyhow, the very first time you talked +about books. I don't--care--about them, much." + +"Oh!" and Bertha looked a little blank, being a bookworm herself. "But +there must be some books you are fond of, Peggy?" + +Peggy shook her head despondently. "I don't believe there are," she +said. "Oh, of course I like 'Treasure Island,' and 'Robin Hood,' and +that kind of thing. But history, and the Waverley Novels--why, Margaret +would like to read the Waverley Novels all day; and they put me to sleep +in five minutes." + +She looked anxiously at her new friend, to see the effect of this +dreadful confession; but Bertha only laughed. "Well, I love the +Waverleys very much myself," she said; "but I know everybody doesn't +care for them. But when you want to read, Peggy, what do you do?" + +"But I don't want to read," said Peggy, humbly. "It--it seems such a +waste of time; except Coues, of course, and he wouldn't go in my trunk, +and Pa is going to send him by express." + +"What do you mean?" asked Bertha, puzzled in her turn. "Cows!" + +"Yes, the book, you know! Oh, I couldn't live without that." + +"Do you mean a herd-book? Of course, you said you lived on a farm. You +mean that you study pedigrees and that kind of thing?" + +Now it was Peggy's turn to laugh, as she explained that she meant Prof. +J. Elliott Coues's admirable book on birds. + +"Pa has Samuels," she added, "but I couldn't bring that, because it is +out of print, and too valuable. Besides, he isn't so thorough as Coues, +don't you know, especially in anatomy and that part. Is there a good +class in anatomy here? Of course I shall want to join that." + +"Oh, dear!" cried Bertha, in comical dismay, "I don't know! Peggy +Montfort, you are not a dunce at all; you are just shamming. The idea of +any one _wanting_ to study anatomy!" + +"The idea of wanting to study anything else," cried Peggy, "except +physics and geometry. It's this horrible literature and stuff that I +cannot bear. But we can't stop and talk, with the box only half +unpacked. Oh, pictures! Now I do like pictures, when they are the right +kind. Bertha, look at this, will you?" + +With difficulty she lifted out a large picture which filled the box from +end to end. Both girls uttered a cry of delight. It was the "Automedon" +of Henri Regnault. The great horses rearing and plunging, the heroic +figure of the charioteer, seemed to take Peggy's breath. "It--it's the +kind of thing you dream about, isn't it?" she said. "They are alive; I +believe they'll break through the glass in another minute. Oh, there +can't be anything else as splendid as this!" + +[Illustration: "'BERTHA, LOOK AT THIS, WILL YOU?'"] + +But when she drew out next a fine photograph of "The Night Watch," she +hardly knew what to say. The gleaming eyes of the lions, prowling +among the ruined columns, fascinated her almost as much as the wild +horses had done. She had less to say to the beautiful photograph of the +Sistine Madonna, which came next; yet she looked at it with eyes of +wistful affection. It was Margaret's favourite picture, and she loved it +on that account as well as its own. Yet her taste was for "critters," as +she freely acknowledged; and she glowed again as Bertha held up an +engraving of "Sheridan's Ride," with the great captain riding straight +out of the picture at her. + +"That's the kind of thing she wants!" Mr. Montfort had said, when he and +his niece Margaret were having their delightful "Peggy-lark," as he +called it. "The Sistine by all means, Meg; but no more old masters for +our Peggy. She won't understand them, and she won't like them. What was +it she said about your pet St. Anthony?" + +"She said he looked as if he had gone out for clams and fallen into the +mud!" said Margaret, rather ruefully. "I suppose you are right, Uncle +John; but, oh, do look at this lovely Murillo angel! How could she help +loving this?" + +"The anatomy of it would distress her," said Mr. Montfort, dryly. "You +know Peggy is strong on anatomy. Better take the 'Automedon.'" + +"Which you said was out of drawing!" cried Margaret, with a flash of +mischief. "Oh, if you are going to put false ideas into her head, Uncle +John--" on which she was very properly told to choose her pictures, and +not be saucy. + +The last picture in the box had not been chosen in any picture-shop; and +at sight of it Peggy sat down on the bed and began to cry. + +"Oh, dear!" she said. "What shall I do? Oh, Margaret, Margaret, what +shall I do?" + +Kind-hearted Bertha was distressed. "Don't cry, dear!" she said. "I +know! I know just how it feels. Is it your father and sister?" + +"No! oh, no!" said Peggy, wiping her eyes. "Of course it's different +with Pa and the girls, because I shall be going home every vacation, +you know. But I never was so happy in all my life as I was there; and +seeing it--it is Fernley, and Uncle John and Margaret." + +The large photograph showed a stately house shadowed by lofty trees. +Standing on the stone verandah were two figures, one, that of a tall man +in a black velvet coat, with bright dark eyes; the other a slender girl +with a sweet, thoughtful face. Both seemed to be looking straight at +Peggy, and she felt Uncle John's kind look and Margaret's tender smile +like warmth at her heart. + +"I--I'm only crying because--I'm--glad!" she said. And Bertha seemed to +understand that, too. + +But the wonderful box was not yet empty; it really seemed like the +famous bag of the Fairy Blackstick. Out came a gay Oriental cloth, which +made another thing of the chilly little polished table; item, a +bureau-cover embroidered with gold-coloured chrysanthemums; item, a +wonderful work-basket, fitted with everything that a needlewoman's heart +could desire; item, a spirit-lamp and a hot-water bottle, and a neat +little tool-chest. Peggy sighed over the work-basket, and resolved to do +her very best, but at sight of the tool-chest her eyes sparkled, and she +seized upon it with delight, and caressed each shining implement as if +it were a living and beloved creature. + +"Did you ever see such a little duck of a saw?" she cried. "Oh, I must +go to work and make something this very day. Only, these two dears have +sent me everything that I could ever possibly need. What is that, +Bertha? There can't be anything more!" + +There could, though, and was. The bottom of the box was fitted with a +cushion or mattress of chintz, chrysanthemums again, on a pale green +ground; and the last parcel of all contained several yards of the same +material. + +"What do you suppose-- Oh, I see!" cried Peggy. "The box,--we wondered +why it was such a good box, don't you know? It is to be a kind of sofa, +or window-seat, or something; and this is the cushion, and the rest is +for a flounce and curtains. Oh, dear, did you ever hear of anything so +perfectly lovely? Dear Uncle John, dear Margaret!" and she wept again, +and, in default of Margaret, hugged the biggest sofa-pillow, a wonderful +affair of soft yellow silk, with ruffles and puffles. + +"Come," said Bertha, "this will never do, Peggy! We must get these all +arranged before tea, mustn't we? The gong will sound in a few minutes." + +Peggy dried her tears, and the two girls went to work with right good +will. In ten minutes the dreary room was as cheerful and homelike a +place as heart could desire. The pictures were hung (I forgot to mention +that the fairy box contained picture-hooks and wire, hidden away in a +corner), the cushions fitted, the chintz tacked in a neat flounce around +the box, which straightway became a divan, and looked positively +Oriental with the pillows heaped with careful carelessness on it. + +Peggy stood and surveyed the whole effect with shining eyes. "When the +curtains are up--" she said, and looked inquiringly at Bertha. + +"When the curtains are up," said Bertha, "it will be one of the +pleasantest rooms in the whole school." + +And then the gong sounded, and they went down to tea. + +A throng of girls was pouring into the great dining-room. Few of them +noticed the newcomer, being taken up with their own concerns, laughing +and chatting, hurrying to their places; yet Peggy felt as if all eyes +were upon her. She clung close to Bertha Haughton's arm; but now that +friendly arm was drawn away. + +"I must leave you here, Peggy," said Bertha. + +"Oh, don't leave me! Oh, can't I sit by you?" asked poor Peggy, in an +agonised whisper. + +"No, dear, I have to go over there, quite to the other side of the room. +See, Miss Russell is beckoning to you. You are to sit at her table, with +the other freshmen. Cheer up, Peggy, it'll be all right after the first +minute." + +Bertha nodded kindly, and took her way across the hall, while Peggy +stumbled along, tripping over several dresses (she always stumbled when +she was embarrassed), to the table where the Principal sat. There were +six tables, twelve girls to each table, with a teacher at the head. Miss +Russell greeted Peggy pleasantly, and it occurred to our friend for the +first time that the Principal was not a Gorgon, but a human being, with +a grave face, it is true, but with kind and friendly eyes. + +"I trust you have been resting after your journey, Miss Montfort! Yes? +That is good. Coming so late yesterday you did not meet your classmates, +who had already gone to their rooms. Miss Parkins, Miss Barclay, Miss +Manton,--this is Miss Peggy Montfort. I hope you will introduce her to +the other young ladies after tea." + +The three girls nearest Peggy bowed, all more or less shyly; it was +comforting to feel that there were others who felt as strange as she +did. In fact, Miss Parkins, who sat on her left, was so manifestly and +miserably frightened that Peggy felt herself a lion by comparison, and, +by way of improving acquaintance, asked her boldly for the salt. + +Miss Parkins gasped, shivered, clutched the pepper-pot, and dropped it +into her own plate. The other freshmen giggled nervously, but Peggy +glowed with compassion and sympathy. + +"Never mind!" she whispered. "That's just the kind of thing I am doing +all the time. There is the salt; why, I can reach it myself, and nobody +ever wants pepper, anyhow. There, that's all right!" + +The girl lifted a pair of eyes so red with crying, so humble and +grateful and altogether piteous, that Peggy's own eyes almost +overflowed. She put her hand under the table, found a little limp, cold +paw, and gave it a hearty squeeze. "Cheer up!" she said. "It'll be +better pretty soon, I--I guess. I am--homesick--too!" + +Then, finding a sob rising in her throat, she hastily filled her mouth +with buttered toast, choked, and caught herself with a wild sound, half +cough, half snort, that brought the eyes of the whole table upon her. +The strange thing was, Peggy did not seem to care this time. They were +only freshmen like herself. Any one of them might have choked just as +well as she, and she was bigger than any of them. If those other girls +had seen, now! not Bertha, but the other two! She glanced over to the +opposite table, where the two V's sat facing her; but they were +chattering away, with no thought of freshmen or their doings. Viola +Vincent looked very pretty in a pale blue blouse and white pique skirt; +she was evidently in high spirits, and was patting her hair and her +waist with perfect satisfaction. + +"Perf'ly _fine_!" came to Peggy's ears, in her clear piping voice. "My +_dear_, it will be simply _dandy_!" + +Peggy glanced at the Principal, she hardly knew why, except that +Margaret disliked slang; and she saw her brows contract with a momentary +look of vexation. "It does sound rather horrid!" she thought. "I wonder +if I shall have to give up saying 'awfully!' That would be perfectly +awful. Besides, it sounds awfully affected to talk like a book all the +time." + +Thus meditating, Peggy let her napkin slip down to the floor. Her +neighbour saw it, and both stooped at the same time to pick it up. Their +heads came together with a violent crack. "Ow!" cried Peggy, and rubbed +her flaxen poll vigorously. Miss Parkins was too frightened to know +whether she was hurt or not. "Never mind!" said Peggy. "It was my fault +just as much as yours. Did you get an awful crack? Oh! I mean, did you +hurt yourself?" + +The poor girl murmured something, but it was more like a sob than a +speech; and Peggy could only press the limp hand again, and resolve that +when she knew the girl a little better she would try to put some spirit +into her. Her own spirit was rising. She felt that ten pairs of eyes +were watching her furtively; that her companions were taking notes, and +that every spoonful she ate was counted and criticised; but still her +courage was good, and she was even able to notice that the biscuits were +light and the peach preserves delicious. + +I said ten pairs of eyes, for the eleventh had never been lifted above +the level of the table-cloth, save for that one grateful glance over the +spilt pepper. Certainly Miss Parkins was a queer-looking little person. +Very small and slight, with a certain wizened look that did not belong +to so young a face; a long, thin nose, and two small reddish-brown eyes +that looked as if they had always been given to crying. The child--she +did not look more than a child--had no beauty of any kind; yet a certain +gentleness of look redeemed the poor little face from absolute ugliness. +She was queerly dressed, too. Her gown was of good, even rich material, +but in questionable taste, and cut in a fashion that might have suited +her grandmother. Peggy's own ideas of dress were primitive, and she was +not very observant, but she did feel that blue poplin stamped with large +red roses was not a suitable dress for a schoolgirl, even if she were +not small and plain and wizened, and even if it were not cut in a bygone +fashion. + +Peggy saw, or fancied she saw, glances of amused contempt thrown at her +poor little neighbour. + +"All the more reason," she thought, "why I should make friends with +her." + +"Do you--did you come yesterday, or the day before?" she asked, as +cheerfully as she could. + +"Oh! yes, I think so!" was the reply, in a gasping whisper. This was not +very encouraging, but Peggy proceeded. + +"Did you have far to come? I came all the way from Ohio." + +"Oh! no, I don't think so!" + +"It took me all day to get here. It's horrid travelling alone, don't you +think so?" + +"Oh! I--don't know! I never travelled." + +On the whole, the girl seemed so distressed that Peggy felt it would be +a cruel kindness to pursue the conversation. "I needn't talk to the +others," she said to herself. "They came before I did; they can talk to +me if they want to." + +But now supper was over, and the girls rose with a whirr, like a flock +of pigeons, and fluttered out of the dining-room. Peggy looked longingly +after Bertha Haughton; indeed, Bertha seemed to be lingering, looking +for her; but at that moment two or three girls swooped down upon the +junior, and began a hubbub of questions. Peggy felt all her shyness +rushing back in a flood. Turning to flee, she almost fell over little +Miss Parkins, who was hastening on her way, too. "Come!" said Peggy. "We +are both strange cats; suppose we stay together! What happens now, do +you know? This is my first evening here. It's awfully queer, isn't it?" + +"Oh!" gasped Miss Parkins. "They--she--read something last night. Don't +you think I might go to my room? I want to go to my room! Don't you +think I might?" + +"Of course you may!" said Peggy, on fire with sympathy. "It's a pity if +you've got to hear reading when you don't want to. Cut along, young +'un!" + +Her brother's familiar phrase rose naturally to her lips; it was +unfortunate that at that moment one of the teachers happened to pass by. +She was a long, sallow woman, with greenish eyes set too near together, +and the gaze she fixed upon Peggy was appalling in its severity. + +"Young ladies are required to attend the reading!" she said. "Your +expression is an improper one, Miss Montfort!" and pinching her lips +together she passed on. + +"My goodness gracious me!" whispered Peggy. "Who is that?" + +"Oh! hush! oh, don't!" whispered Lobelia Parkins, miserably. "She's +going to read to-night, because the Principal has a cold; I heard them +saying so. That is Miss Pugsley!" + + + + +CHAPTER III. + +IN THE "GYM." + + +Peggy's pillow was quite damp when she went to sleep that night. To be +sure she had been cheered by a friendly call from Bertha Haughton, but +even that could not keep the homesickness from triumphing, when she was +left alone, and the sounds in the corridor died away, and the light was +out. Home seemed so far, so endlessly far away; she felt so utterly +alone in the world! Education seemed a foolish and meaningless thing +beside the love and comfort of home. What would she not give to be able +to put out her hand and feel her sister Jean beside her, warm and +loving, her own flesh and blood! + +So the pillow was damp, as I have said; but Peggy was young and healthy, +and she fell asleep after awhile, and when she woke again the sun was +up and the pillow was dry. Now she did put out her hand for Jean, +forgetting where she was; and finding nothing but a cold wall, lay +looking around her, coming back to the present. The room looked very +strange at first. "Maybe I'm not awake!" said Peggy, wisely; then she +pinched herself, and with the pinch the whole thing came back. + +"Why, of course!" she said. "Oh, dear! well, here I am; and I wanted to +come, and I've been thinking about it for months, and then it goes and +is like this!" She sighed, and wondered what they were doing at home, +and at Fernley; then she became interested in her pretty room, and her +heart overflowed once more with love to her dear ones at Fernley, who +had made it so bright and charming for her. "I know what Margaret would +say!" exclaimed Peggy, raising her head from the pillow. "She would say, +'Now you are there, my dear, try to make the best of it;' and so I will! +You hear me!" These last words were spoken aloud with some severity, and +appeared to be addressed to the brush and comb, which took no notice +whatever. And then Peggy made the best of that moment, and got up. + +Breakfast was another ordeal, but not so bad as the tea of the night +before; after breakfast came prayers, and then the class-room. Peggy +found herself seated at a desk, beside one of her classmates, Rose +Barclay, a pretty brunette, with rosy cheeks and bright dark eyes. In +the brief pause before study-time, the two girls made acquaintance, and +Peggy learned that theirs was the largest freshman class the school had +ever had. All the others were in the west wing, where the freshmen +belonged. + +"You came late," said Rose Barclay, "and that's why you are over among +the Jews and Seas. That's what they call the juniors and seniors; I've +learned so much already!" she said, laughing. "They seem to have +nicknames for everything and everybody in this place." + +"Yes!" said Peggy. "Even the rooms are named!" and she told of Vanity +Fair and the Owls' Nest. + +"Corridor A?" asked Rose Barclay. "Oh, they must be Jews. That is +Judea, I am pretty sure; and the Senior Corridor is the Mediterranean. +It's awfully silly, isn't it? and yet it's funny, too. I suppose we +shall get into the swing of it after awhile. You homesick?" + +Peggy nodded. + +"So'm I! Cry last night?" + +Peggy nodded again. + +"So did I! but not so much as the girl next door to me. My! she must +have cried about all night, I should think. I woke up two or three +times, and she was crying every time, and I heard her sniffing in her +bath this morning." + +"Why didn't you go in and try to cheer her up?" demanded Peggy, rather +fiercely. + +Rose Barclay stared. "Oh, I couldn't do that! why, I've never spoken to +her; it was that queer little piece that sat next to you. Besides, she +looks as if she'd die if any one spoke to her." + +The school was called to order, and Peggy soon forgot homesickness and +everything else in the keen joy of mathematics. + +She had chosen the scientific course--there were three courses in the +school--in order to get as much of practical and as little of literary +knowledge as might be. Geometry was her delight, and it was geometry +over which she was bending now. + +Most of the teachers at Pentland School expected little of the new pupil +from Ohio. The written examinations that Peggy had passed had caused +many a head-shaking. The history teacher sighed; the gentle mistress of +English literature groaned, and said, "Why must this child come here?" +Only Miss Boyle, the mistress of mathematics, had nodded her head over +the papers. "Here's a girl who knows what she is about!" she said. +Accordingly, when Peggy entered class this morning, she was surprised at +the cordial greeting she received from the bright-eyed lady at the +central desk; and an indefinable sense of being at home and among +friends stole gradually over her, as she wrestled with one delightful +problem after another. + +Rose Barclay, at her side, was biting her pencil and twisting her +pretty forehead into hard knots, and making little progress; but Peggy +had forgotten her existence. The period passed like a moment, as theorem +after theorem was disposed of. + +"Let EDF and BAC be two triangles, having the angle E equal to the angle +B, the angle F to the angle C, and the included side EF to the included +side BC; then will the triangle EDF be equal to the triangle BAC?" + +"Of course it will!" Peggy drew triangles in swift and accurate +demonstration. "Put the side EF on its equal BC, and let the point E +fall on B, and the point F on C. Then, you see, of course--" + +"I don't see how any one is ever to do this!" murmured her neighbour, in +despair. "Why! why, you've done yours. Oh, just let me see, won't you? I +never can work it out in the world, so do let me copy yours!" + +Peggy reddened to the tips of her ears. "Do you--can you--are we allowed +to do that?" she stammered. + +"Oh! Just as you please!" said Rose Barclay, coldly. "I thought you +might be willing to oblige me, that's all. It's of no consequence!" + +"Oh! But you don't understand!" whispered Peggy, eagerly; but Rose had +turned away, and paid no heed to her; and Miss Boyle tapped with her +pencil and said, "Young ladies! No whispering in class, if you please!" + +In a few minutes a bell rang, and all the girls sprang up in great +relief; geometry was not generally popular, and now came the "gym" hour, +dear to all. Peggy turned at once to her neighbour, sure that she would +be able to explain everything to the satisfaction of both. To her +amazement and distress she met a look so cold and hostile that it seemed +to freeze the words on her lips. + +"Miss Barclay!" she said, imploringly. "You didn't understand me, indeed +you didn't. I should be perfectly delighted to help you, of course I +should, only I thought it might be against the rules. Of course, I might +have known you would know what is allowed. I'm awfully sorry!" + +Rose Barclay hesitated; her face seemed to soften for a moment; then it +hardened again, and another change came over it which Peggy did not +comprehend. + +"I don't know what you mean!" she muttered. "Please excuse me, I am in a +hurry." She was gone, and Peggy, turning in great distress, found Miss +Boyle standing at her elbow. Had she heard? Peggy was sure she could not +have heard, for there was no look of surprise or of anything peculiar in +her pleasant face. + +"You like geometry, Miss Montfort?" + +"Oh, yes, I love geometry! Oh, please, are we allowed to help each +other, Miss Boyle?" + +"Certainly not!" said Miss Boyle, quietly. "Not upon any account. You +can see for yourself that there would be no use in a girl's taking +geometry if she cannot do the work herself." + +"Yes, I see! I thought so, only--thank you very much. Do you--shall I go +now?" + +She looked around, and was startled to see that all the other girls had +disappeared, and she was alone with the teacher. + +Miss Boyle smiled, and her smile was so friendly that it warmed poor +Peggy's heart. + +"Yes, you may go now," she said; "but I shall hope to see something of +you, Miss Montfort. If you will come to my room some evening, I will +show you some pretty problems that are not in the text-books." + +With this, the highest compliment she could pay a pupil, Miss Boyle went +on her way; and Peggy, after wandering through two or three deserted +class-rooms, and breaking in upon a senior committee-meeting of a highly +private nature, and walking into a pantry, found herself at last in the +gymnasium. + +This was a lofty and spacious room, fitted with every possible appliance +for gymnastic exercises. Peggy's eyes brightened as she gazed about her, +at the rope-ladders, the parallel bars, the rings and vaulting-horses +and spring-boards. If this were not Paradise, Peggy did not know what +was, that was all. + +Some of the girls were already arrayed in blouse and full trousers, and +were taking their place in ranks, under the eye of an alert, graceful +young woman in a pretty dark blue suit. Others were hurrying up from +some apartment on a lower floor, and from the stairway came a hum of +voices which showed that others were still making ready. + +Bertha Haughton, in crimson blouse and black trousers, hurried up to +Peggy. + +"Here you are!" she cried. "I have been trying to find you. Where are +your gym things? Haven't got any? Oh, how too bad!" + +"I didn't know!" said poor Peggy. "It didn't say in the programme, did +it? Can't I do anything without them? Oh, dear." + +Her face, so bright a moment before, clouded so instantly with +disappointment and mortification, that the experienced junior could +hardly repress a smile. + +"My dear! my dear!" she cried. "Do wait till I tell you. You can wear +the Snowy's things. She hasn't come back yet, and you can wear them just +as well as not till she comes." + +"The Snowy?" repeated Peggy. She remembered vaguely that she had heard +the name, but it meant nothing to her in her trouble. + +"Yes, my chum, the Snowy Owl. I'm the Fluffy one, don't you remember? +The Snowy is a bit taller than you, but that is no matter; you can wear +them perfectly well, I tell you. Come along, and I'll get you into +them." + +Peggy hung back, protesting faintly against appropriating the clothes of +a person she had never seen; but finally she yielded to Bertha's +vigorous pulls, and followed her down a winding stair, into a narrow +room filled with a hubbub of girls in every stage of dressing and +undressing. Viola Vincent fluttered up to her (it is difficult to +flutter in a gymnasium suit, and only Viola's supremely butterfly +quality enabled her to do it), a charming vision of pale blue, with a +profusion of tiny brass buttons twinkling wherever a button could be +put. + +"Here you are!" she cried, airily. "I haven't seen you for an age. I've +been telling everybody about you, the V. V's vis-a-vis. It sounds so +quaint, doesn't it? I adore quaintness. How do you like my new suit, +Fluffy? Isn't it too cute for anything? This is the first time I've worn +it; I think it is too perfectly sweet to live in, don't you?" + +"I hope not!" said Bertha, laughing. "We should be sorry to have you +pass away, Vanity, because your dress is too sweet." + +"No, but really!" continued Viola, earnestly. "Do I exaggerate, Fluffy? +_Isn't_ it the sweetest thing you ever saw? I ask because I want to +know, you know!" + +Bertha's only reply was to pull her pink ear good-naturedly, and then +dive head-foremost into a locker. + +"You find the Fluffy quaint?" said Viola to Peggy. "Yes? she is quaint, +but delicious! So is the Snowy! I simply could not exist without them; +they are the guiding stars of the corridor, don't you know? What are you +about, Fluffy? What are you doing with the Snowy's togs? She has not +come back, no!" clasping her hands in ecstasy. "_Don't_ tell me the +Snowy has come back, Fluff!" + +"I certainly won't!" said Bertha, coolly. "She isn't coming back till +day after to-morrow. Peggy Montfort is going to wear her things till her +own are ready, that's all. Don't excite yourself too much, Vanity; it'll +take the colour out of your hair." + +"No! _Do_ you think so?" replied Viola; "really? ah! here's V., ready at +last. What I have to endure, V., waiting while you prink, no tongue can +tell. Ta, dears, come up soon!" and she fluttered away, arm in arm with +her chum. + +"Is she always like that?" asked Peggy, bewildered. + +"Who? Vanity? Oh, yes! there's no possible harm in Vanity; she is really +the best hearted creature in the world. The other, though,--well, you +want to be a little on your guard with Vivia. Oh, we are the best +friends in the world, of course; only, her temper is a little uncertain +at times, and it's just as well to know about it. There! why, the +trousers fit you to perfection!" The trousers, as wide as the Flying +Dutchman's, certainly fell comfortably enough about Peggy's stout +knees. + +"Now for the blouse! I'll put it over your head!" + +A silent but breathless struggle followed, from which Peggy emerged +panting and crimson, but victorious. "Oh, I do hope she--your +chum--won't mind!" she cried. "I am so afraid I shall get them dirty!" +for it was a whim of the Snowy Owl's to wear a white gym suit, and it +was as fresh as if it were just out of the tub, as indeed it was. + +"Oh, that is no matter! She washes them every week; she likes to wash; +it's one of her accomplishments. Come along now!" + +They ran up-stairs, and found the class just forming in ranks. A gesture +bade them fall into line with the rest, and Peggy stood with her toes on +a chalk mark, waiting the word of command. + +It came. "Left foot forward--fall out!" At the command every girl put +out her left foot as far as she could, and flung her whole weight +forward on it. Peggy did the same, and fell on her nose with a +resounding crash. The class giggled, but were sharply checked by the +teacher. + +"We will try this once more. Try to balance the body carefully! Take +time! Once more! Left foot forward--fall out!" + +Again the line dropped forward with one motion; and again our poor Peggy +fell on her nose. This time the nose protested in its way, and bled; +great crimson drops fell on the white plumage of the Snowy Owl. Almost +crying with distress and mortification, Peggy felt for her handkerchief. +Alas! she was not used to trousers, and no pocket could she find, though +there was one, and her handkerchief was in it. What should she do? She +was just about to make a bolt for the stairs, when a handkerchief was +thrust into her hand. She clapped it to her suffering nose, and looked +gratefully at her left-hand neighbour in the ranks. The girl nodded +slightly, and said, "All serene! better ask leave to retire. Hold arms +over head, stop it!" She was a slender girl, with a pensive face and +melancholy blue eyes. Her hair was plainly parted, Madonna-fashion, and +there was something remote and old-world about her whole look and air. + +"Oh, thank you!" murmured poor Peggy. "You're awfully kind!" She hoped +the tiresome bleeding would stop on the instant, but it did not; she was +obliged to ask leave to go down-stairs; and receiving it, dashed down +headlong, and cannoned violently against Vivia Varnham, who had gone +down for something she had forgotten. + +"Oh, I beg your pardon!" gasped Peggy. "I'm--awfully clumsy--" + +"I think you are!" said the other, with a flash of her hazel eyes. +"Perhaps you'll let me pass now, please, before you make another +exhibition of yourself." She went on, with a scornful toss of her head. + +Poor Peggy! her tears flowed fast over the friendly handkerchief. "I +wish I was dead!" she sobbed. "I wish I had never come to this horrid, +odious place, where everybody is so hateful. And I can't hold up my arms +when I have to hold this to my nose all the time." + +"Quite so!" said a quiet voice behind her. The sad-looking girl took her +hands and held them straight up in one of her own, the other keeping the +handkerchief in position. No word was spoken, but in five minutes the +bleeding was stopped. + +"Basin--water!" said the stranger. "Don't mention it!" as Peggy tried to +falter her thanks. And she was gone. + +Peggy waited till she felt sure of herself and her nose. Then she spoke +severely to herself, and asked what Uncle John would say to such +behaviour. "_Everybody_ isn't hateful!" she said. "And anyhow, there are +some things there that I can do, if I haven't learned this trick. I +won't give up till I've gone up that rope." + +Her eye had been caught by a stout rope dangling from the ceiling. This +was in her own line, and she felt that if she could redeem herself in +her own eyes, she should not care so much about all those other laughing +eyes. And yet, perhaps she thought more about those eyes than she was +aware of, for our Peggy was very human. + +This time fortune favoured her. As she emerged from the lower regions, a +girl was just trying to climb the rope; in fact, there were three ropes +hanging side by side, and the climbing of them was part of the regular +exercise. She sought Bertha, who was most sympathetic, not having been +near enough to help Peggy. + +"Climb the rope? Oh, you'd better not try that, Peggy! it takes a lot of +practice. Why, I've been here two