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diff --git a/26549-8.txt b/26549-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..a5b89dd --- /dev/null +++ b/26549-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,4805 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Caps and Capers, by Gabrielle E. Jackson + +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: Caps and Capers + A Story of Boarding-School Life + +Author: Gabrielle E. Jackson + +Illustrator: C. M. Relyea + +Release Date: September 7, 2008 [EBook #26549] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK CAPS AND CAPERS *** + + + + +Produced by Roger Frank and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net + + + + + +------------------------------------------------------------------------ + +CAPS AND CAPERS + +------------------------------------------------------------------------ + +[Illustration: _Frontispiece--Caps and Capers_. +"NOW, GIRLS, COME ON! LET'S EAT OUR CREAM." See p. 92.] + +------------------------------------------------------------------------ + +CAPS and CAPERS +A Story of Boarding-School Life + +by +GABRIELLE E. JACKSON + +Author of "Pretty Polly Perkins," +"Denise and Ned Toodles," "By Love's +Sweet Rule," "The Colburn Prize," +etc., etc. + +With illustrations +by C. M. Relyea + +PHILADELPHIA +HENRY ALTEMUS COMPANY + +------------------------------------------------------------------------ + +Copyright, 1901, by Henry Altemus + +------------------------------------------------------------------------ + +To +the dear girls of "Dwight School," +who, by their sweet friendship, have unconsciously helped to make +this winter one of the happiest she has ever known, this little +story is most affectionately inscribed by the AUTHOR. + +------------------------------------------------------------------------ + +CONTENTS + +CHAPTER PAGE + I. Which Shall It Be? 13 + II. "A Touch Can Make or a Touch Can Mar" 21 + III. "A Feeling of Sadness and Longing" 29 + IV. New Experiences 41 + V. Two Sides of a Question 53 + VI. Dull and Prosy 63 + VII. The P. U. L. 71 + VIII. Caps and Capers 81 + IX. A Modern Diogenes 89 + X. "They Could Never Deceive Me" 97 + XI. "La Somnambula" 107 + XII. "Have You Not Been Deceived This Time?" 119 + XIII. English as She is Spelled 127 + XIV. "Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells" 135 + XV. "Pride Goeth Before a Fall" 143 + XVI. Letters 153 + XVII. "Haf Anybody Seen My Umbrel?" 161 + XVIII. The Little Hinge 169 + XIX. "Fatal or Fated are Moments" 179 + XX. "Now Tread We a Measure." 187 + XXI. Conspirators 197 + XXII. "We've Got 'em! We've Got 'em!" 205 + XXIII. A Camera's Capers. 213 + XXIV. Whispers 225 + XXV. "What Are You Doing Up this Time of Night?" 233 + XXVI. "Love (and Schoolgirls) Laugh at Locksmiths" 243 + XXVII. Ariadne's Clue 253 +XXVIII. "When Buds And Blossoms Burst" 261 + XXIX. Commencement 271 + XXX. "O Fortunate, O Happy Day" 279 + +------------------------------------------------------------------------ + +ILLUSTRATIONS + + PAGE +"Now, girls, come on! let's eat our cream." Frontispiece +"You could have popped me over from ambush." 37 +"Do you wish to join the P. U. L.?" 71 +"Go, tell Mrs. Stone she isn't up to snuff." 109 +"Sthick to yer horses, Moik." 141 +"Let us begin a brand new leaf to-day." 165 +"I feel so sort of grown up and grand." 181 +"An' have ye been in there all this time?" 207 +"Away went Marie, vanishing bit by bit." 231 +"Her hand resting lightly on the arm of her friend." 267 + +------------------------------------------------------------------------ + + + + +CHAPTER I + +WHICH SHALL IT BE? + + +"And now that I have them, how am I to decide? That is the question?" + +The speaker was a fine-looking man about thirty-five years of age, seated +before a large writing-table in a handsomely appointed library. It was +littered with catalogues, pamphlets, letters and papers sent from dozens +of schools, and from the quantity of them one would fancy that every +school in the country was represented. This was the result of an +advertisement in the "Times" for a school in which young children are +received, carefully trained, thoroughly taught, and which can furnish +unquestionable references regarding its social standing and other +qualifications. + +It was a handsome, but seriously perplexed, face which bent over the +letters, and more than once the shapely hand was raised to the puckered +forehead and the fingers thrust impatiently through the golden brown hair, +setting it on end and causing its owner to look more distracted than +ever. + +"Poor, wee lassie, you little realize what a problem you are to me. Would +to God the one best qualified to solve it could have been spared to you," +and the handsome head fell forward upon the hands, as tears of bitter +anguish flooded the brown eyes. + +Can anything be more pathetic than a strong man's tears? And Clayton +Reeve's were wrung from an almost despairing heart. + +For ten years his life had been a dream of happiness. At twenty-five he +had married a beautiful, talented girl, who made his home as nearly +perfect as a home can be made, and when, three years later, a little +daughter, her mother's living image, came to live with them, he felt that +he had no more to ask for. Seven years slipped away, as only years of +perfect happiness can slip, and then came the end. The beautiful wife and +mother went to sleep