years, and I can't get to the top yet. +Really, it's very hard. Let's come and swing on the ring, if you are +quite sure about your poor nose." + +But Peggy did not want to swing on the rings, nor to do anything else +that Bertha proposed; she wanted to climb that rope, and she meant to do +it; the prairie blood was roused. + +"Well, I'll ask Miss Brent," said good-natured Bertha, finding her +determined. "You say you have had some experience in climbing? Perhaps +she'll let you go a little way up." + +Miss Brent, interrogated, came and looked Peggy over carefully; felt her +muscles, asked her a few questions, and then said, "You may have the +next turn, Miss Montfort." + +[Illustration: "UP THEY WENT, HAND OVER HAND."] + +The girl on the rope next her was having a sad time of it. She swung +this way and that; her legs waved wildly in the air; and at length +she came down "all abroad," having only ascended a few feet. At the same +moment, the girl on the next rope dropped, so that two were left +unoccupied. Peggy advanced and laid her hand upon one rope, just as +Vivia Varnham took possession of the other. On the third, the pensive +girl with the Madonna braids was swinging easily, half-way up to the +ceiling; she twisted her feet around the rope, and, so resting, observed +the progress of the other two. + +Up they went, hand over hand. Vivia Varnham gave a glance of disdain +when she saw who her rival was. She was light and agile, and did not for +an instant think that this heavy, clumsy creature could make any headway +against her. She went up lightly and easily, but somehow the heavy, +clumsy creature managed to keep abreast of her; was even gaining upon +her, drawing up, up, above her head. Vivia put on a spurt, and passed +Peggy, climbing very swiftly--for a moment; then the ache in her wrists +compelled her to slacken her rate of speed, and the thickset figure came +up, up, steadily and surely. Truth to tell, though Peggy Montfort was +awkward, she was as strong as a steer. Her weight was not fat, but sheer +bone and brawn; and her one hundred and forty pounds were easy enough +for her to carry, even up a rope thirty feet long. But Vivia Varnham, +with all her lightness and quickness, had little strength in her wrists. +They ached painfully, but she would not give up. Her face flushed, her +breath came in distressful gasps, she struggled on and up. They were +more than half-way up; they had passed the quiet observer, swinging +comfortably with her feet twisted in her rope. "Better go down, V.!" +said the girl with the sad eyes. "She's too many for you!" + +Vivia shook her head with an angry gesture. Her eyes swam, the pain in +her wrists was unendurable; but she set her teeth, and struggled on, +till from below came the voice of Miss Brent, calm and authoritative. + +"Come down, Miss Varnham! You have gone far enough." + +Most unwillingly, with sullen face and fluttering breath, Vivia slid to +the floor. She expected, everybody expected, to hear the order repeated +for the benefit of the newcomer, the audacious freshman who had ventured +upon junior ground; for the rope-climbing was not generally attempted +till the third year. But Miss Brent kept her eyes on Peggy, and smiled, +and made no sign. + +Peggy was enjoying herself immensely. She was not a swift climber, but +there was no tiring her, and this, as she said to herself, was "great!" +She wished Margaret could see her! No! It would frighten dear Margaret. +Rita, then! Rita loved feats of skill; probably she could climb far +better than she, Peggy, could; Rita was so light, so graceful, so +fearless. + +A shout rang from below. Something passed her on the next rope, light +and swift as a bird in flight. She could almost touch the ceiling now; +she looked up; there, at the very top of the next rope, was her friend +of the dressing-room, gazing at her with melancholy blue eyes, and +holding out a slender hand. + +"Shake!" said the girl with the Madonna braids. + + + + +CHAPTER IV. + +ENTER THE SCAPEGOAT. + + +Peggy was sitting alone in her room that evening, studying, when there +rose a hubbub outside her window; wheels, and the trampling of horses, +and girls' voices. She ran to the window and looked out; there was a +great hay-rigging, drawn by four stout horses, and comfortably lined +with straw. Girls were climbing into it on every side, and more and more +came pouring out of the house. It was full moon, and their faces shone +so clear and merry in the light, that Peggy could not help feeling a +pang, not of envy, but of longing. Of course there had been no question +of her going; it was a junior affair; but they all looked so happy and +jolly, and it was so lonely here! As she stood longing, Viola Vincent +popped her pretty head in to say good-bye. + +"Thought you might like to see my toque!" she said, fluttering in the +doorway. "It's the first time I have had it on. Isn't it dandy? Isn't it +perfectly sweet?" + +Peggy thought it charming, and said so; she was rapidly losing her heart +to her pretty butterfly neighbour. + +"I thought you'd like to see it!" said Viola, naively. "It makes it +easier to study, if you see something pretty. Ta, dear! I wish you were +going. We shall have a dandy time, simply dandy!" + +She fluttered out, and left the door ajar behind her, so that Peggy +could not help hearing the half-whispered colloquy that ensued in the +corridor. + +"Went to say good-bye to the Veezy Vee. Why shouldn't I?" + +"Why should you? You'll have her around your neck if you don't take +care, like a lump, as she is." + +"Hush, V.! you're quite vinegar, aren't you? Why? She's perfectly +harmless, and I find her quaint. You know I adore quaintness!" + +"Oh, come along, and don't talk flummery to me; you know I can't stand +it." + +The two passed on, and Peggy's ears burned uncomfortably. Evidently +Vivia Varnham had taken a violent dislike to her; well, she certainly +returned it. And of course that would prevent her from ever seeing much +of the other, sweet pretty thing. Well, of course she should have to be +alone most of the time. She went to the window again, and saw the two +V's climbing in; then there was a great shouting and waving of +handkerchiefs, and they drove away. Peggy sighed, and sat down once more +to her task. It was rhetoric, and her whole nature cried out against it; +but the study was prescribed, and the teacher, Miss Pugsley, was +reported to be very strict. Peggy put her elbows on the table, and her +head on her hands, and bent in good earnest over the book. + +"'Both prepositions and conjunctions are called connectives.' + +"Oh, dear! then why can't we _call_ them connectives, and have one word +to remember, instead of three? + +"'When I say the hen barks'--why, that makes nonsense! Oh, I got two +lines mixed up. 'When I say the dog barks, I speak of some particular +dog.' Well, anybody can see that. Oh, I do wonder if Flora will remember +to wash Peter's ear, where he had the canker! It was almost well, but +still it will need washing. Dear Peter! dear dogs! they will miss me, I +know they will. If one could only have a dog here, it wouldn't be half +so bad. I could have a basket for him to sleep in, you know, and then in +the morning he would get up on the bed, and we'd have a beautiful time. +There's a dog barking now! He wants to be let in, poor dear! How +perfectly idiotic some people are, not to know what a dog wants. I +remember that stupid man at home beating poor Peter,--beating him with a +hoe, when all the time Peter was telling him that a tramp was stealing +the melons. Yes; but when Petie saw that the man was an idiot, he went +and attended to the tramp himself, and you never saw a tramp so scared +in your life. Oh, dear! well! + +"'He was in the room, and went out of it.' I wish I could go out of this +room; but I don't know where I should go to. Bertha went, of course, +with the others. If it wasn't for Bertha, I really don't think I could +possibly stay here." + +A knock at the door; and Bertha's square, cheerful face looked in. "Any +chance to study here? there's something the matter with my lamp, +why,--Peggy!" + +For Peggy had jumped up and thrown her arms around her friend's neck, +and given her a hug which took her breath. + +"Oh, you dear!" cried Peggy. "I never was so glad to see anybody in my +life. Here, take this chair, Bertha. Oh, it was just lovely of you to +come in. You knew I would be forlorn, I know that was why you came. But +why didn't you go on the straw-ride? I supposed of course you had gone." + +"One question at a time," pleaded Bertha; "and I can't answer any if you +destroy my breathing apparatus, Hippolyta." + +"Why Hippolyta?" + +"Oh; she was Queen of the Amazons, don't you know? Only because you are +so strong, my dear." + +"No," said Peggy, dolefully. "I never heard of her. Margaret would know, +but I am awfully stupid, I told you I was. Do you have rhetoric, +Bertha?" + +"Not this year. I had it the first two years. It's not so bad; in fact, +I was rather fond of it." + +Peggy gazed at her in such unfeigned amazement that Bertha could not +help laughing; but there was never any sneer in Bertha's laugh. "Come!" +she said. "Now we'll sit down and study our prettiest. See! I have a lot +of Greek to do. Peggy, don't look like that! What is the matter?" + +Peggy had recoiled in horror, her blue eyes opened to their widest +extent. + +"Greek!" she cried. "You don't--I sha'n't have to take Greek, shall I? +because I would rather die, and I should die!" + +"Nonsense! no, I don't know that you will have to take it at all. What +course have you taken,--scientific? Oh, no, you don't have Greek in +that. What have you had to-day?" + +"Geometry! Of course that was splendid." + +"Oh, indeed! was it?" + +"Why, yes; I just love geometry. I could do it all day, but we only have +it one hour." And Peggy looked injured. + +"Well," said Bertha, "you are a queer girl, Peggy Montfort. But there'll +be one happy person in this school, and that is Miss Boyle." + +"I don't understand you! Don't most girls,--don't you like geometry, +Bertha?" + +"My dear, I regard everything in the shape of mathematics with terror +and disgust. I don't know any geometry, nor any algebra. I've been +through them both, and the more I learned, the more I didn't know. As to +arithmetic, I know that four quarts make a gallon, and that really is +all my mind is equal to. But if you won't let me study my Greek, Peggy, +I shall go home again to the Nest." + +"Oh, I do! I will!" cried poor Peggy; and there was silence for a time, +both girls studying in earnest, the silence only broken by the turning +of a page, or a heartfelt sigh from Peggy as she dealt with parts of +speech. + +So thoroughly were they absorbed in their task that they did not hear +sundry noises outside the window. The window was open, for the night was +warm as well as bright; indeed, the upper half of it was pushed entirely +down, so that it was like a double half-door of glass. Outside this +window was the black skeleton of the fire-escape; and if the two girls +had been on the alert, they might have heard various unobtrusive sounds +from this direction. As it was, they both started violently when a clear +voice addressed them in quiet and thoughtful tones. + +"Peace to this dwelling!" said the voice. + +Peggy looked up hastily. There, leaning on the window-sash, as calm and +composed as she had been at the top of the rope, was the stranger with +the melancholy eyes and the Madonna braids. + +"Peace!" she repeated. "Piece of pie! have some!" She held out a large +segment of pie, and added, "Any admittance for the Goat?" + +Peggy was still too startled to find breath to answer, but Bertha sprang +up, crying, "Grace! how could you frighten us so?" + +"Not Grace!" said the stranger, with an unmoved countenance. "Goat! let +us not deceive the Innocent! A scapegrace is one thing, a scapegoat is +another, and from some points a preferable one. But the Innocent is +abroad, I perceive. Innocent, I am the Scapegoat. Is there admittance?" + +"Oh!" gasped Peggy, blushing and faltering. "Oh, please come in! I--I +didn't know you were waiting for me to-- Sha'n't I open it from the +bottom?" + +"If you will take the pie," said the stranger, gravely; "thank you; that +is your piece, this is mine,--already bitten, or I would offer it to the +Fluffy." + +Relieved of two large pieces of pie, she laid one hand on the sash, and +vaulted lightly over; then she shook hands solemnly with Peggy, took her +own piece of pie, and, seating herself on the floor, proceeded to eat it +daintily. + +"It is a good pie!" she said. "If not afraid of pollution, Fluffy, a +bite?" + +Bertha was looking half amused, half angry. "Grace, how can you act so?" +she said. + +"How?" said Grace. "My sweet child, it is as easy as breathing. I will +give instruction at any time, without charge." + +"I thought you were doing double lessons," Bertha went on, "and being as +good as gold. Grace, you can be so good!" + +"Can't I!" said Grace; her tone was one of admiring gravity; her blue +eyes kept their look of pensive sadness. + +"And it's a thing I admire, goodness!" she went on, shaking her head. +"That's why I practise it. Double lessons? I'll warrant you! this is the +second time I have been down here to-night, for example; other things in +proportion." She waved her hand, and fell to again at her pie. + +Peggy had been sitting open-eyed, watching this singular person, not +knowing what to say. Now, however, meeting the solemn gaze of the large +sad eyes, she felt compelled to speech. + +"It--it's delicious!" she said, timidly. "Wouldn't you rather sit in a +chair, Miss--" she hesitated, not liking to say "Grace." + +"Oh, dear!" said Bertha, still put out. "You make me forget my manners +and everything, Grace. Peggy, this is Miss Grace Wolfe; Grace, Miss +Peggy Montfort." + +"Charmed!" said Miss Wolfe. "But we have met before, Fluffy, or I should +not have descended." + + "We met, 'twas on a rope, + And I thought she had done me; + I felt, I could not feel, + For my fate was upon me. + +"If it hadn't been for your possession of peas, you would have beaten +me, Miss Montfort. As it was, here's to our next meeting under the +ceiling!" She took a large bite of pie, and regarded Peggy benevolently. + +"Of peas?" repeated Peggy, vaguely, feeling that this might be English, +but was not sense. + +"Precisely. _Avoir du pois_, literally, to possess a pea! The French +language. But you should have seen Vexation!" this strange person added, +turning to Bertha. "Did see her? Well, she was a pleasant sight. Noxious +animal, Vexation! It is a joy to see her taken down occasionally." + +"I notice you are good friends enough, where any mischief is afoot!" +said Bertha, bluntly. She broke a corner off the pie, and added, "Goat, +this is mince pie!" + +"It is! it is!" said Miss Wolfe. "Ever discriminating, my own! And good? +Say it is good, Fluffy!" + +"Yes, it is uncommonly good!" said Bertha. "Where did you get it? You've +no business to have it, of course!" + +"I got it out of a bandbox, sweet one!" replied Grace Wolfe. "It +lives--they live, I should say, for there are three of them, thanks be +to praise!--in a bandbox. A round one, or, to be more exact, oval in +form, covered with wall-paper, whereon purple scrolls dispute the +mastery with pink lozenges. It's the sweetest thing in bandboxes that +I've seen since time was." + +"Yes, but the pies!" + +"The pies! as I was saying, three of them; ample, full moons of rapture! + + "They came in beauty, side by side, + They filled one home with glee. + Their bones are scattered--" + +She paused with an expressive gesture. + +"The best of it is,--you will admit that this is neat, Fluffy, even if +your slavery to the virtues compels your disapproval,--the best of it +is, the bandbox is the property of our Puggy." + +"Miss Pugsley's bandbox! Oh, Grace!" + +"Precisely! Our Puggy goes heavily without it, I am told. What would +you? It was outside her door, while sweeping was going on; one is human, +after all. She was out, with the best bonnet on her head. Poor head! +Poor bonnet! My hearty commiseration for both! When she returned, no +bandbox! At present she harries the domestics; she hasn't thought of me +yet, for a wonder. To-morrow, or the day after, I shall finish the +pies--alas! Then I return the repository, and her bonnet acquires a +fine, full, fruity flavour that annihilation alone can remove. + + "You may break, you may shatter + The tile if you will, + But the scent of the brandy + Will cling round it still." + +"Grace! What a diabolical plot! and you have been lying awake, I +suppose, chuckling over this!" + +Miss Wolfe waved her hand in deprecation. "Not lying awake, sweet one! +Too slight a thing for that; still, it served to amuse. One must live, +even you will admit that. What's this? Greek? Give it me!" She stretched +out her hand for the book, but Bertha held it fast. + +"No! no, Goat; I want it myself, and besides, you have no business here, +you know you haven't." + +"No; and you?" replied the other, coolly. + +"I have permission; my lamp is out of order, and I asked Miss Russell if +I might study in here," said Bertha. "But you will get into trouble if +you stay, Grace, you know you will. Be good now, and go home!" + +Grace Wolfe gazed pensively at her. + +"You would check the interchange of souls?" she said. "I feel drawn to +this Innocent, Fluff! I feel that she may have an influence over me for +good. You would not part us? Could'st love a Goat, Innocent?" she +added, turning to Peggy, and fixing her eyes on her with mournful +intensity. + +Peggy blushed, but before she could reply Bertha struck in decidedly. + +"Grace, just one word! Peggy Montfort is a stranger, and I am not going +to let her get into trouble if I can help it. And I don't want you to +get into trouble, either!" she added, more gently. "You know, my dear--" + +She stopped suddenly, for Grace Wolfe threw up her hand with a warning +gesture; then, with a single swift movement, she rolled under the bed, +and was out of sight. + +"Study!" said Bertha, in a low whisper. "Study _hard_!" + +Wholly bewildered, Peggy fixed her eyes on her book. She had heard no +sound before, but now came a footfall in the corridor. A knock at the +door, and Miss Russell opened it and looked in. + +"Your lamp is in order now, Bertha," she said. "I thought I would tell +you, as I was going by; but you can stay a little longer, if you like. +How charming you have made your room, Miss Montfort." + +"Won't--won't you come in, Miss Russell?" stammered poor Peggy, +conscious of Grace Wolfe's eyes under the bed, yet feeling that civility +admitted of only one answer. + +"Not now, thank you! Some day soon I shall come and make you a little +visit, though, with pleasure. Good night, young ladies!" + +She nodded kindly, closed the door, and passed on. + +The girls drew breath. A moment, and Grace Wolfe rolled out again, rose, +and shook her neat dress. + +"So much for Buckingham!" she said. "The good point about Principie is, +she is respectable. Now, my Puggy would have looked through the keyhole +first. But I foresee a visit to my own humble cot, to see whether I have +learned my lessons. + + "Oh! Farewell, friends! + Here Thisbe ends!" + +She waved her hand, vaulted once more over the window, and was gone. An +occasional faint, cat-like sound told of her progress up the +fire-escape; then a window creaked slightly overhead, and all was +silent. + +Bertha Haughton ruffled up her curly black locks with a gesture of +exasperation. + +"And the worst of it is," she said, "that girl will know her Greek +better than any one in class. That's half the trouble; she learns so +quickly, her lessons don't take half her time, and she puts the rest +into mischief." + +"She seems awfully clever!" said Peggy, timidly. + +Bertha nodded. "She is just that, my dear; awfully clever! I'll tell you +more about her to-morrow, but now we must study hard, for we've only +twenty minutes left. Only, my dear, when you think of the Goat, remember +three things: she is D. D. D.,--dear, delightful,--and dangerous!" + + + + +CHAPTER V. + +TO THE RESCUE. + + +The next morning proved a hard one for Peggy; the rhetoric lesson was +the first that must be recited. She had studied it hard, but somehow the +rules seemed to make little impression. Whenever she tried to fix them +in her mind, there came between her and the page two melancholy blue +eyes, and she seemed to hear a voice of singular quality, a voice with a +thrill in it, saying, "Could'st love a Goat, Innocent?" + +So she was not as well prepared as she should have been when she went +into the class; and on meeting Miss Pugsley's cold greenish brown eye, +what she did know seemed to evaporate from the top of her head, leaving +a total blank. She stumbled and floundered; she did not know what an +antecedent was, and she could not remember ever to have heard of a +reciprocal pronoun. + +"Pray, Miss Montfort, were you asleep or awake when you studied this +lesson?" inquired Miss Pugsley, with acrid calm. + +"I don't know!" replied Peggy, now thoroughly bewildered. + +"Well, if you were asleep, let me recommend you to try it again when you +wake up; or if you were awake, perhaps you might do it better in your +sleep." + +Peggy flushed scarlet, and the ready tears sprang into her eyes; but she +forced them back, bit her lip, and tried not to feel the eyes of the +whole class bent on her in amused astonishment. Miss Pugsley seemed to +take positive pleasure in her ignorance and embarrassment. She put one +question after another, each more ingeniously contrived than the +last--or so it seemed--to show what Peggy did not know. At last, in +self-defence, the poor child took refuge in one simple and invariable +answer: "I don't know!" So confused was she that these words were the +only ones she could utter, even when she knew the correct answer, or +would have done so if she could have collected her wits. By the end of +the hour, Peggy was entirely convinced that she was the dunce and butt +of the school; that she knew nothing, and never would know anything. + +It seemed a cruel stroke of fate that this terrible period should be +followed by that of general history, for Peggy detested history, as some +of my readers already know. She went into the next class-room with an +aching head, and a heart throbbing with a sense of utter worthlessness +in herself, and of bitter cruelty in others. She did not even look up at +the teacher, but kept her eyes fixed on her desk, and answered the few +questions that meant anything to her, sullenly and unwillingly. She did +try at first to follow the lesson, but her head ached so, the words +seemed to sing themselves into mere nonsense, and she soon gave up the +attempt; the more so as this teacher, who had been observing her pretty +closely, for some reason or other asked her very few questions. At last, +however, the blow fell. + +"Where did Philip of Macedon come from, Miss Montfort?" + +"I don't know," said Peggy. + +"Oh, I think you do," said Miss Cortlandt, with a pleasant smile, and +checking, with a warning glance, the rising giggle. + +"Try again, Miss Montfort. Philip the Great, Philip of Macedon,--where +did he come from? Surely you can tell me!" + +"I don't know," said Peggy, doggedly; and at the moment she actually did +not. + +"My dear child," said the teacher, "did you ever hear what was the +colour of Washington's gray mare?" + +"No, ma'am," said Peggy. + +"Well, what was it?" + +"I don't know." + +Emily Cortlandt had graduated from college the year before. She laid +down her pencil, and looked very kindly at the distracted girl. + +"I think you are not feeling well, Miss Montfort," she said. "Does your +head ache?" + +"Yes, ma'am," said Peggy. She could not have said another word; her +whole strength was needed to keep back the flood of tears that was +rising, rising. + +"You need not stay through the lesson," Miss Cortlandt went on, and the +sympathy in her voice only brought the flood higher and nearer. + +"You can make up the lesson to me some other time. Now, you would better +go and lie down for a little, and then take a turn in the fresh air. +Miss Bangs, what was the date of Philip's first invasion?" + +Peggy never knew how she got out of the class-room. She longed to give +at least a grateful look at the kind soul who had saved her, but her +eyes were already swimming in tears. She fled along the corridor, +sobbing hysterically, blinded with tears, conscious of only one thing, +the desperate resolve to get to her room, before she broke down +altogether. Flying thus around a corner, she rushed headlong into a +group of girls who were gathered around something, she could not tell +what. So violent was the shock that Peggy reeled and struck her head +sharply against the wall. This brought her to herself. She caught back +the sob on her lips, and dashed the tears from her eyes before any one +saw them,--or so she hoped; then she looked to see what was going on. +Next moment she had forgotten that there were such things as tears in +the world. + +There were six or eight girls in the group, mostly sophomores, though a +few were freshmen. They were looking down at something--somebody--crouching +on the floor against the wall, and their laughter, checked for an instant +by Peggy's onset, broke out afresh. "Here's Peggy Montfort, just in time +to see the fun. Look, Miss Montfort, and see the fashions! Straight from +Paris, and the very last thing!" + +The speaker was Blanche Haight, a tall sophomore with bleached hair, and +eyes set too near together. She was considered a wit, and every time she +spoke the other girls giggled and screamed. + +The person crouching on the floor was Lobelia Parkins. Her head was +pressed against the wall, her face hidden in her hands; misery and +terror were in every line of her poor little shrinking figure, but this +only gave added delight to her tormentors. + +"Look, ladies, at the new sleeve!" cried Miss Haight, lifting the skinny +arm, from which the blue poplin sleeve hung in an awkward fashion. "Did +you ever see anything so exquisite? Look at the fringe, will you, and +the pattern? I'm going to get Miss Russell to put her up on exhibition, +so the whole school can have the benefit; it's a shame to keep it to +ourselves!" + +"He! he! he!" went all the girls. "Blanche, you are too funny for +anything!" + +"Where did your mother get it?" asked another; and this, as Peggy saw +with a shock, was pretty Rose Barclay. "Did the ragman bring it around, +or did she pick it up in the gutter? Say, Miss Parkins, I wish you'd +tell us, 'cause we all want to know." + +"Yes, of course we want to know!" cried Miss Haight. "I'm going to write +this very night, to see if Mumma can't get me one like it. I never shall +be happy till I--" + +That sentence never was finished. The speaker found her own arm seized +in a grip of iron, which forced her to drop the poor little arm in the +blue sleeve. She was forced back against the wall, and found herself +confronted by a pair of blue eyes blazing with righteous wrath. + +"How dare you?" cried Peggy Montfort, in a voice that quivered with +rage. "You mean, cowardly brute, how dare you? Touch her again, and I'll +choke the words down your throat!" + +Blanche Haight gasped for a moment; indeed, the whole group was cowed by +this sudden vision of strength and fury. But she recovered herself in a +moment. + +"Well, indeed!" she said. "I should like to know what this means, Miss +Montfort? I should like to know who gave you authority to choke people, +and abuse them, and call them names?" + +"You'll find out what it means!" said Peggy, waiving the second +question, and replying to the first. "If you touch that child again, or +so much as speak to her, I'll choke you." + +"Girls, do you hear this?" cried Blanche Haight. "Are you going to +stand by, and let this girl ride over us?" + +"Shame!" cried the girls. "Bully!" + +"Bully!" cried Peggy, dropping her hold of Miss Haight, and turning to +face the others. "You call me a bully, and you yourselves, eight great +grown girls, standing around to torment and torture this poor helpless +child? Shame on you! Shame on you all, every one! I'm ashamed to be in +the same school with you. I--" (Here, I am sorry to say, Peggy forgot +that she was a young lady, forgot everything save that she was the +daughter of hot-blooded James Montfort.) "I could whip the whole lot of +you, and I'll do it if you dare to say 'Boo!' but you don't!" + +It was a fact that no one did say "Boo!" There was a pause, Peggy +standing with folded arms before the shrinking child, her whole figure +dilated with passion, till she seemed to tower above the rest, who for +their part cowered before her. + +Rose Barclay was the first to speak. + +"We are very fortunate to find a leader for the freshman class," she +said, spitefully, "and such a leader! Miss Montfort is too high-toned +to help a classmate with her lesson, but not too high-toned to talk like +a Bowery rowdy. Come, along, girls! I for one don't care to listen to +any more such refined, elegant talk!" + +"Yes, you'd better go along!" said Peggy, the Valkyr, briefly. + +"Pray, may I ask," said Blanche Haight, with a bitter sneer, "are you +monitor of this corridor?" + +"No," said a voice behind her; "but I am." + +A girl had come quietly up the stairs, and was now standing close beside +the excited group, none of whom had seen or heard her,--a tall girl, +with red-gold hair, dressed as if she had just come from a journey. + +"I am the monitor of this corridor," she repeated. "Please go to your +rooms, or I shall be obliged to report you." + +The girls shrunk together, whispering, the freshmen questioning the +sophomores. + +"Who is it? Who is it?" + +"Hush! It's the junior president. Come along!" + +The group melted away; another moment, and all were gone save Peggy, who +was now on the floor, with her arms around the little miserable +creature, who still shrank close against the wall, as if her life +depended on the contact. + +"There, dear!" she cried. "They are gone. Come! Don't huddle up so, you +poor little thing. Those brutes are gone, and there's nobody here but +me, Peggy, and--" she glanced up at the tall girl. "Oh! won't you help +me?" she cried. "I think--she doesn't seem to hear what I am saying. Oh, +is she dead?" + +"No," said the monitor. "I think she has fainted, though, poor little +soul! We must carry her to her room. Do you know where it is? I have +only just come back, and don't know where the freshmen are." + +"No, I don't know, but I'll take her to my room; I'm in No. 18. Oh, I +can carry her alone; she's all skin and bone; she doesn't weigh +anything." + +The little figure in the staring poplin gown hung quite limp, as Peggy +lifted it. "You'd better let me help," said the tall girl, kindly. "We +can make her more comfortable; so!" + +Together they carried her to Peggy's room, and laid her on the bed. It +was really more fright and distress than actual fainting, for she soon +opened her eyes, and looked eagerly at Peggy, but closed them again with +a faint cry, at sight of the stranger. + +"You needn't be afraid of her!" cried Peggy, eagerly. "She isn't one of +them; she's none of that horrid crowd. I don't know who you are," she +said, "but I'm ever and ever and ever so much obliged to you. I don't +know whether you heard what they were saying." + +And she poured out an indignant account of the cruelty she had witnessed +and put a stop to. The stranger's eyes were stern enough, as she +listened. "I heard only the end of it," she said, briefly, "but where I +see Blanche Haight, I am never surprised at anything cruel or cowardly. +I am very glad to know you; it was a mercy that you happened to come +along just then. I hope we shall be friends, Miss--is it Miss +Montfort?" + +"Oh, that I will!" cried Peggy, responding with all her warm heart to +the sweet smile and the lovely look in the clear blue eyes. "Oh, I +should like to ever so much; but I don't know your name, do I?" + +The stranger smiled again. "They call me the Snowy Owl," she said, "but +my name is Gertrude Merryweather." + + + + +CHAPTER VI. + +THE OWL'S NEST. + + +When Peggy escorted Lobelia Parkins back to her room, she found that it +was the one directly above her own. Point for point, the rooms were +alike, fire-escape and all,--so far as the actual outlines were +concerned; there, however, the likeness ended. There had been no Uncle +John, no Margaret, in this case. The room was furnished, evidently, by +the same hand that had dressed the girl, and with equal taste. The +carpet on the floor was costly, but hideous as staring colours and +execrable design could make it. The furniture was cumbrous, and the fact +that the ugly chairs were rosewood, and their cushions brocade, made +them neither beautiful nor comfortable. On the bureau were some bottles +of red Bohemian glass, such as were thought handsome fifty years ago; +an elephant of a writing-desk, staring with plush and gilding, almost +covered the table. Altogether, the room was as desolate as its occupant; +more could not be said. Lobelia seemed smaller and more shrunken than +ever amid all this tasteless display; she seemed conscious of it, too, +as she gazed piteously at Peggy. She had been crying, in a furtive, +frightened way; and, gazing at her, Peggy felt that it must be years ago +that she was crying, too, and hoping for nothing in the world save to +get to her room and have a good solid deluge of tears. At present it +seemed hardly likely that she should ever weep again; she felt strong +and confident, and was still burning with indignation, none the less +hotly that the outward flame had gone down. Her kind companion had been +obliged to leave them, with the promise of seeing them soon again. Peggy +thought she might stay a few minutes, though the gong for gym had +already rung. + +"Now, Lobelia," she was saying,--"I am going to call you Lobelia, you +know, and you are to call me Peggy, and we are going to be friends. +Now, Lobelia, mind what I say! if those girls ever give you any more +trouble, you are to come straight to me. Do you hear?" + +"Yes," said Lobelia, faintly. + +"Have they tormented you before? Beasts! Or was this the first time?" + +"Oh, not--not so much!" said the girl, deprecatingly. "A little +yesterday; but--I don't know whether they meant to be unkind, Peggy. I +know that my dress _is_ queer!" + +"Don't be so meek!" cried Peggy, unable to repress a little stamp of her +foot, which made Lobelia start. "Have some spirit of your own, Lobelia. +I tell you, these girls are mean, cowardly wretches, not fit for girls +like the Owls to speak to. They don't speak to them much, either," she +added, "and I'm not going to any more than I can help." + +Lobelia looked more miserable than ever. "Don't!" she said. "I can't +bear to have any one get into trouble on my account. It--it needn't +matter to you, Peggy. Of course you are very, very kind, and I think I +should have died if you had not come along just then, for I couldn't +seem to bear much more; but I don't want you to get into trouble." + +"Who's going to get into trouble?" demanded Peggy. "Guess I can take +care of myself against such a set as that." + +"I don't want you to get into trouble!" repeated Lobelia; and, as she +spoke, she glanced around the room with a peculiar shrinking look, one +would say a look of dread, that Peggy did not understand. + +"Who's next door to you?" she asked, briefly. "Rose Barclay, for one, I +know. Who is on the other side?" + +Lobelia thought it was another freshman, but was not sure. + +"Have they troubled you?" asked Peggy, suspiciously. + +But Lobelia shook her head, and seemed so distressed at the question +that Peggy did not know what to think. + +"Please, please don't bother about me!" she implored. "I dare say it +will be a good deal better now, after you and Miss Merryweather being so +brave and so kind. I don't want to say anything against anybody. +Please, please forget all about it, Peggy." + +"I want you to be brave yourself," cried Peggy; and Lobelia started +again, and shrank in her chair. "Don't be so--so--well, I don't know any +word but meeching, and Margaret won't let me say that. But have a spirit +of your own, and stand up to them, and give 'em as good as they send. I +would, I tell you, quick enough, if they tried it on me." + +Lobelia looked at her with hopeless eyes. "But I am not you!" she said. +"I--Peggy, I know just how I look, and how I seem, and how little and +ugly and queer I am. I don't wonder they laugh, I don't, really. I +haven't any spirit, either; I can't have. You can't do anything with me; +it isn't any use." + +Peggy gazed at her, with eyes almost as hopeless as her own. Yet she +must make one more attempt; and with it the honest blood came into her +face. + +"Look here, Lobelia!" she said, "I am awkward, too, and shy, and--and +stupid, awfully stupid. Why, my cousin Rita used to call me--never +mind, that was only before she grew so kind! But I know what it is to be +laughed at, my dear! Only this morning, in rhetoric, Miss Pugsley was +just as hateful as she could be, and all the girls laughed; yes, they +did. So you are not so different as you think. Why,--I don't mind +telling you,--when I came along just now, I was trying to get to my own +room, so that I could have a good cry. There, Lobelia! now how do you +feel?" Lobelia raised her eyes with a wondering look; but next moment +her eyes fell on the looking-glass and she shook her head. + +"No!" she said. "No, Peggy! You are kind, and you want to make me feel +comfortable; but look!" + +She motioned toward the mirror. Peggy looked, and her kind heart sank. +She herself was no beauty; her round, fair face and honest blue eyes +were pleasant to look at, and she had beautiful hair, but that was all; +yet she could not help seeing that she was a very vision of loveliness +beside the sallow, puny, almost deformed aspect of her poor little +neighbour. She coloured deep with angry sympathy, but Lobelia only +smiled, a wan little smile. + +"You see!" she said. "It's no use, Peggy." + +For all answer, Peggy threw her arms around the shrinking figure, and +pressed it in a warm embrace. "I don't care!" she cried. "I don't say +you are pretty, you poor little thing, but just remember that you are my +friend, and if anybody dares to meddle with you again, they'll have to +reckon with me, that's all. And now I must go, or I shall lose all the +drill. Cheer up, Lobelia, and don't sit here and mope, mind! and if you +have any more trouble, just knock on the floor, and I'll be up in half a +quarter of a jiffy. Good-bye, dear!" and off she ran, feeling that at +least she had left some degree of comfort and cheer behind her. + +Soon, however, came something that put Lobelia Parkins and her troubles +out of Peggy's head for the time. Bertha Haughton was not at the +gymnasium, but when Peggy came back to her own room after an hour of +rapture, she found a note pinned on her pincushion. + + "DEAR PEGGY:--Study _hard_, please, and get + through before this evening. The Snowy Owl is + going to give us a Grand Tell about the wedding + she has been to, and we both want you to come, + too. I'm going to speak to Miss Russell, but + you'd better ask her, too; it will be all + right, for the Snowy has asked permission, + anyhow. Eight o'clock, just after reading; be + sure to come on time! + + "Affectionately, + "BERTHA." + +It was hard to study through that lovely afternoon, when the other +girls, or most of them, were out-of-doors, playing tennis or +basket-ball, and their voices came in at the window in every tone of +joyousness and delight. It was very hard to study the detested rhetoric +and history, but Peggy was strong in her good resolve, and bent steadily +over her books, trying her very best. Once, indeed, came a sore +temptation, when a ball struck her window lightly, and, going to look +out, she saw Grace Wolfe standing below. + +"Come out, Innocent!" said the Scapegoat, in her deep, musical tones. +"Come and sport with me! + + "The ship is ready and the wind blows fair, + And I am bound for the sea, Mary Anne!" + +"Oh! Oh, thank you!" cried Peggy. "I wish I could, but I have to work +now, I'm afraid." + + "Is this a time to think o' wark, + Wi' Scapegoat at the door?" + +inquired Grace, looking up with her head on one side. "Why work at this +hour, Innocent? Even the slaves of virtue, even the Owls, are at play +now." + +Peggy leaned out of the window; it really seemed as if her body would be +drawn out after her longing spirit, which had been out and away from the +first summons. + +"Yes, the Owls!" she said. "That's just it, Miss Wolfe." + +"No!" interrupted Grace. "Not Miss Wolfe! Not all AEsop! Impossible to be +wolf and goat at the same time, and do justice to either character. Let +it be Goat, or Grace, as you like." + +"Grace, then, thank you! Well, you see, the Owls,--that is, Bertha asked +me to come to their room this evening, and of course I want to +dreadfully,--though not more dreadfully than I want to come out now," +she added, wistfully. "And if I do, you see, I must get my rhetoric +done. It's awfully hard, and I am so stupid about it, it takes me for +ever. Oh, will you ask me again some time, please?" + +The Scapegoat regarded her for a moment, standing with the ball in her +hand, swaying her light, graceful body to and fro. + +"Another slave of virtue?" she said. "Can I permit this? Innocent, I +have half a mind to cause you to come down. I am to be thrown over for +owls, who have, if you will consider the matter, neither horns nor +hoofs? I am to let you stay and grind through the afternoon for them and +for my Puggy? Well--" + +Her whole face seemed to lighten with whimsical determination. She laid +her hand on the fire-escape, and seemed on the point of mounting it, +when suddenly another change came over her. Her eyes darkened into their +usual melancholy look. + +"Here's luck!" she said, abruptly. "See you later, Innocent!" She was +gone, and Peggy, with a revulsion of feeling, wished she had gone with +her. Bertha was a dear, and Miss Merryweather looked lovely, but neither +of them had the fascination of this strange girl, so unlike any one she +had ever seen in her life. + +It was a forlorn afternoon; but Peggy stuck to her work manfully, and +had the satisfaction of closing the book at last with the feeling that +she was sure of it now, however things might be in the morning under +Miss Pugsley's hostile eye. + +There was still a little time left before supper. She ran out to the +lawn, hoping to find Grace Wolfe still there, but she was disappointed. +The only occupants of the lawn were half a dozen sophomores clustered +together at one end. Blanche Haight was among them, and at sight of +Peggy she turned her back pointedly, and whispered to the others. They +turned with one accord and stared at Peggy, with a cool insolence that +made her blood boil within her and surge up in angry red to her +forehead. She could not do anything about it; they had a right to stare, +if they had no better manners. She returned the look for a moment, then +turned away with a sore and angry heart. Fortunately, at this moment +came out two classmates of her own whom she knew slightly,--mild, +pleasant girls, with no special traits of interest, but still friendly +and approachable. They were going to play tennis, and invited Peggy to +join them; so she had a good half-hour of exercise and pleasure, and +came in with rosy cheeks, and with the cobwebs all blown away for the +time. + +At eight o'clock Peggy was standing before her glass, putting a last +touch to her hair, and surveying her image with some anxiety. Did she +"look nice?" Peggy had as little personal vanity as a girl could well +have; but she had learned from her cousin Margaret that it was part of +her duty to look as well as she could. Her cousin Rita would have had +her go further than this. + +"Study, my child," Rita would cry, "to be beautiful! Let it be your +dream by night, your thought by day!" And, in all kindness, Rita would +try to teach her how to cross her feet so that they might look slender, +how to extend her little finger when she raised her hand, "not too much, +but to an exact point, _cherie_!" how to turn her head so as to show the +lines of the neck to advantage. But Peggy's own good sense, aided by +Margaret's calm wisdom, had told her the inappropriateness of Rita's +graceful airs and poses to her own sturdy personality. She was to look +nice; more she could not aspire to. So here she was to-night, in a +pretty blue silk waist, with a serge skirt of a darker shade, her hair +smoothly braided in one mammoth "pigtail," and tied with blue ribbons, +her neat collar fastened with a pretty pearl brooch. Thus attired, our +Peggy was truly pleasant to look upon; and her "Is that right, +Margaret?" brought a little satisfied nod of reply from the smiling +image in the glass. + +Drawing near the Owl's Nest, she heard a hum of voices, and straightway +her heart sank again, and shyness possessed her. There was a crowd +there! They would all be juniors and seniors, and she the only freshman +among them. How could she go in? Oh! she almost wished she was up in the +other corridor with the younger girls! + +But at this moment the door opened, and Bertha's kind face looked out. + +"Here you are, Peggy!" she cried, cordially. "Come along; there's plenty +of room, for I've saved a place for you. Come!" + +For a moment Peggy hung back, and knew how Lobelia Parkins felt; then +she made an effort, and followed Bertha into the room. + +The Owl's Nest was a corner room, with windows on two sides. It seemed +to be furnished chiefly with books. There were the two brass beds, of +course, the twin bureaus, the desks, and table. All of these, except the +beds, were covered with books; bookshelves took up most of the wall +space, though there were two or three good pictures, among them a great +photograph of the sea, that almost dashed the spray in one's face, so +perfect was it. It was at a later visit that Peggy observed the books; +now, she was conscious of nothing save the girls. The room was certainly +full of them. There were three on each bed, curled up in every variety +of picturesque and comfortable attitude; two sat on one of the bureaus, +having pushed books and toilet articles up into a toppling and highly +perilous mountain behind them; four more crouched somehow on the rather +narrow window-seats. The rest were on the floor, except two early birds, +who had come in time to get the two chairs. The floor was made +comfortable with sofa-pillows, borrowed from the whole length of the +corridor. Altogether, there might have been twenty girls in the room, +and every girl was, or seemed to be, talking as fast as her tongue could +move. + +Peggy was hailed with a bird-like call from one corner. + +"My Veezy-vee! come here, Peggy Montfort, and sit by me." + +It was Viola Vincent. She was curled up at the head of one of the beds. +She wore the prettiest pink tea-gown imaginable, and her hair was a +wonder of puffs and curls. + +"Come here!" she repeated, patting the pillows. "Lots of room; miles! +Let her come here, Fluffy!" + +"Yes, she shall, in a minute, V.," replied Bertha. "But first,--Toots, +here's Peggy Montfort!" + +The Snowy Owl came swiftly out of the closet, where she had been +performing some mystic rite; she took Peggy's two hands in hers, and +held them in a warm, firm grasp that was the very soul of cordiality. + +"I'm so glad!" she said. "How's the poor little thing? Better? I'm sure +you did her a great deal of good." + +"Oh, no!" stammered Peggy, pleased and confused. "I couldn't really do +anything; but she is feeling better." + +Gertrude Merryweather nodded wisely. "My dear, you can do a great deal +for her!" she said. "We'll have a talk sometime; no chance now. Only, +Bertha has been telling me things, and I'm so glad you are in our +street! There, now V. shall have you." + +Judge of the glow at Peggy's heart, on these words from the Junior +President, the best-loved girl--or so it was said--in the whole school. +Those foolish tears actually got half-way up to her eyes,--only they +were very different from the last tears; but fortunately Viola's +high-pitched babble drove them back again. + +"My _dear_! How nice you look! perf'ly _fine_! doesn't she, V.? Say, +that's a dandy pin you've got on, simply _dandy_! There! isn't this too +quaint for anything? You comfy? so'm I! Room, my dear? gallons of room! +I haven't seen you for an age; where have you kept yourself? I looked +into your room, though, and it's perf'ly _fine_! I told you it would be, +when you had things fixed. Your chintz is too perfectly sweet for +anything; isn't it, V.? We were simply cold with envy, weren't we, V.?" + +"Do cackle for yourself, if you must cackle, V.!" responded Vivia +Varnham, who sat on the same bed, a little lower down. "I can't hear +myself think, you make such a noise." + +"No, really?" cried Viola. "But that must be such an advantage +sometimes, V. But, say! we came here to hear the Snowy talk, didn't we? +She hasn't had much chance yet, has she? Are you ready to talk, Snowy? +Oh, you duck! it is too perfectly enchanting to have you back again. I +haven't lived since you went away, have I, V.? I've been simply a +vegetable, haven't I, V.? Potatoes, my dear, are lively compared to me. +_Are_ you ready to talk, Snowy?" + +"If you are ready to have me," replied the Snowy Owl, laughing. "First, +however--here!" + +She produced a mammoth box of "marshmallows," and handed it around. It +was received with a shout. + +"Toast 'em!" cried one. "Hat-pins!" cried another. There was a movement +toward the gas-jet; but Bertha Haughton checked it decidedly. "You have +come here to hear the Snowy tell!" she said. "It's a long tell, and if +you begin toasting now, there won't be time. Tell first, toast +afterward! that's what I say!" + +"Hark to the Fluffy! she speaks well!" cried the girls. There was +silence; and Gertrude Merryweather, sitting on the floor, with her hands +clasped around her knees, began her "tell." + +[Illustration: THE GRAND TELL IN THE OWL'S NEST.] + + + + +CHAPTER VII. + +WEDDING BELLS. + + +"To begin with, girls, this is Fluffy's idea, not mine! Of course none +of you ever saw our Hildegarde, so I didn't suppose you would care +particularly; but when I was telling the Fluffy last night, she said it +was selfish and all kinds of things to keep it to ourselves, and that +you must all hear about it; so if you don't find it interesting, pull +out the Fluffy's feathers, not mine. + +"Hildegarde Grahame--she is Hildegarde Merryweather now, but I cannot +realise it yet--has been a very dear friend of ours for several years. +We think there is no one like her in the world; I'll show you a picture +of her by and by. Well, a year ago she became engaged to my uncle." + +"Your uncle!" cried the girls. "Why, I thought she was a girl!" + +"So she is a girl, but Roger--well, he is my uncle, but he isn't so very +much older than I am. That is--he is twenty-five, and Hildegarde is +twenty; so you see it is just exactly right. There isn't anybody like +him, either. He is as near an angel as a man can come and be alive; and +he is tremendously clever, really eminent already in his profession, and +we all love him to distraction." + +"Is he handsome?" asked Viola Vincent. + +"I don't know; yes, I think he is. Not a barber-shop beauty, though. He +is tall, and very strong, broad-shouldered, with the kindest eyes in the +world, and a smile that makes you crinkle all over with pleasure. Well, +and so they were engaged, and now they are married; the wedding was on +Wednesday, and this is Friday, and here I am. Now I'll begin at the very +beginning of the day. Of course we woke up early, and looked out of the +window; and it was all gray and cloudy. I thought it was going to rain, +and I was in the depths, but Bell--you know Bell, my sister, at +college--was sure it would clear before seven, and so it did. The sun +came out bright and clear, and soon we saw that it was going to be the +most beautiful day that ever was. We had been out in the fields all day +before, getting flowers, and we had them all ready in tubs and bowls and +pitchers; so after breakfast we could go right to work on the +decorations. We did the church first. It is a pretty stone church, with +a good deep chancel. We filled in the back of the chancel with great +ferns--mostly evergreen ferns, so that they would not wilt--and palms +and things; and then we made banks and banks of asters and +goldenrod,--oh, it was lovely! Most of them came from the camp-pasture, +Bertha; you remember how lovely it is in September." + +Bertha nodded. "I should think I did!" she said. "Most beautiful place I +ever saw, except the rest of it all." + +"Well, I never saw it look more beautiful than that day before the +wedding, when Bell and the boys and I rode out on our wheels, and came +back by moonlight, with great bundles of purple and gold tied on our +backs and nodding over our heads. But all the ferns and the asters and +chrysanthemums and roses came mostly from Hildegarde's own garden at +Braeside, and from Roseholme, Colonel Ferrers's place. We might have +carpeted the church entirely with asters, if we had wanted to; as it +was, we had great garlands of them twined over the chancel rail and +swinging among the ferns and goldenrod; really, I never saw so many +flowers at one time in my life. When that was all done we went to the +house, Braeside, the Grahames' house, to see if we could help there; but +Mrs. Flower, a friend of Hildegarde's, of whom we used to be the least +little bit jealous before we knew her, was there, and another friend, +Miss Desmond,--she was one of the bridesmaids,--and they had everything +so beautifully arranged that there was nothing for us to do but stand +and admire it with all our eyes. People in New York had sent down all +kinds of splendid flowers, boxes and boxes of them, so that the house +was a perfect bower, and smelt like the Vale of Cashmere; but we knew +very well that Hilda would like our flowers best. Then--well, a lot more +presents had come since the night before, so as there was time enough +before dressing, we went in to see them. I don't suppose you care about +the presents, girls!" + +"Oh! oh! we do!" cried the girls, in chorus. "We want to hear about +every single one, Snowy." + +"My dears! it would take me all night, and then I couldn't remember them +all. But I'll try and tell you some of them. Let me see! Colonel Ferrers +gave her a set of sapphires; the most beautiful things you ever saw. +Necklace and pendant and pin, most wonderful dark blue stones, set in +star-shape. And Jack Ferrers and his father gave her some wonderful +Roman gold-work--I don't know how to describe it, I never saw anything +like it--that Jack picked up in Europe. Then there was silver, heaps and +heaps of it, from relatives in New York and I don't know where; some of +it very handsome indeed, but I don't care so much about silver, do you? +I remember there were ten salt-cellars, no two alike. But the things we +cared for were the small presents that came from people we knew; people +who loved Hildegarde, not just because she was their grandniece or +something, but because she was herself. Oh, some of them were funny, +girls! There were two dear old people who had come a long way to the +wedding, a Mr. and Mrs. Hartley, with whom Hilda spent a summer when she +was about fifteen, and whom she has been fond of ever since. I should +think she would be; the old lady has a face like Raphael's +grandmother--I can't think of any other way of describing it; and Mr. +Hartley is simply a duck, the dearest funny old man you ever saw. Well, +they brought Hilda the most beautiful toilet-set I ever saw or dreamed +of,--something wonderful, all blue dragons and gilding. Papa said it was +very rare; and Hilda cried when she saw it, and scolded them dreadfully +for bringing it away from its own room; but still she was delighted to +have it, and says she will never use any other. Then there was young +Doctor Chirk,--funny name, isn't it?--Mrs. Flower's brother. Such a +nice, bright, jolly fellow! Well, he was part of that same summer, it +seems, and he carved a beautiful frame out of wood that grew in +Hartley's Glen; and Mrs. Flower, who paints very well, had made a +picture of the glen itself--lovely place!--for the frame, or I suppose +the frame was made to fit the picture, no matter which; and _that_ +filled her with joy. + +"Then there were the people from Bywood. My dear, Miss Wealthy Bond is +the most beautiful creature I have ever seen, except two. She is just +like live Dresden china, smiling and dimpling; and the dear quaint maid +who came with her, Martha, had made Hildegarde's whole winter provision +of jellies and jams, because 'it wasn't likely Hildegarde would have +time herself this first season, and it wasn't a thing you could trust to +hired help in general.' Miss Bond herself had brought china--my dear! +did you ever see tortoise-shell crockery? Well, it is a most beautiful +thing, and the art was lost a hundred years ago, and each piece is worth +I don't know how much; but this dear old lady had a dozen plates, all +hexagonal, too, and not a single point broken or chipped, and two +pitchers,--well, I haven't the heart even to think of those pitchers, I +wanted them so,--and they were all for Hilda, because Hilda had brought +the sunshine back into her life, she told me. + +"Girls, it was the same story everywhere. Mrs. Grahame being so +delicate, and Hilda so busy, Bell and I were there a great deal the few +days before the wedding, and we took the guests to walk and drive and so +on. Everywhere it was the same story, the joy and brightness and love +that this one girl had carried with her wherever she went. I never shall +forget it--never. + +"Then--let me see--what next? Oh! I had nearly forgotten the dear little +boy, Benny, Miss Bond's adopted son. He considers Hilda his own private +property, and he was furiously jealous of Roger and everybody else. When +he first came it was quite sad, really, the child was so unhappy, and +there was no consoling him. He wanted Hilda to sing to him and play with +him just as she did when she was staying there at Bywood; and naturally +she couldn't, poor dear, though it was wonderful how she managed to be +with them all a little every day, and to see to almost everything, so +that her mother should have no care or worry. Well, where was I? oh! the +little boys. Hugh Allen, our Hugh,--I can't stop to tell you about Hugh +now, but he is the dearest, queerest little fellow,--Hugh watched all +this for awhile, and then he took Benny away with him, down into the +garden, and they were gone a long time. And when they came back Benny +marched straight up to Roger, and said, 'You are nice! you can have my +girl,' and then marched off again, and went and cried, poor lamb, till +Hugh comforted him. + +"But I am not getting on with the presents, am I? We all gave her linen, +because she had to have that, and we wanted to do something ourselves; +so we, my mother and Bell and Kitty and I, hemmed every one of the +table-cloths and napkins, and embroidered the marks on all the towels, +and had a beautiful time over it. Mammy read to us part of the time +while we sewed, all the interesting weddings that she could find in +history or fiction, and that was great fun; then she wrote some funny +verses to go with them, and they really were lovely patterns, so it was +a nice present, though strictly necessary, you see. Oh, I haven't told +you about the diamonds! Helena Desmond was so funny about them! 'Hilda,' +she said, 'it was clear from the beginning that I must be offered up on +the altar of diamonds. I detest diamonds. They are absolutely +uninteresting; they are almost vulgar. Never mind, you have to have +some, and nobody else will be stupid and commonplace enough to give them +to you. I had hopes of your Aunt Emily, but she has expended herself in +lace, and was so happy over it that I hadn't the heart to whisper +"diamonds!" in her ear, as I had meant to do. Here they are, my child; +the customary horrors!' + +"Well, they were very beautiful, though I confess I should have liked +pearls better for Hilda. A diamond crescent and star, really splendid. +She is very rich, you know." + +"Is that the great beauty?" asked a girl. + +"Yes, she is superb, certainly. Next to Hilda, perhaps--but I'll come to +that presently. Well, now perhaps I have told you half the things, or +rather more than half; but they are the things I cared most about, you +see. I can't go into a list of forks and spoons. So now I come to the +wedding itself." + +The girls drew a long breath and leaned forward; presents were very +well, but weddings were better. + +"It was at noon, of course. There were only two bridesmaids, Helena +Desmond and I. Hilda said she wanted only her nearest and dearest, so +she would not ask her cousins, though I fancy they had hoped to be +asked. She wanted Bell, but Bell said it was positively necessary that +she should play the organ, and so it was. We wore perfectly plain white +muslin gowns, but, oh, they were so pretty! with soft pale green sashes, +and little wreaths of ivy in our hair. Hildegarde wanted everything as +simple as possible, so we didn't go into hats, or any of that kind of +nonsense. Jerry--my brother Gerald--was best man, and the ushers were +Phil and Willy, my other brothers, and Jack Ferrers and Doctor Chirk and +Hugh Allen. Well, so the hour came. + +"Helena and I were ready and waiting at Braeside when Hilda came +down-stairs. Girls, you never saw anything so lovely in your lives as +she was. Her dress was very simple, too, white embroidered muslin, +exquisitely fine. Colonel Ferrers brought it from India, years and years +ago, for a lovely young girl who died while he was on his way home. It +had been made in the house, and it looked just like her, as her dresses +always do. She wore a little gold pin that Roger made for her +himself,--mined the gold and all,--no other ornament, and a wreath of +white roses, roses that the Roseholme gardener had been nursing all +summer to make them blossom just at the right time. That was his +present; everybody wanted to do something, you see." + +"What does she look like?" asked a girl. + +"Well, you have to see her to know what she really looks like, for half +of it is the expression and the look in her eyes. Gray eyes, so clear +and true,--you know she couldn't say or do anything unkind or false to +save her life,--and a colour just like a wild rose, and a nose,--well, +it's just her own nose, tilted up a little, but perfectly delightful; +and when she smiles, you think she has the most beautiful mouth in the +world, though I don't suppose she really has. Here, this gives you a +little idea of her; just a very little, for it doesn't begin to think of +doing her justice." + +The girls clustered eagerly to see the photograph, which was passed on +from hand to hand. It was a lovely face, indeed, at which they looked; +yet, as Gertrude said, the actual beauty was the least part of its +charm. Truth and kindness shone from it; not the lightest and most +foolish girl there but felt grave for a moment, meeting that steady look +of cheer and constancy. + +"And yet she looks awfully jolly, too!" said one, breaking the silence, +and voicing the thought of all. + +"My dear, she is more fun--" + +"Than a goat?" asked a new voice; and Grace Wolfe slipped in quietly at +the window, and, nodding to the company, took her seat on the floor. + +"I have heard all!" she said. "Go on, Snowy! I see now where you got +your virtues; this young woman has much to answer for." + +Gertrude looked at her kindly, but said nothing; in a moment the story +went on. + +"We walked over to the church--it is only a few steps--just as we were, +without any formal arrangement. Hilda held her mother's hand fast all +the time; they were both very quiet. The dear old black cook walked with +them, crying all the way. Hugh had Hilda's other hand. I--I can't tell +about this part." + +Gertrude's voice faltered for a moment; then she went on more steadily. + +"Colonel Ferrers was waiting at the church door, with his brother, Mr. +Raymond Ferrers. All the ushers were there, too, and we could see that +the church was full. And, oh! just a little way from the door was a band +of little girls, Hilda's sewing-class, and they all had baskets of +flowers, and scattered them in front of her as she walked. I forgot to +put that in where it belonged, but it was very pretty, and if you had +seen the way they looked at her! + +"Well, then it all seemed to happen in a moment. Mr. Raymond Ferrers +took Mrs. Grahame up the aisle; and then the organ broke out with the +wedding march. I have heard my sister Bell play pretty well, but never +as she did then. It seemed to fill the whole world, and yet it was not +too loud, either. Then the ushers went up, and then Helena and I, and +then came our dear bride on Colonel Ferrers' arm. Roger was waiting at +the altar steps with Gerald. He came forward to meet her, and took both +her hands,--oh, with such a beautiful look in his face! and then drew +her arm through his, so proud and quiet and happy, and then the service +went on. They both spoke so clearly, everybody could hear them, and the +ring was ready, and there was not a mistake anywhere; only both Jerry +and the colonel were on the point of breaking down, both of them, and +every time the colonel blew his nose I could see Jerry start and wince. +And so they were married, and the music broke out again, and Roger put +back the veil and kissed his wife; and--and then they came back down the +aisle, and--and--and that is all!" + +Gertrude had struggled hard for composure. She had nearly outgrown the +childish proneness to tears, which in early days had earned her the home +sobriquet of "Chelsea Waterworks;" but this recital touched her too +nearly, and she had overcalculated her power of self-restraint. Her +voice broke altogether, and she could only nod and smile through her +tears on Bertha, who was regarding her remorsefully. + +"I ought not to have made you, Toots!" said Bertha. "I did want them to +hear it, it has been so beautiful. Don't cry, dear!" But Grace Wolfe +came and laid her hand on Gertrude's shoulder, and spoke in a tone one +hardly ever heard in that voice. + +"Don't stop her!" she