forever, leaving the dear husband and lovely little +daughter alone. For six months Mr. Reeve strove to fill the mother's +place, but until she was taken from him he had never realized how +perfectly and completely his almost idolized wife had filled his home, +conducting all so quietly and gracefully that even those nearest and +dearest never suspected how much thought she had given to their comfort +until her firm, yet gentle, rule was missed. + +Happily, Toinette was too young to fully appreciate her loss, and although +she grieved in her childish way for the sweet, smiling mother who had so +loved her, it was a child's blessed evanescent grief, which could find +consolation in her pets and dollies, and--blessed boon--forget. + +But Clayton Reeve never forgot, not for one moment; and though the six +months had in a measure softened his grief, his sense of loss and +loneliness increased each day, until at last he could no longer endure the +sight of the home which they together had planned and beautified. + +Unfortunately, neither he nor his wife had near relatives. She had been an +only child whose parents had died shortly after her marriage, and such +distant relatives as remained to him were far away in England, his native +land. His greatest problem was the little daughter. Nursemaids and +nursery-governesses were to be had by the score, but nursemaids and +nursery-governesses were one thing with a mistress at the head of the +household and quite another without one, as, during the past six months, +Mr. Reeve had learned to his sorrow, and the poor man had more than once +been driven to the verge of insanity by their want of thought, or even +worse. + +At last he determined to close his house, place Toinette in some "ideal" +school, and travel for six months, or even longer, little dreaming that +the six months would lengthen into as many years ere he again saw her. The +trip begun for diversion was soon merged into one for business interests, +as the prominent law firm of which he was a member had matters of +importance to be looked after upon the other side of the water, and were +only too glad to have so efficient a person to do it. + +So, before he realized it, half the globe divided him from the +sunny-haired little daughter whom he had placed in the supposed ideal +school, chosen after deliberate consideration from those he had +corresponded with. + +But this anticipates a trifle. + +As he sits in the library of his big house, a house which seems so like +some beautiful instrument lacking the touch of the master hand to draw +forth its sweetest and best, the sound of little dancing feet can be heard +through the half-open door, and a sweet little voice calls out: + +"Papa, Papa Clayton. Where is my precious Daddy?" and a golden-haired +child running into the room throws herself into his arms, clasps her own +about his neck and nestles her head upon his shoulder. + +He held her close as he asked: + +"Well, little Heart's-Ease, what can the old Daddy do for you?" + +The child raised her head, and, looking at him with her big brown eyes, +eyes so like his own, said, reproachfully: "You are _not_ an old Daddy; +Stanton (the butler) is old, you are just my own, own Papa Clayton, and +mamma used to say that you _couldn't_ grow old 'cause she and I loved you +so hard." + +Mr. Reeve quivered slightly at the child's words, and with a surprised +look she asked: + +"Are you cold, dear Daddy? It isn't cold here, is it?" + +"No, not in the room, Heart's-Ease, but right here," laying his hand upon +his heart. + +The child regarded him questioningly with her big, earnest eyes, and +said: + +"Did it grow cold because mamma went so sound asleep?" + +"I'm afraid so; but now let us talk about something else: I've some news +for you, but do not know how you will like it; sit still while I tell it +to you," and he began to unfold his plan regarding the school. + + + + +CHAPTER II + +"A TOUCH CAN MAKE OR A TOUCH CAN MAR" + + +The school was chosen and Toinette placed therein. What momentous results +often follow a simple act. When Clayton Reeve placed his little girl with +the Misses Carter, intending to leave her there a few months, and seek the +change of scene so essential to his health, he did not realize that her +whole future would be more or less influenced by the period she was +destined to spend there. No brighter, sunnier, happier disposition could +have been met with than Toinette's when she entered the school; none more +restless, distrustful and dissatisfied than her's when she left it, nearly +six years later. + +If we are held accountable for sins of omission, as well as sins of +commission, certainly the Misses Carter had a long account to meet. + +Like many others who had chosen that vocation, they were utterly incapable +of filling it either to their own credit or the advantage of those they +taught. While perfectly capable of imparting the knowledge they had +obtained from books, and of making any number of rules to be followed as +those of the "Medes and Persians," they did not, in the very remotest +degree, possess the insight into character, the sympathy with their pupils +so essential in true teachers. + +It is not alone to learn that which is contained between the covers of a +book that our girls are sent to school or college, but also to gather in +the thousand and one things untaught by either books or words. These must +be absorbed as