said, gravely. "Let her cry! It's good for +her--and for all of us! Snowy, your friend is a blessed creature, and +you are another." + +No one spoke for a few moments. Peggy was crying quietly in her corner, +and feeling that she had been at the wedding herself, and wondering what +she should possibly do if Margaret should ever get married. + +But now the Snowy Owl wiped away her tears in good earnest, and spoke in +her own cheerful tones. + +"Come, this will never do. Girls, we have extra time to-night, Miss +Russell was so kind when I told her what I wanted to do; but even that +time will be up if we don't mind. Volunteers to toast marshmallows!" + +Instantly there was a rush and a cry. A dozen hands were stretched out. +Hat-pins appeared, as if by magic, brandished on every side. In another +moment a dozen marshmallows were frizzling over the gas-jets, while the +student lamp did duty for several more. As soon as one was done, it was +popped, hissing hot, into an open mouth, and the hat-pin, charged with +another freight, returned to the charge. Cries of mingled joy and +anguish rose on every side. + +"Oh, I am burnt entirely! The skin is all off my lips." + +"Here, for me one!" + +"No, she has had two already! Fluffy, my turn next!" + +It was a merry Babel. The fun rose higher and higher. Peggy dried her +eyes, and looked on wondering. How could they hear each other? They were +all talking at once, each one faster than the other. + +"My dear! Perf'ly fine, wasn't it? Oh, I do love to hear a tell--" + +"When my cousin was married, she had eight bridesmaids, and they wore +just mob caps, not another thing--" + +"Orange-blossoms are too sweet for anything, but they make some +people--" + +"Simply pea-green, my dear, with fright, and she had blue woollen socks +on over her white slippers--'something blue,' you know,--and forgot to +take them off--" + +"Her head, and you never saw anything like it in your life. It measured +three yards around, if it did--" + +"A sunburst, you know, diamonds and pearls. I adore diamonds, for my +part. Why, to be married without diamonds would be--" + +"Simply fierce! I should die, I know I should, before I got half-way up +the aisle. But to see one, and the music and flowers and all, is--" + +"Dandy! perf'ly dandy! I wouldn't miss it for all the--" + +"Flounces, my dear, up to the waist, as true as I sit here! and she said +'No!' She said: 'Before I'll be flounced to the waist, I'll--'" + +"Marry a tin peddler! said there was nothing in the world she'd like +better, because then she could--" + +"Sit still the whole morning without moving a muscle, for fear of +breaking her--" + +"Heart, with forty pearls and sixty diamonds. Fact, I assure you, my +dear! I had it from--" + +"A perfect brute, not fit for any one to--" + +Here, Destiny knocked on the door; the round, rosy face of Miss Carey, +the housekeeper, looked in. + +"Girls, you really must go to bed. Miss Russell sent me to say so. Do +you know what time it is?" + +Grace Wolfe slipped like a shadow out of the window and was gone unseen; +the assembly broke up with laughter and cheers for the Snowy and the +Fluffy, and snatches of talk bubbling all the way along the corridor. +When Peggy reached her room, she found the Scapegoat already there, +sitting on the floor and chanting solemnly: + + "I have nailed my Puggy's slippers + Down upon her closet floor. + She may pray with both her flippers, + But she'll never use them more!" + + + + +CHAPTER VIII. + +BY MOONLIGHT. + + +The time went quickly enough at Miss Russell's. Once the routine +established, lesson followed lesson and day followed day with amazing +rapidity. Before Peggy could realise that she was fairly settled, a +month had passed. It was not so bad now; in fact, a good deal of it was +very pleasant, she was obliged to admit. Her geometry was a constantly +progressing joy; so was her anatomy, and she had the happy consciousness +that she was doing well in both studies. This enabled her to bear up +against the bitterness of rhetoric and of Miss Pugsley. As for the +history, once equally dreaded, its terrors had nearly vanished. Miss +Cortlandt had a way of making things so clear that one could not help +remembering them once they were explained. Furthermore, she managed to +invest the lay-figures of dead and gone kings and conquerors with life +and motion. Alexander the Great was no longer a tiresome person in a +book, who cried in an absurd way when there was nothing left to conquer. +That had always exasperated Peggy, "because if he had had any sense, he +would have gone on, and found out for himself what a lot more there was, +that his old books and seers and things had never found out." But now, +she found Alexander in the first place a boy who knew about horses, +which in itself was a great thing, and in the second place a man who +knew about a great many other things, and who acted on his knowledge in +a variety of swift and surprising ways. As with this hero, so with +others, till Peggy came to look forward, actually, to the history hour; +which shows what a teacher can do when she understands her girls, and +knows enough to call Plutarch and his peers (if any!) to aid her in her +task. + +But when all was said and done, Peggy was not cut out for a student; and +her happiest hours were not those of even the pleasantest class-room. +Basket-ball claimed her for its own, and she proved an apt and ready +learner in this branch of study. Less swift than Grace Wolfe, who seemed +a thing compact of steel and gossamer, she was far stronger to meet an +attack, and many a rush came and passed, and left the stalwart freshman +standing steady and undaunted in her place. + +The hours of sport brought the two girls nearer and nearer together; and +Peggy found herself yielding more and more--often against her own +judgment--to the fascination of the lawless girl, who on her part seemed +curiously drawn to the simple, downright, law-abiding freshman. + +It was about this time that Peggy found out why her room had been called +Broadway. The nights were still fine and warm, though it was now +October. Apples were ripe in the neighbouring orchards; and though it +was perfectly practicable and allowable to buy all the apples one wanted +in the daytime, that method did not approve itself to the wilder spirits +at Miss Russell's school. + +To slide down the fire-escape, slip across the lawn, keeping well under +the trees by the edge, and so out into the road and down to the nearest +orchard, only a few rods off,--this was the true way to get apples, and +a very thrilling way it was. Peggy had been a good deal startled when +the first merry party, with noiseless steps and stifled giggles, came +stealing into her room, and, nodding to her, made their way out of the +window and down the fire-escape. It never occurred to her to make any +effort to stop them; they were sophomores, and she only a freshman. She +supposed it was against the rules, but of course they would not really +do any harm; and oh, what a good time they would have! + +She looked after them with a sigh, and wished them luck in her heart, a +successful raid, and a safe return. Indeed, it was not long before they +were back, rosy and breathless, with baskets and pockets stuffed with +apples. The Fresh Freshman, as Peggy was called, did not fail to receive +her share; and she ate it with a little thrill of vicarious guilt which +was certainly not unpleasant. The two Owls never came with these +parties; and somehow Peggy did not mention the matter to them, though +she saw them constantly, and loved them always more and more. Sometimes +the expeditions were headed by Grace Wolfe, in her wildest mood; +sometimes it was Viola Vincent, who came tripping in with a band of her +chosen intimates. Viola had several times asked Peggy to be of the +party, but Peggy had not gone,--she could hardly have said why. Why was +it that Grace had never asked her? If she had, perhaps-- + +The night came when Grace did ask her. + +Peggy had been studying as usual, and the signal for "lights out" came +while she was still at her task. Out went the light, for Peggy was, as +we have said, a law-abiding citizen. She was groping about, not yet used +to the half-light of the growing moon, when the door opened, and Grace +glided in with her usual noiseless tread. She laid her hand over Peggy's +mouth without a word, and stood motionless, seeming to listen. Then she +said aloud and deliberately: + +"Yes, I must go this minute. I had no idea it was so late. Suppose Miss +Pugsley should catch us! You know she goes around and listens at the +doors every now and then, and looks through the keyholes to see what is +going on." + +"Oh, Grace!" said Peggy. + +"Fact, I assure you. I sometimes wonder what Miss Russell would say if +she knew it. That isn't her own style, you see. The fun of it is, the +other never realises that the wheeze gives her away every time." + +Grace Wolfe had the ears of a fox; but, in the pause that followed, even +Peggy heard, or fancied she heard, a breathing outside the door. It was +only for an instant, if, indeed, it had been at all; yet in another +moment a board creaked somewhere along the corridor, and again in a +moment came the slight but unmistakable sound of a closing door. + +Grace laughed, and pirouetted merrily on one foot, looking in the +moonlight like a glimmering sprite. + +"Oh, Grace!" repeated Peggy, aghast. "Was she--could she have been +there, do you think?" + +"She could very easily have been there. Innocent," replied the +Scapegoat. "Indeed, she was. I saw the glitter of her eye, and a sweet +thing it was." + +"Oh, but how could you? how dared you? Surely, you will get into +dreadful trouble, Grace." + +"Not I!" said Grace. "She can't report me, you observe, without saying +that she was listening at the door. And even if she did, Miss Russell +would ask her what I said, and she would be sad and sorry to relate +that. No! this time I am safe enough, my Prairie Flower. But come, now +that I am here, shall we be merry? + + "The owl is abroad, the bat, and the toad, + And so is the catamountain. + +"Shall the Goat be lacking on such a night as this, or the Wolf either? +One has one's responsibilities toward one's names. Come, Innocent, we'll +go abroad and celebrate my victory over my Puggy!" + +Grace's tone was as quiet as ever, but she was more excited than Peggy +had ever seen her. Her eyes shone; her hair, which was very beautiful, +was unbraided for some reason--one never knew what whim would seize the +whimsical one--and hung like a mantle about her shoulders. Standing +thus, with her hand on the window, she looked, as I have said, like a +creature from another world. + +"Come!" she repeated; and Peggy had never heard sweeter music than her +voice. + +"Do you--do you think I ought to?" stammered the freshman, moving toward +the window. + +"One owes it to the catamountain!" cried Grace. "As for the owls,--well, +they will be abroad!" she added, with a low laugh. "They would be far +enough abroad if they knew. Come, Innocent!" + +She glided out of the window, and Peggy followed, her heart beating to +suffocation, her cheeks glowing with excitement. To be chosen by the +Lone Wolf (for this was another of the wild girl's nicknames, the third +being Ishmael) as the companion of one of her solitary rambles was +perhaps the most thrilling thing that had ever come into Peggy's simple +life. Probably she would have had courage to resist an invitation from +any of the frolicsome parties that came and went through her room; she +had no power to resist this. Silently she followed the Scapegoat down +the iron ladder of the fire-escape, across the lawn, out into the open +road. + +Grace turned to her with one of her sudden movements, and took both her +hands. + +"The world's before us, where to choose!" she cried. "What shall it be, +Innocent? Shall we climb up into the tower and ring the fire-bell? or go +for apples? This is your first expedition, you shall choose." + +"Oh, no, Grace; please! I don't know. I cannot. I'll go wherever you go, +that's all!" + +The Scapegoat meditated. "On the whole," she announced, "soda seems to +be the thing. We'll go and have some soda, Innocent." + +"Go down-town?" gasped Peggy. + +"Yes; why not? Only to Mrs. Button's. You know she is the college +grandmother; why shouldn't she be ours? Many's the time Granny Button +has sheltered me from the wrath to come. Besides, I have had no +marshmallows for a week. A vow, a vow! I have a vow in heaven to have +marshmallows once a week, merely for the honour of the school." + +Granny Button, as she was called, kept a neat little shop at the corner +of the High Street. Here she dispensed soda-water, candy, and cakes to +the students of school and college. She was a little old woman, with a +face like a dry but still sound winter apple, and she shook her head +reprovingly as the two girls entered. + +"Now, Miss Wolfe!" she said. "You hadn't ought to come here at this +time, now you hadn't, my dear. What do you want? I declare, I've most of +a mind not to give it to you, for a wild slip as you are. What would +Miss Russell say if she should come in this blessed minute, Miss Grace?" + +"Ah, but she won't, granny!" said Grace, coolly. "She's gone to a +lecture, you see, so it is all right, truly it is. + + "I saw her go; one horse was blind, + The tails of both hung down behind, + Their shoes were on their feet. + +"I got so exhausted studying, I feared the vital spark might become +extinguished, might pop out, granny, if I didn't have some soda. Two +pineapple creams, please, and be quick about it. I'll be getting the +marshmallows while you pour it." + +The old woman filled the long glasses, shaking her head all the time, +and muttering about naughty girls and dark closets. + +Peggy drank the soda, but it did not taste very good, and her hand +trembled as she held the glass. Her eyes were fixed on the door, and +every moment she expected to see it open, and Miss Russell or one of the +teachers enter. But no one came. Grace found the marshmallows, and in +high spirits brought them to Mrs. Button to count and tie up for her. + +"Granny, you look lovely to-night!" she said. "Don't try to look cross, +Granny Button, for you don't know how. Smile on me, lovely one, for we +must kiss and part." + +"Indeed, then, we'd better, Miss Grace," cried the good woman; "and +don't let me see you here again this long while, save and except at +proper hours. I know well enough I ought to tell that good lady of all +the times you've been here out of hours. Yes, dear, I know it well +enough, and sometimes it makes me uneasy in my bed. But you have the +beguiling of the serpent himself, Grace Wolfe, and you know it, and +that's the worst." + +"Isn't it?" said Grace, pensively; and her large eyes were full of +tender gravity, as she fixed them on the old woman. + +"I'll add serpent to my menagerie, and thank you, granny! Nobody ever +called you serpent, did they, dear? Wait till you come to my time in +life, and you'll know what it is to suffer. + +"Well, Innocent, shall we come? After all, it is hard to stay where one +isn't wanted, and the only trouble with Granny Button is that she has no +heart." + +"Yes, go, dear!" said the old woman to Peggy, eagerly. "Go right along +home now, and don't let Miss Grace bring ye out again, as she's a +naughty girl, and so I always tell her, though I never can say no to +her, and that's the truth. But you are different, dear, and a freshman, +I'll be bound; and don't let me see ye here again without leave or +license, let alone the hour as is getting on for 'lights out.'" + +"Fare thee well, my first and fairest!" said Grace, kissing her hand at +the door. "Till our next meeting!" + +It was only a few steps back from the turn into the High Street. Peggy's +pulse began to beat more naturally; in a moment, now, they would be +back, safe back, and she would never do it again, no matter what Grace +thought of her. Fun was fun, but it was not worth this; and what would +Margaret say? + +Coming up from the High Street, they skirted a field that lay like +waving silver in the moonlight. Nothing would do but that Grace must +have a run through this field; she declared that it was her favourite +spot in the world. + +"After all, soda and marshmallows are carnal!" she insisted. "Our bodies +are fed, Innocent, our souls starve for want of poetry. There is poetry +in all that silver waving. I must! I must prance, or I shall not rest in +my bed. Come along!" + +And she went flitting about through the long grass, hither and thither +like a will-o'-the-wisp, her long hair floating around her, her arms +waving in gestures sometimes fantastic, but always graceful. Peggy could +think of nothing but her cousin Rita, as she used to dance in the old +days at Fernley. What a pair she and Grace would make! What a mercy they +had never come together. Moreover, her heart, the heart of a farmer's +daughter, smote her at the treading down of the grass. She stood at the +edge of the field, now and then calling to her companion and urging her +to come home, but for the most part simply watching her in mingled +terror and admiration. + +At length the wild spirit was satisfied, and Grace came flying back, +radiant and breathless. + +"That was glorious!" she said. "Poor little Innocent, you haven't much +soul, have you? Still, I love you. Come, we will go back to the +shades." + +They neared the gate; as they did so, they heard voices and the sound of +approaching footsteps. Grace paused for a moment; then held up her hand +with a warning gesture. Peggy felt her heart turn cold; it was coming! +one of the voices was that of Miss Russell. It was impossible for them +to escape being seen. The broad stretch of the lawn lay between them and +safety, and the relentless moonlight lay full upon the hedge which had +lain in shadow when they came out. Peggy braced herself to meet the +shock; but Grace laid a hand on her arm, and then made a gesture. A +great tree stood just by the gate of Pentland School; a chestnut-tree, +with low-jutting, wide-spreading branches. With the swift movement of +some woodland creature, Grace Wolfe swung herself up to the lowest +branch, and motioned Peggy to follow; Peggy was a good climber, too; +more slowly, but with equal agility, she gained the branch; then softly, +slowly, both girls crept along, inward and upward, till a thick screen +of leaves hid them completely from sight. + +Two ladies came around the turn, and paused a moment at the gate,--Miss +Russell and Miss Cortlandt. They stood directly under the chestnut-tree; +Peggy could have dropped a nut down exactly on the crown of Miss +Russell's bonnet; she never knew how near Grace came to doing so, nor +how hard it was to refrain for her, Peggy's, sake. + +"I hope not!" said Miss Russell. "I do most earnestly hope not." + +"I am afraid there is little doubt of it!" replied Miss Cortlandt. "Miss +Pugsley seemed quite positive; I know she means to bring it up at +Faculty Meeting to-morrow night." + +Miss Russell sighed. "Then it will not be done in the wisest manner!" +she said. "I can say this to you, Emily, for you understand her as well +as I do. I had hoped," she continued, "that the whole business would be +over when Wilhelmina Lightwood--well, I suppose she will always be +'Billy,' even to me--when Billy went away. I put Peggy Montfort there, +because she seemed such an honest, steady, sensible kind of girl. I +thought I could trust Peggy Montfort." + +"I think you can!" said Miss Cortlandt. "I don't believe Peggy has had +any share in the flittings. But I do think it might perhaps have been +better to tell her all about it, and put her on her guard. Being a new +girl, she might not feel at liberty to stop the older ones when they +came; and she could not tell of it. You see, Miss Russell, it is such a +little time since I was a 'girl' myself, that I haven't got away from +their point of view yet." + +"I hope you never will, my dear!" said Miss Russell, warmly. "It is when +I get too far away from that point of view myself that I make mistakes. +Yes, I ought to have put the child on her guard; I'll do so to-morrow." + +She looked over toward the school, and sighed again. + +"Broad is the way that leadeth to destruction!" she said. "It was Grace +who gave it the name, of course. Poor Grace!" + +"Poor Grace!" echoed Miss Cortlandt; and then the two passed on. + +They were two very silent girls who crossed the lawn five minutes later. +Grace Wolfe held her head high, and walked with her usual airy grace; +her face was grave, but perhaps no graver than usual. Still, she did not +speak; as for Peggy, she was too bowed down with shame and wretchedness +to think even of her companion. She had been trusted; and she had +betrayed the trust. There seemed nothing in the whole world but that. + +They parted outside Peggy's window. Grace was going up a story higher on +the fire-escape, Peggy did not think nor ask where. + +No word was spoken; only, Grace laid her hand on Peggy's shoulder and +looked in her face for a moment. Peggy could not speak, could only shake +her head. A single sob broke from her lips; then she hurried in, and +closed the window behind her. + +Then Grace Wolfe did a singular thing. Standing on the iron step, she +took from her pocket the packet of marshmallows, and deliberately +scattered them over the lawn, throwing each one as far as her arm could +reach. + +"For the frogs!" she explained, aloud. "With the compliments of the +Goat, the Wolf, and the Serpent,--to which is now added the Beast which +Perishes!" + + + + +CHAPTER IX. + +FACULTY MEETING AND BEDLAM. + + +"Have you proof of this, Miss Pugsley?" + +"I am perfectly sure of it, Miss Russell!" + +"Yes; I am sure you would be, before you spoke of it; but have you the +proof? Of course, before taking any such serious step as you propose, I +should, in justice to all, be obliged to ask for positive proof." + +"Proof!" cried Miss Pugsley, in some excitement. "Proof enough! Look at +my bonnet, Miss Russell. Oblige me by smelling of it. I can never wear +it again, never! I tell you, brandy has been poured over it. Here are +the slippers!" She produced a pair of slippers which were certainly in a +sad condition. "They were nailed--nailed with tenpenny nails, to the +floor of my closet; they are totally ruined. Look--I ask you all, +ladies, to look at my hand-glass!" She held up the glass; and at the +sight Emily Cortlandt had one of those violent fits of coughing that +often troubled her; this one was so bad that she was obliged to leave +the room for a moment. The worst of it was that one or two of the other +teachers seemed to have caught the infection, for there was a regular +outbreak of coughing and choking, which only a severe glance from Miss +Russell checked. + +Somebody had painted a face on the little mirror. It covered the whole +surface; the face of a monkey, with grinning mouth, and twinkling, +malicious eyes; it had an undoubted resemblance to Miss Pugsley. As she +held it up with a tragic gesture, the effect was so absurd that even +Miss Russell might have wished that she could--cough! + +"It lay on my dressing-table, face downward," Miss Pugsley went on. "I +had just done my hair for tea,--I am scrupulous in such matters,--and +took up the glass to see that my pug was straight behind. I looked--and +saw this. Ladies, I could have fainted on the floor. My nerves being +what they are, it is a marvel that I did not." + +"I am very, very sorry, Miss Pugsley," said Miss Russell, gravely. "If I +knew who had done this--" + +"But I tell you I do know, Miss Russell!" cried Miss Pugsley, +vindictively. "I tell you that there is only one girl in the school who +is capable of all this, and that girl is Grace Wolfe!" + +There was a moment's silence. + +"Have you found Grace in your room at any time, Miss Pugsley?" demanded +Miss Russell. + +No, Miss Pugsley had not, but that made no difference. Grace had done +the things, there was no shadow of a doubt of it. + +"Have you been careful to lock your door when you left the room?" + +"Miss Russell, you know that locks and bolts make no possible difference +to Grace Wolfe. The girl is cut out for a malefactor. I prophesy that +she will be in State's prison before she has been out of school a year." + +"I must request you not to speak in this way of any of my young ladies," +said the Principal, sternly. "You have been the victim of some very +malicious practical jokes, Miss Pugsley. I shall look into the matter +thoroughly, and shall do my best to discover the offender, and shall +punish her--or them--as I think best." She laid a slight emphasis on the +last words. + +"Then you refuse to expel Grace Wolfe?" said Miss Pugsley, quivering +with anger. + +"On such evidence as you have brought forward to-night? certainly," said +Miss Russell, with some severity. "I have no proof whatever that Miss +Wolfe played any of these pranks, though I admit it is probable that she +may have done so. You found the bandbox outside your door, where Bridget +admits she left it several days before. You left your door unlocked on a +rainy half-holiday, when sixty or more girls were constantly passing and +repassing; there are half a dozen girls, I am sorry to say, who might +have been tempted by the open door to play some prank of the kind which +seems so clever to children, and so silly to older people." + +Why did Miss Russell look toward the window as she spoke? But now she +was looking at Miss Pugsley again. + +"You and Grace are not friends, I know, Miss Pugsley," she went on. "I +am sorry for it, for I think all the rest of us feel how much that is +fine and noble might--may still be brought out of that untamed spirit. +She has never known a mother, remember. The name of the Scapegoat, which +she has given herself, may, I sometimes think, reflect blame on the rest +of us as well as on her. It is true that, whatever mischief is afoot, it +is sure to be laid at Grace's door. This is mainly her own fault, of +course--" + +"I should think so!" snorted Miss Pugsley. + +"But not entirely," the Principal went on. "There are other mischievous +girls in the school. I should like to know how Grace has been doing this +month in her various classes," she added, turning to the other teachers. + +On this point the testimony was unanimous. Grace Wolfe led many of the +classes; she was well up in all, and had passed her examinations in a +way that did credit both to her intelligence and her industry. Thus +testified every teacher, except the small brown mouse who taught drawing +in Pentland School. This mouse, Miss Mink by name, had crept away +silently, and left the room, after one glance at the hand-glass; she +knew that but one hand in the school could have drawn that monkey, and +though her heart swelled with pride, she feared for her darling pupil. + +There was a pause after the teachers had given their testimony; then +Miss Pugsley returned to the attack. + +"I certainly hope justice will be done, Miss Russell," she said, with a +smile of sweetened vinegar. "It would be a great pity, wouldn't it, if +the school got the reputation--he! he!--of injustice and favouritism?" + +"It would," said the Principal, gravely. + +"But there is another matter that I feel bound to speak of before we +separate," Miss Pugsley went on. "Are you aware that room No. 18, in +corridor A, the room formerly occupied by Miss Lightwood, is again being +used as a place of exit for parties of students going on lawless +expeditions?" + +The Principal looked at her steadily. + +"I fear that is true," said one of the other teachers. "I had meant to +speak to you before about it, Miss Russell, but waited till to-night." + +"Of course it makes no possible difference to me!" cried Miss Pugsley. +"It is not my corridor, and I have no authority there; but as long as +one is in the school, of course one must consider the honour of it, you +know, and I am glad some one else is here to bear me out in _this_ +complaint." + +The Principal still looked at Miss Pugsley; teachers who had been long +in the school were glad that she was not looking at them in that way. + +"I have heard of this matter before," Miss Russell said, at last. "I am +going to devote my own time to investigating it, and think I shall need +no help; though I thank you," it was to Miss Ivors that she spoke, "for +bringing it to my notice, as it was right for you to do. I think I need +not detain you longer, ladies." + +When the teachers were gone, Miss Russell stepped to the window and +said, softly, "Grace!" + +There was no reply. An owl hooted in the distance; a bird chirped +somewhere near by. That was all. + +"Grace!" said the Principal again. "If you are there, I wish you would +come in and let me speak to you." + +Still no reply. After waiting a moment, the Principal closed the window +with a sigh. On leaving the room she paused a moment to look at the +photograph of a lovely young woman, in the dress of twenty years ago, +which stood on her desk. + +"Dear Edith!" said Miss Russell. "My first pupil! I'll keep your girl +for you, Edith, if I can!" + + * * * * * + +Was Grace Wolfe outside the window when the Principal called her? Who +can tell? It is certain that ten minutes after she was at the supper in +Bedlam. + +The tenant of Bedlam, Miss Cornelia Hatch (familiarly known as Colney +Hatch, in remembrance of the famous English Insane Asylum), was not +actually mad, though many of the scholars thought her so. She was a +special student of natural history, botany, and zoology; she was +absent-minded and forgetful to the last degree. When she came into +class, she often had to be brought there, some good-natured classmate +dragging her away by main force from her private experiments. If she did +remember to come of her own accord, she was apt to have a half-completed +articulation hanging around her neck, or a dried frog skin stuck behind +her ear for safe-keeping. Her hair was generally untidy, owing to this +habit of sticking things in it while she worked; you never could tell +what it would be, vertebrae, or seaweed, or pine-cones, but you could +safely reckon on finding something extraneous in Colney's ruffled black +hair. As for her clothes, she was usually enveloped in a huge brown +gingham apron, with many pockets, which held snakes, or eggs, or roots, +or anything else that would not go comfortably in her hair. When the +apron became too dirty (she had had two at the beginning of the term, +but one had been destroyed in an explosion), Miss Carey took it away +and washed it, while Colney went around looking scared and miserable in +a queer flannel gown of a pinkish shade. Report said it had once been +brown, but that the colour had been changed by the fumes of something or +other, no one knew what. Sometimes she had buttons on frock and apron, +more often not. Periodically, Miss Carey or the Owls descended upon her, +and sewed on her buttons and mended her up generally; and she was very +grateful, and said how nice it was to have buttons. But she soon pulled +them off again, because she never had time to do anything but tear her +clothes off when she went to bed, and drag them on again when she got +up. When a button flew off, she pinned the place over, if a pin was in +sight; if not, she went without; it made no difference to her, and she +was not conscious of it in five minutes. Miss Russell, and most of the +teachers, were very tender with Colney. She was poor, and meant to work +her way through college; even now she paid part of her schooling by +stuffing birds and setting up skeletons for one of the college +professors. If she did not kill herself or somebody else before she +graduated, Miss Russell looked forward to a distinguished career for the +tenant of Bedlam; so, as I have said, she was tender and patient with +her; and good Miss Carey mended her when she could, and saw that she +remembered to eat her dinner, and Miss Boyle and Miss Mink rejoiced over +her, and Miss Cortlandt led her gently through English literature, +giving her Walton and Bacon and all the scientific men of letters that +she could find. Only one teacher failed to do her best to smooth poor +Colney's path through school; that was Miss Pugsley. Rhetoric was simply +an empty noise to the girl. She never by any chance knew a lesson, and +Miss Pugsley lashed her with so cruel a tongue that Peggy used to ache +and smart for her as well as for herself, and would get hold of Colney's +hand and hold it and squeeze it, growing red the while with pity and +anger. But Colney never noticed it half as much as Peggy did; she used +to look at the angry teacher for a few minutes in an abstracted kind of +way, and then retire within herself and make imaginary experiments. +This was what happened on the dreadful day when Miss Pugsley said: + +"The subject of this sentence is _I_. How do we go to work to form the +predicate, Miss Hatch?" + +Cornelia started, but replied, instantly: + +"By mixing one part hydrogen with three parts--" + +"Indeed!" said Miss Pugsley, with ominous calm. "And what happens next, +pray?" + +"It turns green, and explodes with a loud report." + +And this was exactly what did happen. Poor Colney! + +Peggy Montfort did not form one of the party in Bedlam that night. The +room lay at the extreme end of the corridor, round a corner, so that it +was in a manner shut off from the rest of the wing. It was an +extraordinary place. Stretched on the walls, dried or drying, were +specimens of every possible variety,--bats, frogs, snake skins, bird +skins. Along the mantelpiece were jars and bottles, all containing other +specimens preserved in spirits. In one corner stood part of a human +skeleton. It stood on one leg, with a jaunty air, having indeed but one +leg to stand on; both arms were wanting, but the skull, which was a very +fine one, made up for much. On account of this fragmentary skeleton, few +of the younger girls ever dared to enter Bedlam, and some of them would +run past the door with face averted, and beating heart, fearing lest the +door should be open and they should catch a glimpse of the gruesome +thing. But this object was the pride of Colney's heart. She could not, +of course, afford to buy a whole skeleton, so she was collecting one, +bit by bit; even Peggy had been quite uncomfortable one day, when Colney +had told her, hanging over each bone with delight, where and how she had +come by each one. It was always honestly, one could be sure of that. + +Everywhere in the room, underfoot and overhead, were setting-boards and +pill-boxes, blowpipes and crucibles. One could not move without +upsetting something; and yet it was here that the Gang came to have its +annual supper. + +Colney Hatch was dissecting a mouse. She was perfectly happy, and +oblivious of the world, when the door opened, and in came fluttering the +wild spirits of the junior and sophomore classes. Last year the +sophomores had been freshmen, and must not know anything about the Gang, +save in wondering envious whispers and surmises. Next year the juniors +would be seniors, and they too must forget that such a thing as the Gang +had been, and think only of dramatics, examinations, and graduation. +Such had been the unwritten law at Miss Russell's, since time was. + +Here were Vanity and Vexation of Spirit, one smiling and dimpling, the +other with her usual air of blase superiority. Here was Blanche Haight, +the leader among the sophomores; here were six or eight girls, in fact, +chosen from the two classes for the same characteristics, lawlessness +and love of fun; last but not least, here was Grace Wolfe, the +acknowledged leader and queen of the Gang, when she deigned to be so. + +Grace was in her wildest mood to-night. She danced solemnly around poor +Colney, who looked up in dismay from her mouse as the silent crowd came +pouring in, and assured her that her last hour was come. + +"We are the Secret Tribunal!" she cried. "We have come to make a pile of +all your rubbish, Colney, and burn it, with you on top, like the +Phoenix. I am sure you would come up out of the ashes, if we left the +mouse out for you to finish." + +"Oh, do be careful, please, Goat!" cried Colney Hatch. "Don't sit down +on that frog, he isn't dry! Dear me! do you--do want anything, girls?" + +"We want your room, my love; and your company!" replied Grace. "Yet we +are merciful. Here!" + +She twirled Cornelia's chair around, and set her with her face to the +wall; then moved the lamp so that its light fell on the board in her +lap. + +"There!" she said. "Finish him, poor old dear, and we'll wake you up +when supper's ready. Now then! who's brought what?" + +Then, from pockets, from surplice folds, from shawls and cloaks hung +carelessly over the arm, came forth a strange array of articles. One +had brought a chicken, one a cake. Here was a Dutch cheese, a tin of +crackers, a bottle of coffee, a bottle of olives, and a box of sardines. +Grace herself told in high glee how she had met one of the teachers in +the corridor, and had stood for five minutes talking about the next +day's lesson. "And with this under me cloak the while!" and with a +dramatic gesture she produced and held out a dish of lobster salad. + +"If it had been potato," she declared, "I had been lost; the onion had +betrayed me. Blessings on the bland, the seductive mayonnaise, which +veiled the ardent lobster and his smell. She did smell it, however, and +said, so cheerfully, poor dear, that Miss Carey was evidently going to +give us a surprise to-morrow, for she smelt lobster. It was Miss +Cortlandt, too; I did want to say, 'Oh, come along, and have some!' She +is a rectangular fragment of baked clay, used for building purposes, +Miss Cortlandt is." + +"What do you mean, Goat?" asked some one. + +"I never use slang, as you know!" replied Grace, gravely. "It argues a +poverty of intellect, as well as a small vocabulary. I suppose you would +have said she was a brick, my child." + +"Oh, Goat, how funny you are!" giggled the girls. + +"Not at all, I assure you," said Grace, unmoved. "But I pray you fall +to! Have some salad, Vanity? yes, I'll take a wing, thank you." + +"Isn't this perf'ly fine?" cried Viola Vincent. They were all seated by +this time, some on the floor, others wherever they could find a few +inches of spare room, and were dispensing the viands with reckless +liberality. "I say! I wish we had these every week, instead of only once +a year. Why, it's just as easy! Oh, what an elegant cream pie! Give me +some!" + +"No!" said Grace Wolfe, with emphasis. + +"Why not? What's the matter, Goat?" + +"I will _not_ have pies called elegant while I am leader of this Gang," +said Grace. "Take my life, if you will, but spare my feelings!" + +"All right," said Viola, cheerily. "Your own way, Goat. I'd just as lief +call it dandy, and it _is_ dandy, you can't deny that." + +"Perhaps the Goat is thinking of succeeding her Puggy in the rhetoric +chair!" said Blanche Haight, with a sneer. + +"Perhaps I am thinking of stopping your--" began Grace; but she checked +herself, and turned away abruptly. + +"Look at Colney!" said Vivia Varnham. "Isn't she too perfectly killing? +She doesn't know we are here, I believe. Look at her hair, girls! It +gets more ratty, not to say woozzy, every day. I wonder when she brushed +it last." + +"Possibly when you brushed your manners," said the Scapegoat. "Colney is +our hostess, I beg to remind you. And nobody giving her a bite of +supper!" + +She rose from the floor, piled a plate with good things, and went over +to the corner where Colney Hatch was bending over her mouse, conscious +of nothing else. + +"Here, Colney; here's your supper." + +"Oh, thank you, Grace," said Colney, looking up for a moment. "But I +can't, you know. Both my hands are full, you see." + +"Then open your mouth," commanded the Scapegoat, in tones of authority. + +Colney obeyed meekly, and Grace stood over her, feeding her like a baby +with the choicest morsels, and now and then casting a glance over her +shoulder at the others. Grace's gaiety was fitful to-night, certainly. +When she first came in she had been the life of the party; now, as she +stood there in the corner, her brow was overcast, her eyes gloomy. What +ailed the Lone Wolf? + +What were they saying over there? They, at least, were at the very +height of glee, breaking into gusts of giggling, into whisperings ending +in squeaks and smothered screams. + +"To-morrow night? Hurrah! Through Broadway, of course." + +"Freshy? Oh, Freshy won't say anything. She wouldn't dare to, in the +first place." + +"She'd dare fast enough," said Viola. "She isn't afraid of anything, +Freshy isn't. But she's safe, she won't say anything." + +"What's all this?" demanded the Scapegoat, coming back with the empty +plate. "Plans? Does one hear them?" + +"The apples are all gone," said Kitty Green. "We're going for some +to-morrow night, Goat. You'll go, too, of course?" + +"Going out through Broadway," said Viola. "We haven't been out for more +than a week, and the moon will be nearly full to-morrow. It'll be +perf'ly fine, Goat, won't it?" + +"Veto!" said Grace, calmly. + +"Veto? Why, what do you mean?" + +"What's wrong?" + +"What has happened?" + +"Nothing has happened. Boots are no longer free, that's all." + +"Do speak English, Grace Wolfe! What do you mean?" + +"There--are--to--be--no more--free-booting expeditions--through +Broadway. Is that sufficiently plain, or shall I spell the words?" + +Blanche Haight rose to her feet, several of the other girls following +her. "What is the matter with you to-night, Goat?" she said. "We don't +seem to succeed in satisfying you. Aren't we good enough company for +you, perhaps?" And Blanche sneered in her own particular manner, of +which she was proud. + +"I make no remarks," said the Scapegoat, in her quietest tones. "I have +not been personal. I merely say, while I lead this Gang, there will be +no more expeditions through Broadway." + +"And how long do you suppose you will lead this Gang, if you play the +part of Pope and emperor?" demanded Blanche. + +The other girls began to murmur and protest at this. "Listen to the +Goat!" said one and another. "She must have some reason, or she wouldn't +act so." + +But Grace seized her opportunity. + +"How long?" she repeated. "Not an hour! not a second! I resign. My last +act is to break up this meeting. To your tents, O Israel!" + +Then arose such a confusion of whispering, exclaiming, disclaiming, +entreating, protesting, that no one voice could be heard. The owner of +the room, fairly roused for a moment (but indeed she had finished the +mouse), turned round to see what was wrong. For a moment she saw the +two leaders, Grace and Blanche, facing each other, the one pale and +quiet, the other red with anger, her eyes darting spiteful flames. Next +moment, Grace made a single quick movement, and the room was in +darkness. She had blown out the lamp. + +"To your tents!" she repeated, sternly. And, hurrying, whispering, +stumbling over the remains of their feast scattered on the floor, the +frightened girls obeyed. + + + + +CHAPTER X. + +TEACHER AND PUPIL. + + +The day after the escapade was the worst one that Peggy Montfort had +ever known. She was too strong and healthy to lie awake all night, +though it was much later than usual before she ceased to toss in uneasy +wretchedness and lay peacefully sleeping. When morning came, she woke, +and for a moment greeted the bright day joyfully. Then remembrance came +like a hand at her throat, and she shivered, and all the blue seemed to +fade away, and leave nothing but cold, miserable gray over all the +world. What had she done? What would Uncle John and Margaret, what would +Brother Hugh think, if they should know this? Slowly and heavily she +dressed and went down to breakfast. There, it seemed as if everybody +knew what she had done. Miss Russell's eyes rested thoughtfully on her +as she bade her good morning; Peggy shrank away, and could not meet the +gaze. If she did not know now, she would soon. "An honest, steady, +sensible girl!" Well, Miss Russell would find she had been mistaken, +that was all; and of course she would never trust again where she had +once been deceived. And yet Peggy knew in her heart that there was no +girl in the school who was so little likely to do this thing again as +herself. She was by nature, as I have said, a law-abiding creature, with +a natural reverence for authority. To have set the law at defiance was +bad enough; to have done it secretly, and betrayed the trust that had +been placed in her, that was worse! That was beyond possibility of +pardon. Thus argued Peggy in her wretchedness; and all through the +morning she went over it again and again, and yet again, seeing no help +or comfort anywhere. Bertha Haughton, always quick in sympathy, saw the +trouble in her friend's face, and came over in "gym" and begged to know +what was the matter. Wasn't Peggy well? Had anything happened to trouble +her? Peggy shook her head; she could not tell even this good +friend--yet. There was some one else who must be told first. She +promised to come to the Owls' Nest later in the day, and Bertha was +forced to be content with this, and left her with a vague sense of +uneasiness and a feeling that somehow little Peggy had grown suddenly +older and more mature. Yes, there is nothing like trouble for that! + +It was almost a relief when the summons came. + +"Miss Montfort, Miss Russell would like to see you in the study." + +Peggy steadied herself for the encounter, and went quietly. If only she +could be met with a cold look, it would be easier, somehow--but no! the +Principal's gray eyes were as kind as ever, her smile as gravely sweet, +as she said, pleasantly, "Good morning, Miss Montfort. Good afternoon, I +should say; I forgot how late it was. Sit down for a moment, will you? I +want to ask you about something." + +Peggy did not want to sit down. She wanted to stand still and go through +with it, and then get away to her own room. But there was no +disregarding the request, so she sat down on the edge of a chair and set +her teeth. + +"I hardly know where to begin!" said Miss Russell. "I am going to take +you into my confidence--Peggy." + +Peggy shivered a little, but said nothing, only set her teeth harder. + +"There has been a good deal of trouble," Miss Russell went on, "a good +deal of trouble in former years with the room which you now occupy. The +girl who occupied it was--was wild and undisciplined, and took pleasure +in breaking bounds, and in inducing others to do so. She--there were a +number of girls who used to go out without leave, by way of the +fire-escape outside the window." + +She paused a moment, and looked at Peggy, but Peggy made no sign. + +"That girl--left the school last year, not to return; but there are +several still here who used to share in those wild pranks (undertaken in +mere thoughtlessness, I am glad to think, and not with any evil intent), +and I have been afraid--in fact, it has come to my ears, that the room +was again being used for the same purpose." + +She paused again; but still Peggy was silent. What could she say? +Besides, no question had been asked her--yet! + +The question came. "You are silent, Peggy. Do you know anything about +this matter?" + +"Yes, Miss Russell!" said Peggy, faintly. + +"I feel," said the Principal, in a tone of regret, "that I have been to +blame in not warning you of this beforehand, and putting you on your +guard. I had hoped that when Bil--when the young lady of whom I spoke +was gone, the whole thing would die out; it is a distressing thing to +warn a pupil against her schoolmates. Still, I feel that in this case I +ought to have done so. I place entire confidence in you, Peggy. I am +sure that you would not yourself break the rules of the school; but you +may have been put to inconvenience and distress by the lawlessness of +others. I am very sorry if this has been the case." + +Peggy shut her eyes tight, and said "Margaret!" twice to herself. Then +she looked at the Principal. + +"Miss Russell," she said,--she tried to steady her voice, but it would +come strange and shaky,--"you are mistaken about me. I am not the kind +of girl you think I am. I--I went out last night without leave, by the +fire-escape." + +There was a silence. + +"Who induced you--that is, with whom did you go?" asked Miss Russell, +presently. + +"I--I didn't say that any one else went." + +"No, my dear, you did not say so. But--" and here Miss Russell rose, +and, crossing the room, laid her hand on Peggy's shoulder; "if I know +anything at all of girls, you did not go alone, and you did not go of +your own motion. And--Peggy, if you were not the kind of girl I thought +you, you would not be feeling as you do now about the whole thing." + +This was too much. Peggy could have borne, or she thought she could have +borne, anger or scorn, or the cold indifference that is born of +contempt; but the kind tone, the look of affectionate inquiry, the +friendly hand on her shoulder,--all this she could not bear. She +covered her face with her hands and burst into a passion of tears. + +It seemed hours that she wept, and sobbed, and wept again. It did not +seem as if she could ever stop, the tears came rushing so fast and so +violently; but however long it was, Miss Russell did not try to stop or +check her, only stood by with her hand on the girl's shoulder, patting +it now and then, or putting back with the other hand--such a soft, firm, +motherly hand it was!--the stray locks which kept falling over Peggy's +face as the sobs shook her from head to foot. + +At last, however, the storm abated a little; and then, while Peggy was +trying to dry her tears, and the choking sobs were subsiding into long, +deep breathings, Miss Russell spoke again. + +"Peggy, we teachers have to go a good deal by instinct, do you know it? +It is not possible for me, for example, to know every one of seventy-odd +girls as I ought to know her, by actual contact and communion. But I +have acquired a sort of sense,--I hardly know what to call it,--an +insight by means of which I can tell pretty well what a girl's standard +of life is, and how I can best help her. I know that now I can best help +you and myself by saying--and meaning--just what I said before. I place +entire confidence in you, Peggy Montfort." + +Peggy looked up in amazement; could she believe what she heard? + +"To some girls," the Principal went on, "the taste of stolen fruit is +sweet, and having once tasted it, they hanker for more. To you, it is +bitter." + +"Oh!" said Peggy; and the gasping exclamation was enough. + +"Very bitter!" said the Principal. "I speak not from impulse, but from +experience, when I tell you that there is no girl in the school to-day +whom I could sooner trust not to commit this offence than you, who +committed it last night." + +Her own thought, almost her own words. Peggy raise her head again, and +this time her eyes were full of a new hope, a new courage. + +"I believe that is true, Miss Russell," she said, simply. "I had +thought that myself, but I didn't suppose--I didn't think--" + +"You did not think that I would know enough to understand it!" said Miss +Russell, smiling. "Well, you see I do, though we both owe it partly to +dear Emily Cortlandt, who reminded me of my duty and of your position. +Now, Peggy, I have a recitation, and we must part. I put you in charge +of 'Broadway,' fully and freely. No one must come in, and no one must go +out, by that window. And if you have any trouble," she added, with a +smile, "if you have any trouble and do not think it right to tell me, +call for the Owls, and they will help you. Good-bye, my child!" + +She held out her hand, and Peggy took it with a wild desire to kiss it, +or to fall down and kiss the hem of her gown who had shown herself thus +an angel of sympathy and kindness. But the Principal bent down and +kissed the girl's forehead lightly and tenderly. + +"We shall be friends always now," she said, simply. "Don't forget, +Peggy!" + +She was gone, and Peggy took her own way in the opposite direction, +hardly knowing whither she was going. Her heart was so full of joy and +love and gratitude, it seemed as if she must break out into singing or +shouting. Was ever any one so kind, so noble, so lovely? How could any +one not try to do her very, very best, to deserve the care and +friendship of such a teacher as this? + +Passing as if on wings through the geometry room, she saw a figure +crouching over a desk, and was aware of Rose Barclay, bent over her +book, and crying bitterly. Nothing could hold Peggy back in that moment +of exaltation. In an instant she was at the girl's side. "Let me help +you!" she cried. "Please let me; I know I can." + +Rose Barclay looked up fiercely. "I asked you to help me, once!" she +said. "I am not likely to ask again. Go away, please, and let me alone." + +"No, I won't!" said stout Peggy. "You never would let me explain, but +now you are going to let me. I couldn't show you my example, and I +wouldn't, and I never will; but I could make you see how to do your own +right, and that's what I am going to do now." + +Down she sat without more ado; took the pencil from the unwilling hand, +and set to work on an imaginary problem. Rose Barclay sat still for a +moment with averted face, pride and shame doing their best to silence +the better voices within her. At length she stole a glance at Peggy's +face, and there beheld such a shining expanse of goodwill and +friendliness that Pride and Co. gave up the battle, and retreated into +their dens. Heaving a long sigh of relief, she bent forward, and soon +was following with all her might Peggy's clear and lucid explanation. + +"Why, yes!" said Rose, at last. "Why, I do see. Why, I do believe I +could do that myself." + +"Of course you can!" said Peggy. "Here, take the pencil, and I'll give +you one." + +She did so, and, after some screwing of the mouth and knitting of the +brows, Rose actually did do it, and felt like Wellington after Waterloo. +Then, at Peggy's instigation, she tackled the actual lesson, and, +steered by Professor Peggy, went through it triumphantly. Then she +turned on her instructor. + +"What made you come and help me, Peggy Montfort? I've been perfectly +hateful to you, you know I have. I wouldn't have helped you, if you had +acted the way I have." + +"Oh, yes, you would," said Peggy, good-naturedly. + +"Why--why, you have been crying, too!" said Rose, examining her +benefactress more closely. "Peggy, you have been crying awfully, I know +you have." + +"Yes, I have," said Peggy; "I have cried my eyes out, and I never was so +happy in my life. Come on, and have a game of ball!" + + + + +CHAPTER XI. + +DECORATION--AND OTHER THINGS. + + +The Junior Reception was "on." In fact, it was to take place this very +evening, and an air of subdued excitement hung over the whole school. +All the other classes were invited, as well as the Faculty and many +friends from outside; it was sure to be a delightful occasion. Peggy was +fortunate enough to be one of the auxiliaries called in by the Snowy Owl +to help in the decorations, and she counted it a high privilege, as +indeed it was. As a general thing, there is more sympathy between +juniors and freshmen than between any other two classes in school or +college; various reasons may be assigned for this, but it remains the +fact. Besides this, however, Peggy felt a very special bond with the +"Jews," because her dearest friends were among them. This had come +about partly from the accident of her coming late to school, and so +being put into the junior corridor; but it was still more due to her +making instant acquaintance, as we have seen, with the Fluffy Owl, and +through her with the beloved and powerful Snowy. These two girls, +through their wise and gentle ways, were a power for good in the whole +school, and especially in their own class. They were queens of the +steady and right-minded majority, while Grace Wolfe led the wilder and +less disciplined spirits. The Owls went their quiet way, and troubled +themselves little, less perhaps than they should have done, about the +doings of the "Gang." They were busy with study, with basket-ball, with +a hundred things; they could not always know (especially when pains were +taken that they should not know) what tricks the Scapegoat and her wild +mates were up to. + +Both Owls had a real affection for Peggy, and though they knew nothing +as yet of the recent escapade, they felt that it would be well to keep +her rather under their wing, the more so that Grace had undoubtedly +taken a fancy to the child, too. + +"She's too fascinating!" said the Snowy. "We shall have the Innocent +falling in love with her if we don't look out, and that would never do!" + +"Never!" said the Fluffy, shaking her head wisely; but she added, in an +undertone, "If only the mischief isn't done already!" + +So the two asked Peggy to help them in the work of preparing the +gymnasium for the great event, and she consented with delight. She was +making plenty of friends in her own class, oh, yes; especially now that +she and Rose Barclay had made it up. She was the one stay and comfort of +poor little Lobelia Parkins, and was devotedly kind to that forlorn +creature, taking her out to walk almost by main force, and presenting to +all comers a front of such stalwart, not to say pugnacious, +determination, that no one dared to molest the girl when Peggy was with +her. Spite of all this, however, her heart remained in Corridor A, and +she would have left the whole freshman class in the lurch at one +whistle from the Owls--or, alas! from the Scapegoat. + +But all this is by the way, and does not help us to get up the Junior +Reception. + +There had been an early morning expedition to the neighbouring woods +(not, however, through the fire-escape), and Peggy and the Owls had +returned each with a wheelbarrow-load of boughs and ground pine and all +manner of pleasant woodland things. The leaves had turned, and were +glowing with scarlet and gold and russet. These were put in water, lest +they should begin to curl and wither before night; while the evergreens +were heaped in a corner and left to their fate. Now it was afternoon, +and the girls, released from their tasks, had flown to the scene of +action. Already the gymnasium began to assume a festive appearance. +Several garlands were in place, and on the floor sat six or eight +juniors, busily weaving more. Ladders stood here and there. At the top +of one stood the Snowy Owl, arranging a "trophy," as she called it, of +brilliant leaves, on another, Peggy was valiantly hammering, as she +arranged in festoons the long folds of green and white bunting that the +Fluffy handed up to her. The Fluffy was a curious sight, being swathed +in bunting from head to foot. When Peggy demanded "more slack," she +simply turned around a few times and unrolled herself, thus presenting +the appearance of an animated spool. + +"It's effective," said Gertrude, surveying her from her perch, "but I +can't say that it looks comfortable. How ever did you get yourself into +such a snarl, Fluff?" + +"Why, I was measuring it, don't you know?" said Bertha, "and it got all +into a heap on the floor, and there was so much of it I didn't know what +to do. So I began to roll it round and round myself, and the first thing +I knew I was the cocoon-thing you see before you. I feel as if I ought +to come out a butterfly, somehow." + +"They are lovely colours!" said Peggy. "There's nothing so pretty as +green and white. How do you choose your colours? We haven't chosen ours +yet, but I suppose we shall soon." + +"The Snowy chose them," said Bertha. "They were Sir Somebody-or-other's +colours at the Siege of Acre. I wanted scarlet, because that was +Launcelot's--" + +"Fluffy! it was nothing of the kind!" + +"Well, you know what I mean, Snowy; don't make a cannibal meal of me. +Scarlet was Elaine's colour, and Launcelot wore it; that was what I +meant." + +"I thought--" said Peggy, timidly, "I thought she was the Lily Maid; I +thought she wore white." + +"Did, herself," said the Snowy, with her mouth full of tacks. "But she +gave him a scarlet sleeve embroidered with pearls, and he wore it on his +helmet, and that was what made Guinevere throw the diamonds into the +river." + +"Oh!" said Peggy, meekly. She had tried to read the "Idyls of the King," +but could not make out much except the fighting parts. + +"Never understood why they had sleeves so often," said Bertha, +abstractedly bunching the green and white draperies. "Never could see +how they got the sleeve on the helmet in any kind of shape. What sort of +sleeves did they have then, anyhow? Why, they were those tight ones, +weren't they, with a slashed cap at the top? Well, now, Snowy, that +would look perfectly absurd on a helmet, you know it would." + +The Snowy deigned no reply; or perhaps the tacks were in a perilous +position at that moment. Bertha went on, thoughtfully: + +"A balloon sleeve, now, would be more sensible; you could slip it over +the helmet, and it would look like--like the shade of a piano lamp. But +somehow, whenever I read about it, I see a small, tight, red sleeve, +spread out like a red flannel bandage, as if the helmet had a sore +throat--" + +"Fluffy, you are talking absolute nonsense!" said Gertrude, regaining +utterance. "And after all, they had gloves oftener than sleeves; not +that that makes it much better. For my part, I always think of a glove +with all the five fingers sticking up out of the middle of the crown, as +if they had tried to be feathers and been nipped in the bud." + +"Feathers don't bud!" said Bertha, handing up more slack. + +"But the real thing," Gertrude went on, "the beautiful, graceful thing +for the knight to wear, was the scarf. He could do anything he liked +with that; tie it around his helmet, or across his breast,--that was the +proper way of course,--or around his waist. + +"A green scarf, that is what I would have! Very soft, so that it would +go through a finger-ring, and yet wide enough to shake out into +wonderful folds, you know, so that he could wrap himself up in it, and +think of me, and--what's the matter, Peggy, why do you sigh?" + +"Did I sigh?" said Peggy, looking confused. "It was nothing, Snowy. I +was only thinking--thinking how stupid I was, and how Margaret would +like all the things you talk about." + +"Meaning sleeves?" + +"No, oh, no! but about knights, and chivalry, and all that kind of +thing. Margaret loves it so! She used to try to read Froissart to me, +but it always put me to sleep. I suppose you like Froissart, Gertrude?" + +She spoke so wistfully that Gertrude took the tacks out of her mouth +(she should never have put them in; a junior should have known better!) +that she might reply the better. + +"Why, Peggy, yes, I do like Froissart, but it never troubles me when +people don't care for my kind of books. You see, there are so many +kinds, such an endless variety, and good in so many different ways. Now +you, for example, would like the Jungle Books, and the 'Cruise of the +_Cachalot_,' and all kinds of books of adventure." + +"I don't know what is adventure if Froissart isn't," Bertha put in. + +"Yes, but it's all too far away, too remote. I know how Peggy feels, +because I have a cousin who is just that way. She used to think she +should never read anything at all; then one day she got hold of Kipling, +and the worlds opened, and the doors thereof. Just you come to me for +the Jungle Books some day, Innocent, and you'll see. Look here, I want +lots and lots, and again lots more leaves. Where are they all? I don't +see any more, but there must be any quantity. I brought in a whole +copse, myself." + +"We put them all into the old swimming-tank, don't you remember? Oh, no; +you went in before we had finished this morning. Well, they are there. +Stay where you are, Snowy, and Peggy and I will get a couple of loads." + +The two girls ran down-stairs to the lower floor. Part of this was taken +up, as we have already seen, by dressing-rooms, but it was only a small +part. The larger space was occupied by the great swimming-tank, five +feet deep, and twenty by thirty feet in area. The tank was not used now, +but the water was still connected, and could be turned on by special +permission. Now, accordingly, the water in the bottom was about two feet +deep, and the whole surface was a blaze of autumn colours, great +branches of maple, oak, and ash covering it completely. + +"Pretty, isn't it?" said Bertha. "Like a little sunset sea all alone by +itself, without any sun to set. The next question is, how are we to get +at them?" + +"Oh, that's easy enough!" said Peggy. "I can reach them easily from the +edge, and I'll hand them over to you." + +Suiting the action to the word, she climbed up on the broad marble slab +which formed the edge of the great tank. + +Then, bending down, she brought up a great branch of golden maple, fresh +and dripping. She shook it, and a diamond shower fell back on the dark +space left vacant; then another branch floated quietly over and filled +the space again. + +"You'll be wet through!" said Bertha. "I don't suppose you care?" + +"No, indeed! I'd rather be wet than not, when I'm doing things." + +"I'll remember that," said Bertha, slyly, "and come round with a +watering-can next time you are reciting your rhetoric. Give me some red +now; oh, that is a beauty! There! that's enough for one load; unless you +see just one more little one that is superlatively beautiful." + +"That is just what I do see! Hold on a minute! this is such a beauty, +you must have it, if I--oh!" + +Peggy had been leaning as far as she could over the broad tank, fishing +for the gay branch, which floated provokingly just out of reach. At last +she touched it--grasped it--drew it toward her; when all in a moment she +slipped on the marble, now wet and glossy with the falling drops, +clutched the air--slipped again--and fell headlong into the tank, with a +mighty splash. + +Bertha shrieked. There was an answering shriek from above, and Gertrude, +followed by all the other girls, came flying down the stairs. + +"What has happened? What--where is Peggy?" + +"In the tank!" cried Bertha. "Oh! dear me, what shall we do? Peggy, are +you much hurt?" + +"No; I--think not!" spluttered Peggy. "I came down on my nose, that's +all. Feels as if it was broken, but I don't know--no! It doesn't crack +when I wiggle it. It's bleeding a good deal, though. Perhaps I'd better +stay in till it stops." + +Bertha tried to climb up to the perch which Peggy had so suddenly left +vacant, but in vain; her legs were far too short. Gertrude, however, +came with a flying leap, and scrambled cat-like up the side of the tank. +Looking down, with the kindest heart in the world, and a world of +sympathy to fill it, she still could not help bursting into a peal of +laughter. Peggy, sitting in the tank, crowned with gold and scarlet +leaves, and dripping like Undine, was certainly a funny spectacle. + +"Oh, do forgive me for laughing, Peggy dear!" cried Gertrude. "You--you +do look funny, but I'm dreadfully sorry." + +"Well, I'm laughing myself," said Peggy, "I don't see why you shouldn't. +But did you ever hear of a water-nymph with a nosebleed? If I could only +get at my pocket--" + +"Here, take mine," and Gertrude dropped her handkerchief, which Peggy +caught adroitly. + +[Illustration: "'HERE! TAKE MY HAND AND SCRAMBLE OUT.'"] + +"My dear," Gertrude went on, "it seems so strange to have some one +besides me falling about and dropping herself. I used to be the one, +always. They called me 'Dropsy' at home; and I fell in here last year, +Peggy, and I know exactly how it feels. Here! take my hand and +scramble out." + +Peggy, still sitting in the water, which covered her to the waist, +looked about her thoughtfully. "It seems a pity, now I _am_ here, not to +have some good of it," she said, philosophically. + +"If it were only a foot deeper, or I weren't bothered with all these +petticoats, I might have a good swim. However, I suppose I may as well +get out--if I can. Take care, Snowy--oh! take care!" + +Alas! for the Snowy Owl! After all, she was still Gertrude Merryweather. +The marble was wet--she bent down to take Peggy's hand--here was another +tremendous splash, and two Undines sat in the tank, gazing speechless on +each other. This was too much for the composure of any one. Both Peggy +and Gertrude sat helpless, shaking with laughter, and absolutely unable +to move. Bertha, outside, fairly went into hysterics, and laughed and +screamed in one breath; while the other girls raised such a clamour of +mingled mirth and terror that Emily Cortlandt, who had just come in to +take a look at the decorations, came running down-stairs, dreading she +knew not what. + +One look over the edge of the tank, and Miss Cortlandt was not so very +much better than the rest of them; but she recovered herself sooner. +Wiping her eyes, she proceeded at once to the business of rescuing the +two involuntary divers. It proved impossible for them to climb up, the +sides being too slippery, and the flying leap being out of the question +in two feet of water. She brought a short ladder, and in another moment +first one nymph and then the other came up from their fountain, and +dripped little rivers on the floor. + +"Is either of you hurt?" asked Miss Cortlandt. + +"Not I!" said Gertrude, ruefully. "I fell on top of poor Peggy, and she +makes a perfect cushion. How are you, Peggy? Did I half kill you?" + +"Not a bit! I think perhaps I've sprained my wrist a little, but that +was when I went in myself. No, I'm all right; truly I am, Miss +Cortlandt. I'll just go and change my clothes, and then come back and +finish." + +Emily Cortlandt did not come of amphibious stock. "You will do nothing +of the kind!" she said. "You _ought_ to go to bed, Peggy, and Gertrude, +too; but I suppose you would think that a terrible piece of injustice." + +"Yes, Miss Cortlandt, we should!" replied both girls, in a breath. + +"And I know that you have both been brought up more or less like whales; +so I'll let you off with camphor pills and peppermint drops. Those you +_must_ have. Run along and change everything--everything, mind!