the flowers absorb the sunshine and dew, growing lovelier, +sweeter and more attractive each day and never suspecting it. + +And so the shaping of Toinette's character, so beautifully begun by the +wise, gentle mother, passed into other and less sensitive hands. It was +like a delicate bit of pottery, the pride of the potter's heart, upon +which he had spent uncountable hours, and was fashioning so skilfully, +almost fearing to touch it lest he mar instead of add to its beauty; +dreading to let others approach lest, lacking his own nice conceptions, +they bring about a result he had so earnestly sought to avoid, and the +vase lose its perfect symmetry. But, alas! called from his work never to +return, it is completed by less skilful hands, a less delicate conception, +and, while the result is pleasing, the perfect harmony of proportion is +wanting, and those who see it feel conscious of its incompleteness, yet +scarcely know why. + +We will skip over those six miserable years, so fraught with small trials, +jealousies, deceptions and an ever-increasing distrust, to a certain +Saturday morning in December. + +The early winter had been an exceptionally trying one, and Toinette, now +nearly fourteen years old, had seen and learned many things which can only +be taught by experience. She had seen that in some people's eyes the +possession of money can atone for many shortcomings in character, and that +certain lines of conduct may be condoned in a girl who has means, while +they are condemned in a girl who has not; that she herself had many +liberties and many favors shown her which were denied some of her +companions, although those companions were quite as well born and bred as +herself, and with all the latent nobility of her character did she scorn +not only the favors but those who showed them, and often said to her +roommate, Cicely Powell: "If _I_ chose to steal the very Bible out of +chapel, Miss Carter would only say, 'Naughty Toinette,' in that smirking +way of hers, and then never do a single thing; but if Barbara Ellsworth +even looks sideways she simply annihilates her. I _hate_ it, for it is +only because Barbara is poor and I'm--well, Miss Carter likes to have the +income I yield; I'm a profitable bit of 'stock,' and must be well cared +for," and a burning flush rose to the girl's sensitive cheeks. + +It was a bitter speech for one so young, and argued an all too intimate +acquaintance with those who did not bear the mark patent of +"gentlewoman." + +The six years had wrought many changes in the little child, both in mind +and body, for, even though one had been cramped, and lacked a healthful +development, the other had blossomed into a very beautiful young girl, who +would have gladdened any parent's heart. She was neither tall nor short, +but beautifully proportioned. Her head, with its wealth of sunny, wavy +hair, was carried in the same stately manner which had always been so +marked a characteristic in her father, and gave to her a rather dignified +and reserved air for her years. The big brown eyes looked you squarely in +the face, although latterly they had a slightly distrustful expression. +Hurry home, Clayton Reeve, before it becomes habitual. The nose was +straight and sensitive, and the mouth the saving grace of the face, for +nothing could alter its soft, beautiful curves, and the lips continued to +smile as they had done in early childhood, when there was cause for smiles +only. The mother's finger seemed to rest there, all invisible to others, +and curve the corners upward, as though in apology for the hardened +expression gradually creeping over the rest of the face. + +It is difficult to understand how a parent can leave a child wholly to the +care of strangers for so long a period as Mr. Reeve left Toinette, but one +thing after another led him further and further from home, first to +Southern Europe, then across the Mediterranean into wilder, newer scenes, +where nations were striving mightily. Then, just as he began to think that +ere long his own land would welcome him, news reached him of trouble in a +land still nearer the rising sun, and his firm needed their interests in +that far land carefully guarded. So thither he journeyed. But at last all +was adjusted, and, with a heart beating high with hope, he started for his +own dear land and dearer daughter. + +It must be confessed that he had many conflicting emotions as the great +ship plowed its way across the broad Pacific, and ample time in which to +indulge them. Many were the mental pictures he drew of the girl there +awaiting him, and would have felt no little surprise, as well as +indignation, could he have known that she was left in ignorance of the +date of his arrival. But Miss Carter had reasons of her own for concealing +it, and had merely told Toinette that her father was contemplating a +return to the States during the coming year. It seemed rather a cold +message to the girl whose _all_ he was, for she had written to him +repeatedly, and poured out in her letters all the suppressed warmth of her +nature, yet never had his replies touched upon the subject of her +loneliness and intense desire to see him, but had always assured her that +he was delighted to know that she was happy and fond of her teachers. And +Toinette had not _quite_ reached the age of wisdom which caused her to +suspect _why_ he gave so little heed to such information, although