--and +I'll come around in five minutes and dose you. Run, now; make it a race, +and I'll add hot lemonade to the stakes,--first prize and booby prize!" + +"Yes, Miss Cortlandt," cried the two Undines; and off they set in a +shower of spray, with the other girls at their heels. + + + + +CHAPTER XII. + +AN ADVENTURE. + + +It all came from Peggy's forgetting her handkerchief. That was nothing +remarkable. Rapidly though our heroine was developing, there was still +plenty of the old Peggy left; and when she looked up at Miss Russell +with a certain imploring gaze, the Principal was apt to say, without +waiting for anything further: "Yes, Peggy, you may; but do try to +remember it next time!" + +But this time it was well that Peggy had not remembered it. She stumbled +across the long dining-room quite in her own way, stubbing her toe +against a sophomore's chair, and sending the sophomore's spoon +clattering to the ground. Stooping, in confusion, to pick it up, with +muttered apologies, she encountered the sophomore's head bent down for +the same purpose, and some mutual star-gazing ensued. Finally she did +manage to get out of the room, after cannoning against the door and +taking most of the skin off her nose, and made her way up-stairs +ruefully, rubbing the places that hurt most, and wondering where in her +anatomy lay the "clumsy bone" that her father always talked about. "And +it isn't there all the time!" said poor Peggy. "Sometimes I don't fall +into anything for days, and then, all at once, it's like this!" + +Shaking her head dolefully, she reached her own room, got the +handkerchief, remembered with a great effort to shut the drawer, and +came out into the corridor again--to come face to face with a man +emerging from the opposite room. + +The opposite room was Vanity Fair; and the man's hands were full of +trinkets and knickknacks, and his pockets bulged in a suspicious way. He +cast a wild glance over Peggy's shoulder at the open door of her room +and the fire-escape beyond; evidently he had entered by that way, and +counted on the dinner-hour's keeping every one below stairs till he got +safe away. Now, however, baffled in this, he turned down the corridor +with some degree of composure. + +"Stop!" said Peggy. "Who are you, and what are you doing here?" + +"I'm the plumber, miss," said the man, still walking away. + +"Put down those things!" cried Peggy. "Do you hear? or I'll call the +police!" + +Apparently the man did not hear, or else did not fancy the idea +suggested to him, for he began to run down the long corridor as fast as +he could go. + +So it came to pass that the school, waiting peacefully for its pudding, +heard a sound of hasty feet scurrying down the stairs. Then, all in a +rush, came past the door the flying figure of a man, with Peggy Montfort +in hot pursuit. + +"Stop thief!" Peggy shouted it once, and then prudently saved her +breath. The man fumbled for an instant at the front door, gave it up, +darted into Miss Russell's study. Crash went a window; he was out, with +Peggy at his heels, and away across the lawn. + +"Stop thief!" the cry rang through the school; and, lo! in the twinkling +of an eye there was no school there. The long dining-room was emptied as +if by magic; the front door flew open, and out streamed the seventy +maidens, all crying "Stop thief!" all running their very best to come up +with the flying pair. + +There were some good runners at Pentland School; but after the first few +minutes of running together, jostling and pushing, two girls drew +rapidly away from the rest, and soon left them far behind. Gertrude +Merryweather and Grace Wolfe had long been friendly rivals in what they +called the royal sport of running. Perhaps neither of them was sorry of +this opportunity for a "good spurt." Certainly it was a pretty sight, +the two tall, graceful creatures, lithe and long-limbed as young +greyhounds, speeding over the ground, their arms held close at their +sides, their eyes flashing, youth and strength seeming to radiate from +them as they ran. Now one drew ahead a little, now the other; but for +the most part they kept side by side, for both were running their best, +not only for the joy and honour of the thing, but because it was +necessary to arrive, to help Peggy and catch the thief. + +The thief was evidently not a trained athlete, but he was doing his +best. He had cut himself a good deal in smashing the window, and had +thrown away part of his booty, hoping that his relentless pursuer might +be content, and might stop to pick up the brooches and belt-buckles that +lay at her feet; but Peggy never looked at them, and held on straight +after him, gaining, undoubtedly gaining. The man doubled back across the +lawn, hoping to reach the gate and safety; but Peggy headed him off as +quietly and coolly as if he were an unruly steer in the home stock-yard. +Again he doubled, and again the girl was running in a diagonal to cut +off his approach to the wished-for retreat. But now he caught sight of +the two tall avengers bearing down upon him, and the school in full cry +behind. He made a desperate spurt and reached the gate; it was half +open, and as he rushed through he slammed it behind him with a hoarse +shout of defiance. But much Peggy cared for gates! She was over in an +instant, and at his heels again. And realising this, the rascal suddenly +changed his tactics. He stopped short, and, turning on Peggy a +villainous face, bade her with an oath, "Come on, and see what she would +get for it!" + +The words had not left his lips, when a ludicrous change came over the +man's face. He uttered a wild yell, and fell headlong, almost at Peggy's +feet. When Peggy saw this, she knew what to do; and when Grace and +Gertrude came flying up a moment after, they found her sitting quietly +on the rascal's head, and telling Colney Hatch to go for the police. + +Colney had been watching the evolutions of a new and extremely +interesting spider. The spider had made her web in the hedge beside the +road; and Colney, as soon as morning recitations were over, had hastened +thither, and sat down under the hedge to watch, undisturbed by thoughts +of dinner or of any other known thing. So watching, it came to pass that +she heard the sound of rushing feet so close that it actually did +disturb her; and looked up to see an extremely ill-looking fellow in +full flight, hotly pursued by Peggy Montfort. When he turned to bay, it +was within a foot of the spot where Colney sat under the hedge; and +without more ado Colney stretched out her long, lean hand, and, grabbing +the fellow by the ankles, "tripped up his heels, and he fell on his +nose." + +Presently up came the school, panting and breathless; with them Miss +Cortlandt, who had been saying to herself that if she ever let herself +get out of practice in running again she would know the reason why. +Finally, up came William the chore-man from one direction (for Miss +Russell had gone straight to the kitchen and given the alarm there), and +the next-door neighbour from the other; whereupon Constable Peggy got up +from her uneasy seat, and handed over her prize to the tender mercies of +his own sex. + +"Git up, ye varmint!" said William, stirring the prostrate figure with +his foot. "Git up, and say what ye've got to say for yerself." + +The man got up, bewildered, and shaking his head as if he expected it to +come off. + +"She 'most killed me!" he spluttered. "I ain't got no breath left in my +body." + +"Small loss if ye hain't!" retorted William. "What's he ben doin', +gals?" William never _would_ say "young ladies," which distressed Miss +Russell; but he was _so_ valuable, as she said. + +"Stealing!" said Peggy, briefly. "I met him coming out of one of the +rooms." + +"I snum!" said William. "You're a nice kind o' harmonium, ben't ye? Tu'n +out yer pockets!" + +"She sot down on my head!" muttered the man. "Somethin' come up out o' +the ground at me and knocked me down, and then she sot down on my head. +I'm 'most killed, I tell ye!" + +"Well, who cares if ye be?" replied William, with some irritation. "It's +a pity she didn't finish the job, that's all I've got to say. Tu'n out +yer pockets, will ye?" + +The man obeyed unwillingly, still muttering; and out came a mass of +lockets, pins, and chains, enough, in spite of those he had thrown away, +to furnish half the girls in the school. + +After searching to see the surrender was complete, William adjured the +next-door neighbour, a stout and silent person named Simpson, who had +been standing by, to "take t'other arm, and we'll walk him down to the +lock-up jest as easy!" The thief begged and prayed, and, finding that +useless, took to cursing and swearing; whereupon William and Mr. Simpson +marched him off in short order, and all three disappeared around the +turn leading to the High Street. + +The school was left standing in the road, still panting with haste and +excitement. They had been silent during William's colloquy with the man, +but now the strings of their tongues were loosened, and the flood of +speech broke loose. + +"My dear!" + +"My _dear_! I never was so excited in my life, were you?" + +"Where did he come from?" + +"Who saw him first?" + +"Why, Peggy Montfort, of course! Didn't you see her?" + +"No; I just ran, because every one else was--" + +"Perfectly distracted! I never heard of such a thing." + +"He was in the closet--" + +"No; he was on the stairs--" + +"Just getting out of the window--" + +"With just her bare hands, I tell you. Just took a--" + +"Pair of earrings, nothing else in the world." + +"But who was he--where did he come from? What does Peggy say about it?" + +"Girls! _girls_!" cried Miss Cortlandt. "Will you please be silent for a +moment? Peggy has not had a chance to say a word yet, and I for one want +to hear her story. Have you got your breath yet, Peggy? because we all +want to hear, very much indeed." + +"There isn't much to tell," said Peggy, blushing. "I went up to get my +handkerchief,--I had forgotten it,--and as I was coming out of my room, +this fellow was just coming out of the other room." + +"What other room? Whose was it?" cried a dozen voices. + +"Why, Van--I mean No. 17, Miss Vincent and Miss Varnham's room." + +"Oh! oh!" a shrill scream was heard; and Viola Vincent pushed her way +through the crowd of girls, and threw herself upon Peggy. + +"My Veezy-vee!" she cried. "It was my room! V., do you hear? It was our +room that horrid wretch was robbing. My dear, if we had been there we +should have been murdered in our beds, I know we should. Peggy Montfort +has saved our lives. Isn't it perfectly awful?" + +"That she should have saved your lives?" asked the Snowy Owl, laughing. +"Come to your senses, Vanity, and don't strangle Peggy. She's black in +the face, and I shall have to set about saving her life if you don't let +her go." + +Released from Viola's embrace, Peggy gasped, and shook herself like a +Newfoundland puppy. + +"Don't be ridiculous, Vanity!" she said, looking at once pleased and +shamefaced. "It wasn't anything, of course; it was just what any one +else would have done. But do look out for your things! They are +scattered all about the lawn; he threw away a lot of them when he first +came out, and we shall be stepping on them if we don't take care. Oh! +oh, please don't say anything more about it. It was just the merest +chance I happened to go up." This was to Vivia Varnham, who, trying to +overcome her ungraciousness, was expressing her gratitude for what Peggy +had done. It was evidently an effort and was not pleasant for either +girl. + +The girls scattered over the lawn, picking up here a hairpin, there a +brooch or buckle. It really seemed as if Vanity Fair was stocked like a +jeweller's shop. Gertrude Merryweather, standing by Peggy, uttered an +exclamation. "My dear! Peggy! Why, you are all over blood! You are +bleeding now. What--where--oh! oh, Fluffy, _look_ here!" Bertha came +running, as Gertrude lifted Peggy's arm, which was indeed dripping +blood. Both girls exclaimed in horror, and Bertha turned quite white; +but Peggy looked at it coolly. + +"Oh!" she said. "That must be where I went through the window after +him." + +"The window?" + +"Yes, didn't you hear the crash? He smashed the window in Miss Russell's +study and got out, and I followed him, of course. It isn't anything. +Why, I didn't feel it till you spoke." + +"That is excitement!" said the Snowy Owl. "You must come in and be +bandaged this minute, Peggy! Come right along to the Nest; I have +bandages and lint all ready." + +The Snowy Owl was all on fire with ardour and sympathy. Peggy looked at +her in surprise, but the Fluffy Owl laughed. "You have struck the +Snowy's hobby," she said. "She is going to study medicine, you know. Go +along; she will be happy all the rest of the day, bandaging and +cosseting you." + +"But it doesn't hurt!" said Peggy, still wondering. + +"Never mind!" said the Snowy Owl. "It ought to hurt, Peggy Montfort, +and it will hurt in a little while. Come along and be bandaged!" and, +meekly wondering, Peggy went. + + + + +CHAPTER XIII. + +PEGGY VICTRIX! + + +"Well, it certainly was a great success!" said the Scapegoat. It was the +day after the reception, and she had drifted into the Owls' Nest toward +twilight, and now stood by the mantelpiece, swaying backward and forward +in the light, wind-blown way she had. + +"A great success!" she repeated, thoughtfully. "Why, it was actually +pleasant! How did you manage it?" + +"We didn't manage it," said honest Bertha. "It just came so. Everybody +was ready to have a good time, and had it; that was all." + +"More than that!" said Grace, absent-mindedly. "There has to be a knack, +or something, and you have it. I haven't. I couldn't do it, even if I +wanted to, and I don't think I do." + +"Do what?" said the Snowy. + +"Be an Owl!" said Grace. Suddenly she left her hold of the shelf, and +turned upon them almost fiercely. + +"Why should I?" she exclaimed. "Tell me that, will you? It is all +natural to you. Your blood flows quietly, and you like quiet, orderly +ways, and never want to throw things about, or smash a window. I tell +you I have to, sometimes. Look here!" + +She caught up a vase from the shelf, and seemed on the point of flinging +it through the closed window, but Gertrude laid her hand on her arm +firmly. "You may have a right to throw your own things, my dear," she +said, good-naturedly. "You have no possible right to throw mine, and +'with all respect, I do object!'" + +Grace gave a short laugh, and set the vase down again; but she still +looked frowningly at the two girls, and presently she went on. + +"It's all very well for you, I tell you. You have a home, and a--my +mother died when I was five years old. My father--" + +"Grace, dear," said Gertrude; "come and sit down here by me, and tell +me about your mother. I have seen her picture; she must have been +lovely." + +But Grace shook her head fiercely. + +"My father is an actor, and I want to be one, too, but he promised my +mother before she died--she didn't want me to be one. What do I care +about all this stuff we are learning here? I tell you I want to take a +tambourine and go on the road with a hand-organ man. That would be life! +I would, too, if I only had the luck to have hair and eyes like yours, +Fluffy." + +"You could wear a wig, of course," said Bertha, soberly. "The eyes would +be a difficulty, though, I'm afraid." + +"Well, I am here now! and I'm supposed to stay another year, and then go +to college. Four--five years more of bondage, and tasks, and lectures on +good behaviour! Am I likely to stand it, I ask you?" + +"I hope so!" said Gertrude, steadily. "It would be a thousand pities if +you didn't, Grace, and you know it as well as I do." + +"And if I do, it must be in my own way!" cried the wild girl, swinging +round again on her heel. "And if I can make things more endurable +here--if I can get rid of--it must be in my own way, I tell you. Snowy, +you are like your name, I suppose. You are white and gold and calm,--I +don't know what you are, except that we are not of the same flesh. I +tell you, I turn to fire inside! I must break out, I must go off when +the fit comes on me. I do no harm! It doesn't hurt anybody for me to go +down the wall and cool myself with a run in the fields. Why can't I be +let alone? I am not a child! I tell you it is the way I am made!" + +The Snowy Owl rose, and, going to the fireplace, laid her arm around +Grace's shoulder. + +"You are making yourself!" she said. "It's your own life, Wolf; are you +making it worse or better?" + +"I'm not doing either. I am taking it as it comes, as it was meant to +come." + +Gertrude shook her head quietly. + +"That can't be!" she said. "That is impossible, Wolf. We have to be +growing one way or the other; we can't stay as we are, for a year or a +day. And there's another thing: you don't seem to think about the +others, about the effect on the school. If you are to break the laws, +why should not every one do the same?" + +"Because they are different!" said Grace, sullenly. + +"You don't know that! They may have the same temptations, and be +stronger than you to resist them. You ought to be a strong girl, Grace, +and, instead of that, you are weak--as weak as water." + +"Weak? I!" cried Grace, her eyes blazing. "If any one else had said that +to me, Gertrude Merryweather, I would--" + +"But no one else would say it to you!" said Gertrude. "Because no one +else--except Miss Russell--cares as much as I do--Fluffy and I. We love +you too much, Grace, to flatter you and follow you, as most of them do. +I tell you, and you may take it as simple truth, for it is nothing else, +that which you think strength is simply weakness,--lamentable weakness. +And as for your influence on the other girls--just listen a moment!" + +Taking up a little book from the table, she opened it--indeed it seemed +to open of its own accord at the place--and read: + + "'Little thinks, in the field, yon red-cloaked clown + Of thee from the hill-top looking down; + The heifer that lows in the upland farm, + Far-heard, lows not thine ear to charm; + The sexton, tolling his bell at noon, + Deems not that great Napoleon + Stops his horse, and lists with delight, + Whilst his files sweep round yon Alpine height; + Nor knowest thou what argument + Thy life to thy neighbour's creed hath lent. + All are needed by each one; + Nothing is fair or good alone.'" + +There was silence when she finished reading. Then--"What is that?" asked +Grace, stretching out her hand. "Give it to me!" + +"Emerson. Take him home with you, and let him talk to you; he speaks +well." + +Grace took the book, looked it over, and dropped it into her pocket. For +a moment she leaned her head against Gertrude's arm, and a sigh broke +from her involuntarily. Then, all in a moment, a change came. Her face +lightened in an indescribable way, and her eyebrows lifted with a look +that both girls knew well. + +"And have you heard the news?" she said. "There is a rumour that my +Puggy leaves me at the end of the term. How to exist, I ask you, without +her? Othello's occupation would be gone indeed." + +"No! is it true? Why is she going? What does it mean?" + +Grace shrugged her shoulders with an elfish gesture. + +"How should I know? It appears she sees ghosts. A ghost must be hard up, +one would think, to visit my Puggy; there ought to be an asylum for +impoverished spectres. Would you subscribe for it, Owls? Good-bye! I +must go. You mean well, and I don't bear malice. Oh! by the by,--" she +came back for an instant, and stood balancing herself on one foot and +looking round the edge of the door, and she certainly looked hardly +human,--"I forgot the thing I came for. Stand by the Innocent this +evening, will you, if she should get into trouble? I am sent for to the +study, and shall be in for a good hour's lecture, and then bed." + +"What do you mean, Goat? What is it?" asked both girls, anxiously. But +the Goat was gone. + + * * * * * + +Peggy was enjoying herself extremely. She had learned all her lessons, +for a wonder, and now she had curled herself up in a corner with the +"Jungle Book," and the rest of the world was forgotten. There was +nobody, there never had been anybody, but Mowgli and the Wolves. She had +hunted with them, she had slain Shere-Khan, she had talked with Baloo +and Bagheera. Her outdoor nature had responded in every fibre to the +call of the Master of Magic, and he filled her with joy and wonder. As +the Snowy had said, the worlds were opening, and the doors thereof. + +Things being thus with her, she hardly heard her own door open softly. +Before she had torn her eyes from the enchanted page, the room was +filled with silent, flitting figures--as it had been often filled +before. The girls nodded to her with silent laughter and friendly +gestures. In another moment they would have been at the window; but +Peggy was not dreaming now. In an instant she had sprung from her corner +among the cushions, and stood before the window, with arms outspread. +"No!" she said. + +The girls recoiled, paused, in amazement. There were six of them: the +two V's, Blanche Haight, and three other sophomores. Peggy saw with a +throb of joy that Grace Wolfe was not among them. That would have made +it harder. + +"What does this mean?" asked Vivia Varnham, with her cold smile. "You +have never made any trouble before, Peggy; isn't it rather late in the +day?" + +"Oh, she's only in fun!" cried Viola Vincent. "Aren't you, Veezy-vee? +Why, she's acting, girls, and she does it elegantly. It's perf'ly fine, +Veezy-vee. I didn't know you had it in you." + +"No, I am not acting," said Peggy, quietly. "I am sorry, girls, but you +can't go out. You never can go out again, so long as I am here." + +"Upon my word!" cried Blanche Haight, who had not spoken yet. "This +seems to be a pretty state of things. Perhaps you are not aware, Miss +Montfort, that this exit was used, long before you came to adorn the +school with your presence. We acknowledge no right of yours to forbid us +the use of it. Stand out of the way, please." + +For a reply, Peggy backed against the window; her face assumed an +expression with which her family was acquainted. + +"When Peggy looks dour," Jean used to say, "look out for rising winds +and a falling barometer!" + +Then Viola came forward, and began to plead, in her pretty, wheedling +way. + +"Let us go, just this once; that's a dear, good Veezy. I know what has +happened; Miss Russell has found out, hasn't she?" + +Peggy nodded. + +"And she has spoken to you, and of course I know just how you feel. But +you see, Peggy, we have an appointment this time, truly we have, with +some college girls, and you wouldn't make us break it, would you, +Veezy? Of course you don't want us to go, and we won't again,--at least +most probably we won't, if it is going to get you into trouble. But we +really _have_ to go this time, Peggy, dear, so do be nice and sweet, and +let us pass." + +"No," said Peggy. "I'm sorry, Viola, but it's no use. Nothing you can +say will make any difference." + +"Possibly not!" said Blanche Haight; she pushed Viola aside without +ceremony, and came close to Peggy. + +"Possibly nothing we can say will make a difference, Miss Montfort, but +something we can _do_ may make a good deal. I ask you, fair and square, +will you come away from that window? We are six to one, and I give you +the chance of settling this in a quiet and friendly way. Will you come +away from that window?" + +"No," said Peggy, "I will not. Is that square enough?" + +"Then, girls," said Blanche, turning to her followers, "we must help +ourselves. We shall see whether one freshman is going to block the way +of the Gang! You take one arm, Viola, and I'll take the other." + +"Oh, don't hurt her!" cried Viola. "Don't hurt her, Blanche. I'm awfully +fond of Peggy. I know she only means to do what she thinks she ought to. +Peggy, do give up! You are all alone, and there are six of us. Do give +up, Peggy; for my sake, Peggy! I--I'll give you my gold bangle, the one +with the locket, if you'll only give up, Peggy!" + +Peggy smiled, and said nothing. She could not be angry with the little +butterfly, but there was no use in wasting breath; she might need all +she had. + +Blanche Haight seized one arm, Vivia Varnham the other, and tried to +drag her away from the window by main force. With her favourite +Newfoundland-dog motion, Peggy shook them off, planted a quick blow +here, another there, and her assailants staggered back for a moment. In +another instant, however, they returned to the attack, and this time the +other sophomores joined, and all five threw themselves on Peggy. Once +more she shook them off, but they closed in again, and a struggle +began, all the more fierce that no word was spoken, no cry uttered. No +cry, that is, by the combatants. When the five set upon Peggy, Viola ran +in and made an effort to pull them off, with piteous entreaties. But no +one paid the smallest heed to her, and the poor little butterfly, +frightened and distressed, burst into tears, and ran away. + +At the same moment, any one who had been listening in quiet might have +heard a singular sound that seemed to come from above, from outside--no +one could tell from where; the cry of an owl, followed by a long, low +howl. Three times this was repeated; and many a junior, studying under +her lamp, looked up and said, "What is up now, I wonder?" for the sound +recalled freshman days, before the Lone Wolf and the two Owls had come +to the parting of the ways. + +Three minutes later, two figures, speeding silently along Corridor A, +were met at a turn by a third, which flung itself sobbing upon them. + +[Illustration: "WITH ONE OF HER SUDDEN MOVEMENTS SHE HAD THROWN OFF HER +ASSAILANTS."] + +"Oh, Snowy, oh, Fluffy, they are killing Peggy Montfort! I was coming +to call you--oh, be quick! be quick!" + +Without stopping, somehow the Snowy Owl managed to open a door and +thrust Viola in. It was to be noticed that neither girl looked at her. +They ran on, swift and silent. + +Indeed, it was time! Peggy's lip was bleeding, where Vivia Varnham's +head had struck against it as she fell, tripped by a pretty trick that +was learned on the Western farm. Her hair was dragged down and hung in +her eyes, her dress was torn in a dozen places. With one of her sudden +movements she had thrown off her assailants, and stood for an instant +alone, looking the very Spirit of Battle, with blazing eyes and scarlet +cheeks. Blanche Haight rushed at her again, and this time Peggy seized +her around the waist in a deadly grip. The others closed in once more, +furious, determined this time to finish with the insolent freshman. It +was like to go hard with Peggy Montfort this time. + +What happened? A flash, the glance of an eye, and all was changed. The +assailants fell back, staggering across the room, gasping and staring; +and the Snowy and the Fluffy Owl were standing shoulder to shoulder with +Peggy, one on either side, with stern and angry looks. + +For a moment there was dead silence, save for the hard breathing as +Blanche Haight tried to wriggle out of the iron grasp that held her--in +vain! Then Gertrude Merryweather spoke. + +"Miss Varnham, Miss Floyd, Miss Johnson, Miss White, Miss--who is +this?--Miss Haight. Found out of bounds and out of hours, making a +disturbance in the rooms. To be reported to the Principal. Go to your +rooms, if you please!" + +Was this the Snowy Owl, gentle and friendly, beloved of all? No! it was +the Junior President and the Monitor of Corridor A. She might have been +an avenging angel as she stood there, tall and white and severe. + +Her face softened as she bent over Peggy. "You can let her go now!" she +said. "We are here, Peggy, Bertha and I. It is all right! Let her go, +child!" + +Slowly and reluctantly Peggy loosed her hold, and Blanche, +half-fainting, dropped upon the bed. She looked with feeble venom at the +two rescuers. + +"Spying, eh?" she whispered. "Very dignified, I'm sure, for a president. +That little sneak Viola Vincent was here too, mind! Put her down in your +precious report." + +"I don't see Miss Vincent here!" said Gertrude, coldly. "Go to your +rooms, if you please! I think I understand the case thoroughly, Blanche, +thank you. Will you go, or shall we help you?" + +But Blanche preferred to go unaided. Silent as they had come, they slunk +away, flitting like shadows along the corridor. And when they were gone, +the two Owls sat down on the bed and took Peggy between them, and +rocked, and petted, and soothed her; for lo! the Goddess of Battle was +crying like a three years' child. + + + + +CHAPTER XIV. + +ON SPY HILL. + + +Things were quietly managed at Pentland School; there was never any +outcry, any open flurry of excitement and gossip. Many of the scholars +never knew why five girls left school in the middle of the term. The +seniors who did know shrugged their shoulders, and said it was a pity to +have such things take the girls' minds off their parts--looking at +everything from the point of view of Senior Dramatics. The juniors +looked pretty sober for a week, even the sophomore spirits were dashed +for the time. But nothing was said openly, and after awhile the scared +whisperings died away, and work and play went on as usual. Poor little +Viola Vincent mourned deeply the loss of her mate. She herself had +escaped with a severe reprimand, having gone to Miss Russell to plead +Vivia's cause, and confessing frankly her own share in the escapade. +Vivia was anything but an agreeable girl; but she and Viola had grown up +together, next-door neighbours and companions from their cradles, and +Viola was lost without her. She threw herself upon Peggy for +consolation, and Peggy found herself in the curious position of +protecting and comforting a junior, and a girl two years older than +herself. Viola would come in, and, curling herself up in the corner of +Peggy's divan, declare that she had come for a good cry. A few sniffs +would follow, and then perhaps actual tears, but more likely a river of +speech. + +"It's no use, Peggy! I cannot live! I simply can _not_ live on in this +way. I know V. was horrid to you--yes, she was! Oh, I am not blind, you +know, if I am a goose! She was horrid to most of the girls, I know she +was, but she was good to me, generally, and it didn't matter much if she +wasn't. I was used to her little ways, and I didn't mind. And I have +always had her, you see, all my life, and I don't--see--how I _can_ get +along without her. I wanted to be expelled, too! Yes, I did! that was +why I told Miss Russell about my being there and all; I thought she +would be sure to send me away, too. I think it was very unjust of her +not to, I'm sure." + +"Viola, don't talk so! You had nothing to do with the--the attack, or +any violence. You would have gone away quietly when I said you could not +use the window; you know you would." + +"How do you know I would have? I might have torn you limb from limb, +Peggy, for all you can say. What are you laughing at?" + +For this statement, coming from a small person with a grasp about as +powerful as that of a week-old kitten, was too much for the stalwart +Peggy's composure. + +"You don't know what I am when I am roused!" Viola went on. "I'm awful, +simply awful!" And she opened her blue eyes wide, and looked like a +tragic baby. + +"But--my! Peggy, how you did look that night! I wonder this whole room +didn't turn blue with fright. I was frightened almost to death; I wonder +I'm alive to-day. Well, wasn't it too perf'ly awful for anything, the +whole thing?" + +"It was pretty bad!" Peggy assented. "But it's all over now, Viola; I +would try not to dwell on it too much, if I were you. Of course I know +how you must miss Vivia, and I'm dreadfully sorry about it all. But just +think how dear the Owls have been to both of us." + +"Haven't they?" cried Viola, drying her tears, her eyes brightening. +"Aren't they too perfectly lovely for anything, the Owls? I think the +Snowy is just the sweetest thing that ever lived in this world, don't +you?" + +"I think she's one of them," said honest Peggy. "But I'm just as fond of +Bertha. She was my first friend here, my very first." + +"Oh, how funny you were that first day, Peggy!" cried Viola, laughing +now, her sorrows forgotten for the time. "You were too killing! I +thought I should have died, when you went tumbling all over yourself. +You _were_ killing, weren't you, now?" + +"You seem to have survived!" said Peggy, good-naturedly. It was not +pleasant to be laughed at, but no one ever minded Viola. + +"Where are you going?" demanded Viola, as Peggy got out her "Tam" and +pinned it on with a resolute air. "Peggy, you are not going out, just +when I have come to see you? I was so lonely, and I wanted some one to +talk to; and now the minute I come, you get up and go away. I must say I +don't think you are very polite." And Viola pouted and looked like a +child of six instead of a girl of sixteen. + +"Viola!" said Peggy. "You have been here an hour and a half, do you know +it? and I must have a walk; I haven't been outside the door this +afternoon. Put on your Tam and come along with me! You'd feel ever so +much better if you would take more exercise." + +"Oh, no, I shouldn't! and I cannot see what you want to be walk, +walking, all the everlasting time for, Peggy Montfort. What's the use of +it?" + +"The use?" cried Peggy, with sparkling eyes. "Why, there's all the use +in the world. In the first place, it makes you strong and healthy, and +keeps you well." + +"Oh! but gym does that! We have to do gym, and I don't mind that; in +fact it's rather fun, only it spoils your figure dreadfully." + +"But gym isn't enough, if you don't take any other exercise," said +Peggy. "And besides, V., just think of the _joy_ of walking and running. +Why, you see all the things growing, and breathe the air, and--and--hear +the birds, and the water, and--well, I shouldn't want to live if I +couldn't walk, that's all. Come along, and you'll see!" + +"Oh, I can't, I'm too tired." + +"You are tired, because you have been sitting in the house all day. And +you are pale, and--" + +"No! am I?" cried Viola, running to the glass. "I'm so glad! I just love +to be pale, it's so interesting. It makes my eyes look larger, too, +doesn't it, Peggy? They do look very large to-day, don't they, Peggy?" + +Peggy sighed. "You do discourage me, Viola!" she said. "Well, good-bye. +I must go. The others are waiting for me." + +"What others? Who else is going? What are you going to do?" + +"Why, I told you! We are going to walk." + +"Yes, but what _for_? Are you going to the shops, or going to see +somebody? I can't see _any_ sense in just stupid walking, without any +object. And you didn't tell me who was going." + +"You didn't give me a chance. Well, Rose Barclay is going, and two other +freshmen whom I don't think you know, Clara Fair and Ethel Bird--and +Lobelia Parkins." + +"Peggy Montfort! why _do_ you go with that little animal? I've told you +before that I could not, for the honour of the corridor, have you seen +with a creature that looks like that. Let her go with Colney Hatch if +she wants company; they'd be two of a kind." + +"Colney Hatch is one of the brightest girls in school, Miss Cortlandt +says so!" + +"Very likely; but that doesn't make her a fit associate for you, my +Veezy-vee. You never seem to understand about different sets. I want you +to belong to the smart set, and you won't." + +"Do the Owls belong to it?" demanded Peggy, turning red. + +"Peggy, how dense you are! The Owls don't belong to any set because they +won't. Of course they could belong to any set they pleased." + +"Does Grace Wolfe belong to it?" + +"The Goat? Why, she used to; but she's so awfully queer, you know; the +Goat has grown too awfully queer for anything. She stays by herself +mostly, ever since she cut loose from the Gang. And Vivia is gone," she +wailed, "and Blanche Haight,--Blanchey was not very nice, but her gowns +fitted like a seraph's, and the style to her hats was too perfectly +killing for anything, you know it was. And now there isn't any one, not +a single soul, that I care to talk to about clothes. I've had my pink +waist done over, and it's simply dandy--the sweetest thing you ever saw +in your life; and nobody cares. I am so unhappy!" + +"I haven't seen that new hat you told me about!" said Peggy, with a +happy stroke of diplomacy. If any one had told Margaret Montfort that +her Peggy would ever develop a talent for diplomacy she would have +opened her eyes wide indeed; but one learns many things at +boarding-school. + +Viola brightened at once. + +"No! didn't I?" she cried, her whole manner changing. "Would you like to +see it, Peggy? It is really too cute for anything, it just _is_! What +makes you shut up your mouth that way?" + +"Oh, nothing! Well, yes, it is something. You won't mind if I tell you? +Well, I used to say 'cute,' and Margaret showed me what bad English it +was, and how silly it sounded. So I made up my mind to stop it, and +every time I wanted to say it I screwed up my mouth and counted ten. +Just the same with 'elegant.' I've broken myself of that, too, but it +was hard work." + +"Elegant! simply elegant!" repeated Viola, thoughtfully. "The Goat won't +let you say that, either, or the Owls. What's the use of being so fussy? +besides, elegant is a real word, they can't say it isn't, so now!" + +"Oh! of course it is, and it has its real use. You can speak of an +elegant dress, or an elegant carriage, and then it's all right; but I +used to say I had had an elegant time, don't you know? and talk about +elegant cake, and all that kind of thing. And when once you have learned +better, it does sound awfully silly." + +"Well, they make just as much fuss about 'awful,' and there you are +saying that, and you say it all the time." + +"I know!" said poor Peggy, hanging her head. "I know I do, though I try +awfully hard not to. There! that's the way it is. It does seem as if I +couldn't get over that, but I'm going on trying. And if you don't get +your hat this minute, V., I shall go without you. I can't wait any +longer. It's awfully--it's _very_ late." + +"Why, I'm coming, as fast as I can; how impatient you are, Peggy! You +aren't half as fond of me as I am of you, or you would not be in such a +hurry to get away to that little fright. There, here it is! Now isn't +that dandy, simply dandy? I do think it is too perf'ly sweet for +anything!" + +It was a pretty hat, and Viola certainly looked charming in it. She was +so pleased with her appearance that she could not resist the temptation +of "showing off" to the other girls; so she followed Peggy down to the +lawn, where a little group was already gathered. At sight of a junior, +even so unformidable a junior as Viola Vincent, poor little Lobelia +Parkins shrank into a small knotted heap of misery. Through Peggy's +intercession, Rose Barclay and the two other freshmen had been kind to +her, and had agreed to let her share their walks, which they took now +semi-weekly under Peggy's leadership. None of them cared for her, or +felt much interest in her, but they did care for Peggy Montfort, partly +because she was the strongest girl in the class, partly because of the +fame that had accrued to her since her exploit in resisting and breaking +up the famous Gang; but mostly, perhaps, because everybody felt and said +that Peggy Montfort was "all right," which in schoolgirl parlance meant +that she was a cheerful, kindly, and right-minded girl. So, though her +chief friends were still among the juniors, she was well known and well +liked in her own class. + +Peggy took Lobelia's hand, and drew it resolutely through her arm. + +"We'll lead the way!" she cried. "Rose and Viola, you two come next, and +Clara and Ethel bring up the rear. How's that?" + +All agreed to the arrangement; and the six started off in high spirits. + +"Where are we going to-day?" asked Rose Barclay. "Don't kill us, Peggy! +I haven't got over being stiff yet, from the last tramp. It was jolly, +though." + +"It was splendid!" chimed in Ethel Bird. "Why, I had no idea what pretty +places there were about here. Shall we go to the woods again?" + +"I thought of going up Spy Hill!" said Peggy. "It isn't very high, and +there's a lovely view from the top." + +"Oh, I never can get as far as that!" cried Viola, aghast. "You said a +little walk, Peggy, and that is miles and miles, I know it is. Oh, I +think I'll go back." + +"Oh, don't!" cried Rose, in a tone of heartfelt interest that won +Viola's susceptible heart. "It isn't very far, truly it isn't; and I +want to ask you where you got that hat. It is too perfectly lovely for +anything! I've got to have a new hat, and I do wish--" + +"My dear!" cried Viola, dimpling all over with pleasure, "I'll tell you +all about it. You see--" + +There was no more trouble with Viola. Peggy chuckled, and started off at +a round pace, the others following. + +The two Owls, standing at their window with arms intertwined, just +thinking of taking a little flutter in the cool of the afternoon, looked +after them with friendly eyes. + +"What's the matter with Peggy Montfort?" said the Fluffy to the Snowy. + +"_She's_ all right!" said the Snowy to the Fluffy. And then they looked +at each other sternly, and shook their heads in grave rebuke. "My dear," +they said both together, "we are surprised!" + + + + +CHAPTER XV. + +WHAT WAS THE MATTER WITH LOBELIA PARKINS? + + +"Lobelia, I insist upon knowing!" + +"Oh, Peggy, please don't ask me!" + +"But I will ask you. I do ask you. What is it that you are afraid of? I +shall find out sooner or later, so you might as well give up at once and +tell me." + +Lobelia looked around her uneasily. She and Peggy were sitting in a cosy +little hollow under the lee of a great brown rock, waiting for the +others to come up. + +"Come!" said Peggy. "There's nobody behind that rock. What is the matter +with you, Lobelia Parkins, and why don't you sleep? Out with it!" + +Lobelia sighed, and twisted her buttons. "I--I never am a very good +sleeper," she said at last. "I--I'm nervous, Peggy. And then--" + +"And then, what?" + +"Oh, dear me! I can't tell you. You won't believe me if I tell you. +Things come into my room and frighten me." + +"Things? What do you mean, Lobelia?" + +"I don't know what I mean!" cried the poor girl, looking about her +again, as if in dread of some unseen terror. "I don't know who it is, or +what it is. Something--or somebody--comes through my room at night and +goes out of the window." + +"Ah!" said Peggy. "Well, go on. How long has this been going on?" + +"Oh, ever so long! At first--Peggy, you will feel badly if I tell you +this." + +"Well, then, I've got to feel badly," said Peggy, stoutly. "Though I +can't see what I have to do with it--so far. I'll have plenty to do with +it from now on!" she added, significantly. "Go on, Lobelia." + +"Well, you know that time you were so good to me, Peggy; when Blanche +Haight and those others were teasing me, and you came in like a lioness +and drove them off. I never shall forget it as long as I live, Peggy, +never!" + +"Nonsense!" said Peggy. "It wasn't anything at all. Don't be absurd, +Lobelia. Well, what since then?" + +"It began after that. She--I know that it used to be Blanche Haight +then--she used to come in after I was in bed, and frighten me. She had a +sheet on, and at first I thought it was a ghost, and I fainted the first +time, I think; and then she used--she used to make faces and pinch me, +and one time I saw her ring, and so I knew who it was." + +"The cowardly brute!" muttered Peggy. "It's well for her that she's out +of this school. Now, Lobelia Parkins, why, in the name of all that is +feeble-minded and ridiculous, didn't you tell me this before?" + +"Oh, I couldn't!" said Lobelia. "I had given you enough trouble, Peggy. +And besides--" + +"Well! besides what?" + +"I was afraid! I was afraid she would kill me if I told." + +"My goodness gracious _me_!" cried Peggy, bouncing on her mossy seat, +till Lobelia shrank away scared and trembling. "Do you think we live in +the Middle Ages, Lobelia Parkins? This is what comes of reading history; +it puts all those old-fangled notions into your head, till you have no +sense left. I know! You had all that stuff about Florence and Rome, and +poisoning, and all that. I had it too; awful stuff, and probably +two-thirds lies. History is the father of lies, you know; somebody says +so somewhere." + +"I--I thought it was Herodotus who was called that," Lobelia ventured, +timidly. + +"Perhaps it was; it's all the same." + +"No, I am wrong. Herodotus was called the father of history, and then +some other people said he was the father of lies; but now it has all +come true, so he isn't any more!" + +Lobelia, who was stupid and painstaking, proffered this lucid +explanation painfully, and then gasped; it seemed a liberty for her to +explain anything to anybody. + +"Who cares?" said Peggy. "He's dead, anyhow. Oh, how it used to provoke +my dearest Margaret when I said that. I only mean, I never see how it +can matter so much as people think. But you are not dead, Lobelia; and +the idea of your being killed, here in this school, in the nineteenth +century! Why, it is absurd, don't you see? It is funny! You must laugh +about it, my dear!" + +Lobelia, with an effort, produced a watery smile; seeing which, Peggy's +mood changed, and she laid her hand instantly on the skinny, shrinking +arm. + +"My dear, don't think I was laughing at _you_," she cried, warmly. "No; +I am going to be furious in a minute, when I get round to that part +again. Well, but Lobelia, Blanche Haight is gone now, and a good +riddance, and yet you say you are still afraid. What are you afraid of?" + +"I--I don't know who it is now!" said Lobelia. "But some one comes +through, just the same." + +"How do you mean, just the same? some one pinches you?" + +"No! oh, no! this person never speaks to me or looks at me. +It--she--only wants to go through the window. It has something light +gray over its head and shoulders. It goes down the fire-escape and +stays about half an hour, and then comes back. I--I don't mind it so +very much, now. I dare say it's all right, only--I can't sleep very +well, you know." + +"I see!" said Peggy. "Well, I think we can settle that matter, Lobelia. +Hush! here come the others. We won't say anything more about it now. +Well, girls, how did it go? Isn't it a lovely little scramble?" + +Rose Barclay and Viola appeared, with the other two just behind. Viola +was panting, and her delicate colour was deepened by exertion till she +was almost as rosy as her companion. + +"My dear!" she cried. "You are responsible for my life! I am killed; +simply killed, Peggy Montfort. I shall never recover from this awful +fatigue, I know I shall not." + +"Nonsense!" said Peggy, briefly. "Here! sit down here, V., and get your +breath; you'll be all right in a minute. It wasn't bad, was it, Rose?" + +"It was a bit stiff in one place!" Rose admitted. "I rather think we +took the wrong turn, Peggy. Did you say left, after the big pine?" + +"No, right; you didn't come up that bank? Poor little V.! no wonder she +thinks she is killed. Let me take your hat off, V., and get you some +water or something." + +But Viola refused to part with her hat. She sat panting and crimson, and +seemed really exhausted. Peggy eyed her with remorse. "I couldn't know +that you would take the wrong turn, could I?" she said. "I'm awfully +sorry!" + +"Oh, but it was fine!" said Ethel Bird. "How do you find out all these +places, Peggy? This is just lovely, isn't it?" + +"By looking," said Peggy. "I like to poke about, and I came on this the +other day. See, here's a little baby spring, trickling right out of the +rock here. Isn't it pretty? and the water is clear and cold as ice. +Shall I make you a leaf-cup, Viola? The best way, though, is to put your +mouth down and drink, this way." + +"Oh, I never would do that!" cried Clara Fair. "Why, a snake might go +right down your throat, Peggy Montfort; truly it might. There was a +man--" + +"Oh, don't talk about a man!" cried Rose Barclay. "How could you, Clara? +You remind me of my German lesson." + +"I never said a word about your German lesson," said Clara, who was +literal and matter-of-fact. + +"No, but you reminded me," said Rose, who was imaginative and poetic. +"All the morning I was saying to myself: + + "'Der dickere Mann, + Des dickeren Mannes, + Dem dickeren Manne, + Den dickeren Mann.'" + +"You seem to have learned it, anyhow," said Peggy, laughing. + +"Oh, but that isn't all!" said Rose. "There is more horror. It goes on, +you know: + + "'Die dickeren Manner, + Der dickeren Manner, + Den dickeren Mannern, + Die dickeren Manner.'" + +"I think foreign languages are the silliest things in the world!" +declared Peggy. "Well, I do! Such perfect foolishness as they talk! I +have no patience with them." + +"Well, but Peggy, they aren't foreign when they are at home!" protested +Ethel. + +"Well, then, I wish they would stay at home. I don't know whether German +is so bad, though that sounds awful, all that you said just now, Rose; +but I have French; and I have to try to mince and simper, and twist my +mouth up into all kinds of shapes, just saying things that are too silly +to _be_ said. I wish there was a law that no one in this country should +ever speak anything but English. It would be ever so much more +sensible." + +"So it would!" assented Rose. "I say! what a pity we didn't think to +bring something to eat! I'm awfully hungry, walking all this way." + +"All this way, Rose!" said Peggy. "Why, how far do you think it is?" + +"Oh, four or five miles, I'm sure!" + +"Well, it isn't two. Look here, girls, what is the reason none of you +seem to know how to walk?" + +"What do you mean? We have walked, haven't we? Here we are." + +"Oh, you call this a walk! that's just it, I tell you. You walk a mile, +or two at the very most, and you think you have done something +wonderful; and poor Viola is all tired out, and says she will never come +again. Well, but this isn't what _I_ call walking, you know. Why, I went +with the Owls the other day, and we walked fifteen miles if we did a +step, and it was perfectly glorious. _That's_ what _I_ call walking, and +I do wonder how it is that none of you ever learned. You are all strong +and well, aren't you?" + +Yes, they were all strong and well; except Viola, who still declared she +had got her death, and should never recover. + +"Well, but what's the use?" asked Rose. "I think this is great fun, to +come to a pretty place like this, and sit and talk and look at the view; +but just to go on walking and stalking along the way you and the Owls +do,--what's the use of it? We are not ostriches, and why should we +pretend we are? Besides, it takes such a lot of time." + +"And what would you be doing with your time?" asked Peggy, hotly. +"Reading stories, or just sitting, sitting, and talking, talking. My +goodness gracious _me_! the way some of the girls just sit around all +their spare time, doing nothing, makes me tired. Why, if I hadn't +stalked, as you call it, how would you have come here to-day, and seen +the prettiest place you ever saw since you came here--for it is, and you +can't deny it, girls. I do hate to see people doing nothing. I don't +much care what they do, so long as it is _something_!" + +"Peggy, you're getting very ferocious, do you know it?" said Clara Fair. +"And, after all, we did come, and now we are doing just as much as you +are, and why are you shouting at us?" + +"I won't shout any more," said Peggy, laughing. "I suppose we all have +our hobbies, haven't we? Walking is one of mine; and you are going to +like it just as much as I do, girls, before we get through the term. +Why, there are about twenty of the loveliest walks, and none of +them--hallo!" + +Peggy stopped abruptly, and seemed to listen. + +"What's the matter?" asked Rose. "I didn't hear anything." + +"I thought I did," said Peggy, quietly. "Be still a minute, will you?" + +She bent her head. There was a moment of perfect silence; then, +somewhere close at hand, a singular dry, rattling sound. + +"What a queer noise!" said Ethel. "What is it?" + +"It's time to go home, girls!" said Peggy. "You'd better start along, +and I'll come behind you. Come, Viola, give me your hand--so! Now take +her, Rose, and hurry along! Lobelia, go with them, will you?" + +"What upon earth is the matter, Peggy Montfort?" asked Rose, eyeing her +curiously. "What do you want to get us out of the way for? I believe you +have found something, and want to keep it to yourself." + +"Rose, _please_ go!" said Peggy, earnestly. "I am coming, I tell you. +No, not there! that way--along by the big pine. Keep away from the +rock--so! Now hurry, and I'm coming right along." + +The girls hardly knew why they obeyed; but there was such a singular +earnestness in Peggy's look and gesture that they did not stay to +question her, but one and all--or so it seemed--turned and hastened down +the side of the hill. + +No sooner were their backs turned than Peggy, whose keen eyes had been +fixed all this time on one spot, moved swiftly behind a great rock that +stood close by. There, stooping, she sought with eager hands and eyes; +sought and found a stout stick. She tried its strength--it was strong +and tough. Then warily she came back, and looked once more at the pile +of withered leaves that had riveted her attention before. The pile +seemed to move--to undulate; and from it came once more the dry, +rattling sound. Something reared itself, brown and slender; at the same +instant a shriek rang through the wood. It did not come from Peggy's +lips. Like a flash, the girl had sprung forward, and caught the snake's +neck under her crotched stick, just as he was raising himself to strike. +Pinned firmly to the earth, the creature could only twist and wriggle in +impotent rage. Looking around coolly, Peggy saw Lobelia's face peering +around the trunk of a tree, pale with horror. + +"Well!" said Peggy. "You are a nice obedient child, aren't you? Since +you are there, you might get me a good stone; he's all right; he can't +get his head round." + +Gasping and trembling, Lobelia found and brought a stone, which she held +out at arm's length. + +"Oh, Peggy!" she whispered. "Is it--is it a rattlesnake?" + +"That's what!" said Peggy, relapsing into slang in the absorption of the +moment. "He won't be a rattlesnake much longer, though. There! now you +can look, Lobelia; he's dead. I tell you he's dead, as dead as Julius +Caesar. What are you crying for, child?" + +Lobelia came forward, trembling and cringing. + +"Oh, Peggy, I knew it was. I didn't say anything, because I thought you +wouldn't want me to--" + +"Quite right," said Peggy. "Sensible rabbit!" + +"And--and I am terribly afraid of snakes--oh, I was sure you would be +killed, Peggy!" + +"And so you came back to be killed with me? Lobelia, what a foolish girl +you are. There, there, don't cry. Why, the snake isn't crying, and he +really has been killed." + +"Oh, Peggy, if you had been killed, I should have died. I shouldn't have +needed any snake to kill me." + +"Nonsense!" said Peggy, gruffly. "Lobelia, do stop crying. My goodness +gracious _me_, come along, or we shall have them all back again after +us. I'm going to bring him too, and get Colney to dry him for me. He's a +beauty! look at him, Lobelia! Not look at him? Why, I tell you he's +dead, as dead as--who was he?--the Father of Lies! Come along, now." + + + + +CHAPTER XVI. + +THE TERROR BY NIGHT. + + +All was quiet in No. 18, Corridor C. It was the room directly above +Peggy; and was tenanted, as we have seen, by Lobelia Parkins. Lobelia +was in bed at this moment, though it was before the usual bedtime. She +had felt ill and dizzy-brained for several days, and Peggy had begged +her to go to bed early and get a good long sleep. Peggy herself lay on a +mattress on the floor. It was against the rule, but for once the +law-abiding Peggy was wilfully breaking the rule. She felt strong in +Miss Russell's confidence in her; and she meant to find out who and what +it was that was "frightening Lobelia silly," as she expressed it. +Accordingly, here she was, in her wrapper, with a blanket rolled around +her. The night was warm, and the window was thrown wide open, Peggy +having been brought up to love fresh air. Lobelia shivered, but would +rather have frozen stiff than say a word, if Peggy preferred to have the +room cold. Each girl hoped the other was asleep. Lobelia hardly dared to +breathe; she lay still as a mouse, feeling a delightful sense of comfort +and security, such as she had not felt since she came to this nightmare +of a place. Not to be alone any more, with the night and the terrible +things it brought; to have this friend, so strong, so kind, so helpful, +lying close beside the bed, ready to help, to comfort,--Lobelia's poor +shrinking spirit took courage, and she held her breath now and then, for +the pure pleasure of hearing Peggy's calm, regular breathing. Surely she +must be asleep! She could not breathe like that unless she were sleeping +quietly. Oh, might nothing happen to break her friend's rest! + +Peggy was very nearly asleep, it was true. She had meant to stay awake +as long as there was any possibility of any one's coming into the room. +She was valiantly wide awake at first, and lay blinking at the moon, +which Was shining in the most obliging manner full upon the spot where +she lay. Peggy wondered what those mountains were like which made the +strange figures on the broad, silver disk. They must be tremendous! +Think of them, miles high, with deep, awful valleys between, and all +dead and white and dry like bone. And all they seemed to be good for now +was for us to make faces and things out of, and stories--to +please--the--children. Peggy was getting very sleepy. She opened her +eyes wider, and stared harder at the moon. It seemed to be staring back. +They were certainly eyes, not--mountains--and one of them was winking at +her; and now she seemed to hear a sound, a voice, coming from far, +far--ages away, and saying, whispering-- + +Then, all in a moment, sleep, and the moon and its mountains were as if +they had never been. + +The door opened, swiftly and noiselessly, and some one darted in,--a +tall, slender figure, with gray drapery over the head and shoulders. It +turned and halted, facing the door. Peggy sprang up in bull-dog +silence, and was about to fling herself bodily on the intruder; but an +arm thrown out, a familiar gesture, a whispered word, checked her, and +she stood motionless, hardly drawing breath. Next moment footsteps were +heard in the corridor, as of some one hastening, and making every effort +to be silent. The door was pushed hastily open, and Miss Pugsley stood +on the threshold. She was panting, and her dress was disarranged. + +"Ah!" she cried, in a spiteful whisper. "I have caught you at last, have +I? I know you, miss! No need to hide your face! I know you well enough, +and this is the end of your fine doings. Lift up that veil, I command +you!" + +The gray figure advanced toward her one step, and lifted the veil; and +even Peggy's stout heart turned to water within her. Miss Pugsley +recoiled with a wild shriek from the waxen countenance, the hollow +burning eyes, the fleshless, grinning lips; recoiled, staggered, and +fled back moaning along the corridor. The gray figure dropped its veil +and darted in pursuit. Peggy, running to the door, saw them vanish +around the corner; then she returned, to find Lobelia fallen into a dead +faint, her head hanging over the side of the bed. + +As she bent over her anxiously, rubbing her hands and trying to rouse +her, a single board creaked in the corridor; next moment the gray figure +entered again, this time quietly and without hurry. The veil was thrown +back, revealing a well-known face. The hideous death's head was now +carried in the hand. + +"Sorry if I alarmed you, Innocent!" said Grace Wolfe. "What in the name +of unreason are you doing here?" + +"Oh, Grace, she has fainted!" cried Peggy. "Help me! Bring some water, +do!" + +Grace vanished again, and was back in two minutes with water and +smelling-salts. As they bent over the unconscious girl, bathing her +temples and holding the salts to her nose, a few hurried sentences were +exchanged. + +"What was it? What have you there, Grace?" + +[Illustration: "'OH, GRACE, SHE HAS FAINTED!'"] + +"Oh, nothing; merely Colney's skull; not her own, you understand, but +that of her charmer." + +"But--but the eyes glared! I saw them glare, like fire." + +"Phosphorus, my sweet babe! Hast no chemistry to thy name? 'Twere well +to mend thy ways." + +"And why--what were you doing, Grace? Oh, see what you have done! Look +at this poor child, and tell me why you came to play such pranks in her +room." + +Peggy's voice was stern enough. She forgot her love and admiration for +Grace; she only saw what seemed like wanton cruelty toward a forlorn and +helpless creature, and her blood was up. + +Grace shrugged her shoulders. + +"I am sorry," she said. "I am even very sorry, Innocent. What more would +you have? I didn't mean to come in; indeed, I had no thought of the +little creature at all. I had a vow that the next time that woman looked +through my keyhole she should repent it. I think she did. If she does it +again, I'll shoot her; I've just told her so." + +"Why--how did you know? What did she do?" + +"Oh, child, I can't always tell you how I know things. I feel them in my +bones. This is full moon, and it was borne in upon me that she thought I +would be up to something to-night, and would be upon the watch; so I +went on the watch, too. I arranged a pretty scene of confusion in my +room, open window, things all thrown about,--just as it would look if I +had been having a lark; left the light burning, went and borrowed this +soulful smiler, and treated it a little,--no, Colney knows nothing about +it; no use in getting her into trouble; then I took my mosquito-netting +mantle, and hid in the broom-closet near my door. Sure enough, I hadn't +been there long when along comes my Puggy, in felt slippers, and looks +in at my keyhole. I waited, to make sure, then I came gliding past, +without observing her, you see, corridor being pretty dark. She observed +me, however, and pursued. I led her quite a pretty dance, till I thought +her breath would be getting short, and then I turned in here, partly +because it was handy, partly because--well, I have been in the habit of +passing through here, when the kid was asleep. See! she's opening her +eyes. Speak to her, you! She's more used to you." + +Peggy lifted Lobelia's head into her lap. "How are you now, dear?" she +asked, stroking the thin hair affectionately. "Lobelia, it's Peggy! You +are all right; there's no one here, no one to hurt you. That--that was +only a trick, Lobelia." + +Lobelia moaned, but made no reply. Grace leaned forward. "Peggy is +right," she said, softly. "It was a trick, Lobelia, and not meant for +you at all. I--I never thought about you, I'm afraid. Do you feel better +now? I'm truly sorry, my dear." + +There was no answering look of intelligence in Lobelia's face. She lay +shivering, with wide, frightened eyes. + +"Oh, Grace, I'm afraid she's ill!" said Peggy. "See! she doesn't seem to +know us. What shall we do? Lobelia! Do look at me! Do speak to me! Oh, +Grace, what shall we do? Where are you going?" + +"I am going to call Miss Russell," said Grace. + +Miss Russell came presently, and looked very grave when she saw +Lobelia's face, which was now flushed with fever, her eyes still staring +wide, as if they saw some dreadful vision. + +"What has happened?" she said, briefly. "I must have the truth!" + +Grace told her the truth, every word, not keeping back anything: merely +adding that Peggy had nothing to do with it all. + +"And what were you doing here, Peggy?" asked Miss Russell. + +Peggy explained. "I meant to tell whatever I found out, to-morrow, Miss +Russell," she added. "I thought you would want me to discover what--what +had been going on." + +Miss Russell nodded. "Go to your rooms now, girls," was all she said. +"Or--no; Peggy, ask Miss Cortlandt to send at once for Doctor Hendon. +Grace, you will remain in your room till I come to you." + +Grace tried to rise in obedience; but the sick girl grasped her dress, +and held it tight. "Don't leave me," she said, in a hardly audible +whisper. + +"You don't want me, you poor thing!" said Grace; and though she spoke +low, her tone was very bitter. "Let me go, and you shall never see me +again. Don't trouble about me, Miss Russell. I'll pack my trunk, and be +off in the morning before any one is awake." + +"You will do as I tell you," said Miss Russell, quietly. "Peggy, go +quickly! Now, my poor child, let me take your hand. Move softly, Grace, +and I think you can slip away." + +Grace tried once more to loosen the hold of the cramped, skinny hand, +but Lobelia only clutched the tighter; and now, in her delirium, she +caught Grace's hand with her other one, and held it tight, tight. "Don't +leave me!" she muttered. "Peggy, Peggy, don't leave me!" + +Upon this, Grace looked up at Miss Russell; the hard, defiant look was +gone, the wild blue eyes were swimming in tears. "Let me stay," she +murmured. "Miss Russell, let me stay with her. I'll go away after she +gets well. She thinks I am Peggy, and you know I am a good nurse. Let +me stay and take care of her, and I will bless you all my life, even if +I never see you again." + +"You shall stay," said Miss Russell. "My poor Grace, this may be the +hardest and heaviest punishment I could give you. You shall stay, and +see what your cruel and wilful carelessness has brought to pass. God +help us and you!" + + + + +CHAPTER XVII. + +WAITING. + + +In the dreadful days that followed, Grace Wolfe hardly left the sick +girl's side. The doctor came, and pronounced the trouble a brain fever, +brought on by fear and worry. A trained nurse came and took charge. +Lobelia submitted to her care, but her one conscious instinct was that +of clinging to Grace. Whether, as seemed most probable, she took her for +Peggy, or whether she simply felt and craved the magnetism of the wild +girl's touch and presence, they could not tell; but she was never quiet +save when Grace's hand was resting on her. Her aunt came, her sole +living relative; and seeing her, poor Lobelia was explained. Prim, +fussy, and forbidding, her rich dress showing the same utter +tastelessness that marked that of her niece, Miss Parkins was not the +woman one would have chosen to be the mother of a girl like Lobelia. She +looked at the sick girl, and said it was very unfortunate; she was +always having illnesses, and had given them no end of anxiety. + +"She has had everything that money could buy!" she said, over and over. +"It has never seemed to make any difference; her mother was the same +sort of person, unreasonable, always wanting what she couldn't have. My +brother had a great deal of trouble with her, and Lobelia is like her. I +have tried to do my duty by her. Do you think she will get well, +doctor?" + +"Yes, I do think she will get well!" replied Doctor Hendon, glaring at +her in a way that made Miss Russell feel alarm for her safety. "I think +she will get well if she stays here, and has care and tenderness and +sympathetic treatment. You are her sister?" He turned upon Grace, who +sat beside the bed, passing her light hand over the sick girl's forehead +with smooth, regular strokes. + +"No," said Miss Russell. "This is one of the pupils, Miss Wolfe. +She--was in the room when this attack came on, and Lobelia has clung to +her from the first in a singular manner. I did not dare to remove her, +and so, as you see, she has simply stayed here, helping the nurse." + +"I see!" said the doctor. "I suppose she was--hum! stay close by her!" +this was to Grace. "You have a touch, I see. Probably you have been kind +to her,--poor, forlorn, miserable little creature as ever I saw in my +life!" The last words were hurried out as if they were one, in a gruff, +not to say savage whisper. + +Grace looked up at him. "I am the cause of her illness," she said, +quietly. "I have never been kind to her, or taken any notice of her. I +have come through her room, using it for a passage when I was breaking +bounds, and have frightened her--to death." + +The doctor looked at her under his bushy eyebrows. "That may all be so!" +he said. "All the same, you may now have the chance of saving her life. +Stay by her, that's all I have to say to you." + +"And what have you to say to me, doctor?" asked Miss Parkins. "I have a +great responsibility. Lobelia will inherit a large fortune if she lives. +She has had everything that money--" + +"You can go home!" said Doctor Hendon, with a sudden movement suggestive +of biting. "Go home, and stay there--I--mean, have things ready for her +when she is ready for a change. Good morning! Ya-ouw!" this last was a +manner of snarl with which he favoured Miss Parkins as he trotted out of +the room. The lady stared after him. "Is he a little touched?" she +asked. "He doesn't seem quite sane." + +Miss Russell assured her that Doctor Hendon was eminently sane, and got +her out of the room as soon as possible. + +Grace remained, and hour by hour kept her watch at the sick girl's +pillow, laying her magic touch on the burning brow, singing the soft +songs that seemed more than anything else to soothe the sufferer. So +sitting, hour by hour, day after day, the old life seemed to slip away +from Grace Wolfe. She felt it going, felt the change coming on spirit +and thought, but made no effort to hinder the change. All the +restlessness, the wild longing for freedom, the beating her head against +the friendly bars,--where was it now? She was content to sit here, +watching with the nurse the changes that came over the face of their +patient. They talked together in low voices which soothed rather than +disturbed; one asking, the other relating, the woman of experience and +the eager girl exchanged thoughts and confidences. Many times in the day +the girls came to the door, Peggy and the Owls, and now and then an +anxious, frightened freshman. Peggy had longed to assist in the nursing, +but she had too heavy a hand, and hers was not the gift. Gertrude +Merryweather had it, and she sometimes took Grace's place, and sent her +down for a breath of fresh air and a run with Bertha or Peggy on the +lawn. Grace went obediently, for she knew she must keep up her strength; +but she was always back again at the first possible instant, and her +thoughts never seemed to go with her, but stayed at her post. + +"My dear," said Miss Russell once, "I cannot let you wear yourself out. +Let Gertrude watch to-night while Miss Carter rests!" But Grace only +said, "I'd give my life if I could, Miss Russell. She's going to get +well if my life can do it!" and Miss Russell, looking into the blue eyes +and meeting the spirit of resolution that shone there, could only kiss +the girl's cheek and pass on. + +Lobelia was very ill, and a shadow hung over the whole school. Lessons +went on as usual, but the girls spoke low in their recitations, and +there was an unconscious hurry in both teachers and pupils, all anxious +to get through, to ask and hear the last tidings from the sickroom. In +those days, too, teachers and pupils learned to know each other as never +before. The grave women who cared so much--so strangely much, it often +seemed--whether a lesson were well or ill learned, who made such a fuss +about trifles, and set such hard tasks, and made such unreasonable +rules, behold! they were just as anxious and troubled as if Lobelia had +been one of their own number, instead of the most insignificant +freshman in the whole school. Miss Boyle was not simply a mathematical +machine, Rose Barclay found out. She really cared about them, cared +enough to call them into her room, and want to hear all about that last +walk, when Peggy had killed the rattlesnake,--oh, how brave Peggy had +been,--and how poor Lobelia had seen it, too, and with her inborn terror +of snakes had perhaps got the first panic that, after brooding and +brooding, and being added to the terror by nights, had ended in this. + +Miss Pugsley was gone. Her departure had hardly been noticed, was +well-nigh forgotten by this time; but Colney Hatch found Miss Mink +sniffing mouse-like sniffs in a corner, and wept with her, and offered +her a live bat that she had just caught, by way of consolation. But +their tears were for Grace, for they hardly knew Lobelia save by sight. + +As for Miss Russell and Emily Cortlandt, they were the life and stay of +the school in these days. Steadfast and cheerful, always hopeful, +bringing forward every favourable symptom and sharing it with the whole +school; not a girl of all the seventy-odd who did not feel their +sympathy and friendship like strong hands ready to take theirs and +uphold them. + +One day, when things were at the worst, Peggy found Viola in her room, +crying on the divan. + +"What is the matter?" she asked, rather briefly. Viola's troubles seemed +microscopic in this time of heart-wringing anxiety. + +Viola raised her head, and her eyes were red with weeping. + +"They say she's going to die, Peggy!" she said. + +"Nonsense!" said Peggy, gruffly. "Who says so?" + +"Oh, all the girls. They say Doctor Hendon shook his head when he went +out this morning; you know that's a very bad sign. Oh, Peggy, I wish I +had been good to the poor little thing. You have always been good to +her. I don't believe you suffered as much as I did from her clothes, but +I wish I had been good to her all the same. Peggy, if she gets well, I'm +going to do over her hats for her, and try to make her look different. +Peggy, where are you going? Don't leave me! Lobelia is going to die, and +I feel so frightened." + +"I don't believe she is going to die," said Peggy. "I am going to the +study to see Miss Russell; come with me if you like, V." + +Viola crept along beside her, cowering in Peggy's shadow as they passed +the door of the sick-room. Peggy paused to listen. From within came the +sound of soft singing, and the faint rustle of a wood fire. What was +Grace singing? one of the quaint French songs that she loved,-- + + "Trois anges sont venus ce soir, + M'apportaient de bien belles choses; + L'un d'eux avaient un encensoir, + Le deuxieme un chapelet de roses. + Et le troisieme avait en main + Une robe toute fleurie, + De perles, d'or et de jasmin, + Comme en a Madame Marie. + Noel! Noel! + Nous venons du ciel, + T'apporter ce que tu desires; + Car le bon Dieu, + Au fond du ciel bleu, + A chagrin lorsque tu soupires!" + +The two girls crept softly past, Viola wiping the tears from her eyes. +They went down to the study, and, knocking gently, were bidden to enter. +Miss Russell and Miss Cortlandt were sitting together, and at their feet +sat the Snowy and the Fluffy Owls, curled up on two hassocks. Peggy +looked in timidly. + +"Come in, Peggy!" said Miss Russell's cheerful voice. "Who is that with +you? Oh, Viola? come in, my dear! Do you want anything?" + +"No, Miss Russell," said Peggy. "I--I just wanted to come in, that was +all." + +"So did we!" said the Fluffy. "We just came, and we feel so much better. +Sit down here, Peggy." + +She patted the floor beside her, and Peggy and Viola sat down. Peggy +heaved a sigh of relief. "I thought you would let us come," she said. +"It's so dreadful not to be able to do anything, isn't it, Miss Russell? +If we could help in any way, or feel that we were doing anything at +all, it wouldn't be so bad. I came by the door just now, and Grace was +singing, and it all sounded so quiet and peaceful. You think it is all +going well, don't you, Miss Russell? You don't think she is worse +to-day, do you, Miss Russell?" + +Miss Russell put back Peggy's hair, which had fallen into her eyes as +she looked up eagerly. "Dear," she said, "I was just telling Gertrude +and Bertha how it is. Doctor Hendon thinks there will be a change +to-day; he thinks the crisis is coming. It is a time of great danger, +but he has good hope, and we must have it, too. And, girls, you are all +longing to help; now, you can help us to-day. You can help very much +indeed. The house must be kept absolutely quiet this afternoon. The +girls are in their rooms now; but if you could get them off for a walk, +some of them, and send the rest to the gymnasium, you would be doing us +all a service. Miss Cortlandt is going to the gymnasium, and she will +give them a drill, or let them dance, if they like--you don't think they +feel like dancing? No more do I! I shall not leave Lobelia's room +myself till the change comes; I am going back there now, as soon as the +doctor comes. Ah! there he is now! Remember, dear girls, quiet; and for +the rest, hope and patience--and trust!" + +She kissed them each in turn, quietly and gravely, and was gone. Turning +to Emily Cortlandt, they saw that her eyes were full of tears; yet she +spoke cheerfully. "Miss Russell is so wise, girls!" she said. "I am sure +you will do all you can--it is an anxious time. One thing she forgot to +say,--I wouldn't let the other girls know, if you can help it, how grave +the danger is. Some of them are nervous, and might have hysterics, or +even be ill. Viola, my child, you look very pale. Don't you feel well?" + +Viola was trembling all over. She came close to Miss Cortlandt and +nestled up to her like a little child. "I'm afraid!" she said, simply. +"I never was near where anybody died. I'm dreadfully afraid, Miss +Cortlandt." + +Very gently Emily Cortlandt spoke then to the frightened child, and to +the other three girls, whose strong, sensible faces were grave enough, +but who were able to possess themselves in courage and quiet. She told +them some of her thoughts, the thoughts of a gentle Christian woman; of +the hope and love and promise that made death seem to her only the white +door that led into life, a life toward which we must all look, and for +which we must shape ourselves as we pass through this world of joy and +sorrow. She told them of young lives which had seemed cruelly cut off +here; and of how it was her thought that death had been to them not the +end, but the beginning; and of the lovely light they had shed behind +them, of gentleness and hope and love. Then she spoke more brightly, and +told them how strong, after all, life was in the young, and how one +could always hope, while even a spark remained. Doctor Hendon had good +hope, she repeated, and they must have it, too. + +"And now," she said, "I must go, and you must go, too. Find the girls +quietly, and bring them to me, or take them out for one of your good +walks; and let us, whatever we do, do it cheerfully!" + +Faithfully the Owls and Peggy laboured, that November afternoon. First +they soothed and comforted Viola, finishing the good work that Miss +Cortlandt had begun; and they induced her to go to the gymnasium and +take a party with her. Then they went about softly from door to door +through the corridors, not spreading any alarm, merely saying that Miss +Russell thought they would all better go out, as the afternoon was so +fine, and that they were to go quietly, as Lobelia might be asleep. +Before long, without noise or confusion, the whole school was out, +either in the gymnasium or on the road. The walkers divided into three +parties, Peggy leading the freshmen, Gertrude the juniors, while Bertha +marshalled the sophomores, who came like lambs, half proud, half shy, at +being under the leadership of the renowned Fluffy. The seniors, of +course, could be trusted to take care of themselves. They were a small +class, and somehow--as happens in every school with one class and +another--had never made themselves a power; they had gone now with the +rest to the gymnasium. + +Peggy, as she walked at the head of her troop, tried to feel her cousin +Margaret's hand in hers. Always humble, and distrustful of her own +powers, she tried hard to think what Margaret would do in her place. She +would tell stories, probably, wonderful stories of heroes and great +deeds. Ah! but Peggy did not know the stories in the books; they never +stayed by her. Well, then, she must tell what she did know! She found +herself talking about her home life, the home on the great Western +ranch; of her father and brothers, and the many feats in their strong, +active life. Here, if she had only known it, were stories better than +any in Margaret's books. How Brother Jim hunted the white wolf for three +days in the mountains; how Hugh set the trap for the young grizzly, and +more wonderful, how he tamed him and made him his friend and servant; +how Father Montfort saved the three men who were snowed up in Desolation +Gulch, and brought them out one by one on his shoulders, just as their +last biscuit was gone and they had sat down to die,--on and on went the +tale, for it was a story without an end. On and on went the girls, too, +unconscious of their going, forgetting to think they were tired, +forgetting everything save the joy of listening. The shadows were +lengthening fast when Peggy, still relating, turned her face homeward, +wondering with thankfulness, as she noted the position of the sun, how +she had been able to take them so far without once hearing a groan or a +sigh of weariness. She looked around, and saw only sparkling eyes and +rosy cheeks. "A month ago," she thought, "they would have said I had +almost killed them. They really are hardening, and I'm so glad!" + +"Oh, go on, Peggy!" cried Rose Barclay. "You are never going to stop +there! What became of the one with the wooden leg? We must know!" + +On went the story, and on went the girls; the sun sank lower and lower, +the shadows crept longer and longer, the air grew cool and thin with +the coming night. The man with the wooden leg had chopped it up for +fuel, and Father Montfort had brought him and all the others in triumph +to the ranch, and set them down by the fire, when-- "Oh, dear me!" cried +Ethel Fair. "What a shame, girls! Here we are at the gate. I say! let's +go on a little farther, Peggy." + +But Peggy was wise, and knew when to stop; besides, now that she was +near the house again, the anxiety and distress that had been lulled by +the walk and the story-telling, came back like a flood, and filled her +heart. They were crossing the lawn; what tidings would greet them at the +door? Some one was standing there now; Miss Cortlandt, was it? no, Miss +Russell herself. She was waiting for them with the news; would it be +good or bad? Peggy hung back for an instant; then she walked steadily +forward. "Quiet, girls!" was all she said. "I think Miss Russell has +something to tell us." + +They were at the foot of the steps now; and Miss Russell was coming down +to meet them, running, the grave and stately woman, to meet them, like +a girl. Her hands were outstretched, her face was all aglow with joy, +the glad tears ran down her cheeks. + +"It is over!" she whispered. "Softly, my dear children. Come softly in. +The crisis is over, and the child will live! Come with me, and let us +thank God together!" + + + + +CHAPTER XVIII. + +THE END AND THE BEGINNING. + + +It was a month later. The first snow had fallen, and the lawn was white +with it, and all the trees and bushes powdered with frost. Coming out of +the class-room one day, her heart singing of sines and cosines and +tangents, Peggy found the Snowy and the Fluffy waiting for her at the +door, with radiant faces. + +"Oh, what?" cried Peggy. "A letter?" + +"Yes," said Gertrude. "It has just come, though the postmark is two or +three days ago. Where shall we go to read it? Your room, Peggy? So we +will; it's nearer than the Nest, and I know you can't wait." + +Grace's letters were indeed things to wait for in those days. She had +gone to Lobelia's home with her; for, on coming to herself, the invalid +had still clung to her new friend, with a persistency strange in one so +timid and fearful. Convalescence came, with its unwilling fretfulness, +its fits of unreason. Still Lobelia clung to Grace, and no one else +could make her listen and obey. The nurse laughed, and said she might as +well go, and leave her diploma with Miss Wolfe; yet stayed, for the two +worked together in pleasant harmony and friendship. At last, Doctor +Hendon ordered a change of scene, and now, too, Grace must go with her. +The Parkins mansion was within driving distance of Pentland; the whole +school had turned out to see the departure, the sick girl lying on +cushions, her thin face already showing the signs of returning health, +and really transfigured by the light of love and gratitude that beamed +from it, as she looked from Grace to Peggy, and back again to Grace. She +beckoned to Peggy, who pressed to her side and bent over her. "What is +it, dear?" she whispered. + +"Peggy!" + +"Yes, Lobelia." + +"Peggy, you don't mind?" + +"Mind what? I don't mind anything, now that you are getting well." + +"You--you were my first friend, the only friend I had. You don't +mind--that I love her? I couldn't help it, Peggy. She kept me alive, you +see. Often and often, when I was drifting away, and ready to die, she +held me, and would not let me go. You are sure you don't mind, Peggy?" + +Peggy kissed her heartily, and told her not to talk nonsense. "If you +didn't love her," she said, "I'd have nothing to do with you, Lobelia +Parkins. Do you hear that? Nothing! I wouldn't speak to you in the +street, if I met you." + +Lobelia smiled, and leaned back on the cushions with closed eyes and a +look of absolute content. "You are so funny, Peggy!" she murmured. "She +is funny, too. I like people who are funny. Good-bye, and thank +everybody. Everybody is so kind!" + +The carriage drove away, and the last thing the girls saw was Grace's +face, looking down at her charge; grave as ever,--Grace rarely smiled, +and they hardly knew the sound of her laugh,--but bright as Lobelia's +own with love and purpose and gladness. So they passed out of sight. + +And since then had come letters every week, telling of the child's +progress; one to Miss Russell always, and one to the Owls or to Peggy. +It was one of these that Gertrude took from her pocket now and opened, +as they sat together on Peggy's divan. + +"You see, it is dated three days ago; probably been carried in a pocket, +from the look of it." + + "DEAR SNOWY, ALSO FLUFFY:--Tu whit! She has + been gaining so fast this week, we shall soon + forget she has been ill at all. She can eat + anything she likes, and she likes a great deal. + Miss P. keeps exclaiming at her appetite. + Apparently the child never ate anything before + she went to school. The rule of the house is, + or was, one shredded wheat Abomination for + breakfast, one chop for dinner, one smoked + herring for supper. All this served on huge and + hideous silver dishes. This order is changed. + Miss Parkins almost fainted when I ordered the + first meal. She weeps every day over the + butcher's book, but the child fattens apace, + and all is well. I had to frighten her--the + aunt--a little, though, before things went + smoothly. + + "Yesterday we explored the house, the Babe and + I. The amazing thing is that she lived at all + after she got her eyes open. Apparently every + article cost a thousand dollars; most awful old + mausoleum you can imagine; you never saw such a + place, for there couldn't be two. The bed I + sleep in has all-round curtains of apple-green + plush, with bead fringe three inches deep. The + mantelpiece and table-top and so on are gray + marble, and the ornaments are two deformed gilt + cherubs holding a slop-jar with a clock-face in + the middle of it. Also two unspeakable + alabaster jugs, three feet high, and two Parian + busts under glass cases. They are supposed to + be Luther and Melanchthon; I think they are + Lucifer and Mammon. Well, the poor little thing + is used to it, and doesn't know what is the + matter. Wait till Monday week,--I mean till + some future day,--and she shall know, but not + now. She doesn't think it a homelike house, she + says! + + "I shall be coming back almost any time now, as + soon as I can get away. It's dreadful to leave + her,--'I'm wae to think upo' yon den, e'en for + her sake,'--but I must get back before exams, + and she is really all right, only not of course + wholly strong yet. She will come back next + term; and meanwhile she is to travel with an + old servant who was her nurse, and who has some + spark of humanity in her composition. + + "I'm coming back, I tell you; at least, + something is coming back. I don't say whether + it will be the Goat or the Wolf, or what; I'm + pretty sure that-- + + "'Lawk a mercy on me, + This is none of I!' + + "Good-bye, you feathered things! How do + feathers feel? How do you get about? There are + good points about the creature, I can see that; + you can see in the dark--but so could the Wolf! + and it would be nice to be able to ruffle up + your feathers and put a tongue in every wound + of Puggy's--but she is gone, isn't she? Alas! + and if you don't know Shakespeare when I talk + him, why, you are an ignorant set, and don't + deserve your names. This is for the Innocent, + too, mind! Give her my love, and tell + her--never mind; I'll tell her myself. + + "So no more at present, Respected Fowls, from + your most obedient, humble servant, + + "THE HYBRID." + +The three girls were silent for a moment after Gertrude had folded the +letter again. Then, "Do you suppose she will really be changed?" asked +Peggy. "I--I don't think I want Grace to be changed, do you, girls?" + +"That depends!" said Bertha, with her chin on her hands, in her +favourite judicial attitude. "Of course it would be despair if we +should lose her real, true self. If she could only stay Grace Wolfe, and +change her point of view, why, then--" + +"That is just what she will do, I feel sure of it," said Gertrude, +earnestly. "She has been through an experience--oh, we can't know what +it has been, girls, because we are just plain people, you know, and +Grace is--well, I think she has genius, or something very like it. If +only the power and the sweetness and brightness are turned into helping, +you see, instead of hindering--oh, how much she can do! and I believe +she's going to do it, too. But come, Fluffy, I must go home. Won't you +come, Peggy? We have half an hour before study-time." + +Peggy followed only too gladly along the corridor; it was always a treat +to spend half an hour in the Owl's Nest. Gertrude was first; she opened +the door of her room, and paused on the threshold with a low cry. Bertha +and Peggy hurried forward and looked over her shoulder--to see a strange +sight. + +Something--or somebody--was sitting on the window-seat. Something gray +and soft. It had a round feathered head, with two feathery horns jutting +from it; it had round bright eyes, which blinked curiously at the +astonished girls. Below the head were--arms, were they, or wings? They +were feathery too, and they drooped over something that might be a +skirt, though no feet were visible. In the gathering twilight the figure +sat on the window-seat and blinked, looking like nothing that was in +heaven or earth; and the three girls stood and stared, holding each +other's hands. Presently the silence was broken. + +"Bubo Virginianus!" said a grave, melodious voice from under the +feathers. "The Great Horned Owl. Description: Large and strongly +organised; ear-tufts large, erectile; bill strong, fully curved; wing +rather long; third quill usually longest; tail short; legs and toes--" + +"Grace!" cried Gertrude Merryweather. + +"Tu whit!" replied the figure. "I may also in this connection remark, tu +whoo! This well-known bird is a resident in all the New England +schools--I should say States--throughout the year. It is not so common +in Massachusetts, Connecticut, and Rhode Island as in the other States, +where, in the vast tracts of forest, it is quite abundant. Samuels. Easy +there! spare the Plumage!" + +The three girls had flung themselves upon the strange figure, which +flapped its arms for a moment, as if contemplating flight. Then, waving +them off with one arm, it lifted the feathered head, and gazed at them +with melancholy blue eyes. + +"Tu whit!" repeated the Scapegoat. "I may be allowed, _in_ this +connection, to repeat, tu whoo! Don't kill me, Innocent; I should be +less useful dead." + +It did seem as if they would hug her to death. They laughed, they cried, +they questioned, they talked, all in one breath; no one would have +recognised the sedate Owls or the sensible Peggy. Grace regarded them +with grave benignity, as she untied the owl's head, and loosed the +feathered cape from her shoulders. + +"Rather neat, I thought?" she said, turning the head around on her hand. +"The beak is a little wobbly, but the general character--eh?--is pretty +good? I couldn't manage the toes and claws; there wasn't time, and, +besides, they would have excited remark, even if the weather had been +warm enough to make them comfortable for travelling. Well, my Snowy, my +Fluffy, how is it? Is there room for another Owl in the forest?" + +"Oh, Grace!" cried Bertha. + +"Oh, my dear!" cried Gertrude; and their arms were around her again, +while Peggy sat down on the floor and fairly burst into tears. + +Grace was silent for a little, her head resting on Gertrude's shoulder. +When she spoke, her voice had not its usual even flow, but hesitated, +almost faltered, now and then. + +"I am going to try!" she said. "It will take a long time, my Owls, and +you will have to be very patient with me. I shall probably never be +wholly domesticated, but--but you will help me, and the Innocent here +will help me; won't you, Innocent?" + +[Illustration: "'WE FOUR AGAINST THE WORLD!'"] + +"Oh, Grace, if I only could? but what can I do? I don't see how I can +ever do anything!" + +"You began it all!" said Grace. "The way you looked--that night I made +you go out, little Peggy. You didn't know, but the face of an Innocent +can be a terrible thing, and I saw, and knew--things I hadn't known +before. No need of going back to that now. But--Snowy--Samuels says I +make an amusing pet in captivity. You'll try me?" + +"Won't we!" cried the Snowy Owl. "Grace, dear, we'll all try together. +Oh, we all have to keep trying, don't we, all our lives long? It +wouldn't be worth anything if we didn't have to try, to work and fight +for it. It shall be we three against the world,--the Snowy, the Fluffy, +and the Horny. No, we four, for what should we do without our Peggy? Get +up, Peggy, you ridiculous child; stop crying, and come and sit here +close by us." + +"Oh!" cried Peggy. "Isn't there some kind of Owl that I could be? I am +too stupid, of course, but I might be a screech-owl, don't you think +so, Snowy?" + +Grace held up her hand. "Forbid the thought!" she said, gravely. "Who +would get us our mice? We must have a Human Being connected with us. I +think of moving into Bedlam, as Colney has a fine assortment of mice on +hand generally. I refuse bats, probably on account of the strong musky +odour, but a mouse dragged across the floor of my cage fills me with +excitement. Samuels, part of it at least. No, we must have a Human Being +in the Owlery, and that Human Being must be the Innocent. We Four +against the World, then! Hands on it, my Owls!" + +The four girls stood up, and, joining hands, looked in each other's +faces. "We Four against the World!" they repeated. "The Snowy, the +Fluffy, the Horny, and the Innocent; Hurrah for us!" and the shout they +raised brought the whole corridor running to see what was going on. + + +THE END. + + * * * * * + +Transcriber's Notes: + +Obvious punctuation errors repaired. + +Page 5, caption was missing from original. Added from the List of +Illustrations. + +Page 233, "all" changed to "a" (For a reply) + +Page 301, "does't" changed to "doesn't" (and doesn't know that) + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Peggy, by Laura E. 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