it +would not have required a much longer residence at the Misses Carter's to +enlighten her. Happily, before the revelation was made she was beyond +further chicanery. + + + + +CHAPTER III + +"A FEELING OF SADNESS AND LONGING" + + +The half year was nearly ended, and most of the girls were looking eagerly +forward to the Christmas vacation, which would release them from a +cordially detested surveillance. But Toinette had no release to look +forward to; vacation or term time were much the same to her. She had spent +some of her holidays with her schoolmates, but the greater part of them +had been passed in the school, and dull enough they were, too. + +The past week had been a particularly stormy one, and the outcome had +reflected anything but credit upon the school. Consequently, the girls +were out of sorts and miserable, and the world looked decidedly blue, with +only a faint rosy tint far down in the horizon, where vacation peeped. + +As in most schools, Saturday was a holiday. The day was wonderfully soft +and mild for December, and shortly after breakfast Toinette threw her +golf-cape about her shoulders and stepped out upon the piazza to see if +the fresh air would blow away the mental vapors hovering about her, for +she felt not unlike a ship at sea without a compass. Poor little lassie, +although what might be called a rich girl, in one respect she was a very +poor one indeed, for she had scarcely known the influence of a happy home, +or the tender mother love which we all need, whether we be big daughters +or little ones. True, she had never known what it meant to want those +things which girls often wish to have, but which limited means place +beyond their reach. But often amidst the luxuries of her surroundings, for +her father provided most liberally for her, she would be seized with a +restless longing for something, she hardly knew what, which made her feel +out of sorts with herself and everybody else. + +"What ails you, this morning?" asked her chum, Cicely Powell, joining her +upon the piazza. "You look as solemn as an oyster, and I should think +you'd feel jolly because it's Saturday, and that horrid Grace Thatcher +won't be here to poke her inquisitive nose into all our plans," referring +to the prime mischief-maker of the school, already departed for her +vacation, with the admonition to think twice before returning. + +"I don't know _what's_ the matter with me: I wish I did. Somehow, I don't +feel satisfied with myself or anyone else, and I half believe I _hate_ +everybody," was Toinette's petulant reply. + +"Well, I like that, I declare!" was the sharp retort. "Perhaps you include +_me_ among those you hate, and if that is the case, Toinette Reeve, you +may just do as you like; I don't care a straw." + +Ordinarily Toinette's reply would have been as sharp as Cicely's, but this +time she just looked at her with her big eyes--eyes suspiciously bright, +as though tears lay not far back of them--and walked away, leaving Cicely +to wonder what had come over her. + +"Well, I never!" was her rather vague comment. "I don't see what has come +over Toinette since that last flareup. Mercy knows, we've had so many that +we all ought to be used to them by this time. She has acted as though she +were sorry that that horrid Grace was sent off earlier than the others, +and I'm sure she has as much reason to be glad of it as any of us have. +She did nothing but tell tales about all of us, and peep and spy upon her +more than anyone else. Miss Carter would never have found out about half +the things she did if it hadn't been for Grace, and we could have had no +end of fun," and after this rather prolonged monologue Cicely went to join +the other girls. + +Meanwhile Toinette had drawn the hood of her cape over her head and +strolled down to the lower end of the garden, where a rustic summer-house +not far from the gate afforded a quiet little nook in which to indulge +one's fancies, whether pleasant or painful. Curling herself up in one +corner, she rested her cheek upon her arm, which she had thrown over the +railing, and looked down the road toward the railway station. + +Although a very beautiful one, it was a sad, wistful young face which +turned toward the sunshine and shadows dancing upon the road. Poor little +Toinette, now is the moment in which the mother-love you are unconsciously +longing for would make the world anew for you. If, as you sit there, a +gentle form and face could creep up quietly, slip an arm about your waist +as she takes her seat beside you, and ask in the tender tone that only +mothers use: "Well, Sweetheart, what is troubling you? Tell mother all +about it, and let us see if there is not a sunny lining to the dark cloud +that is casting its unpleasant shadow over this cozy nook." + +Where is the daughter who could resist it? It would not be many minutes +before the head would find a happy resting-place upon the shoulder beside +it, and all the little trials and troubles--trials so very real and very +appalling to young hearts--would be put into words, and lose half their +bitterness in the telling just because love--that mighty magician--had +come to help bear them. + +A great man once said: "O opportunity, thy guilt is great!" and I have +often wondered why he did not add, "or thou art very precious." So much +depends upon an auspicious moment. A big door can swing upon a very small +hinge. + +As Toinette looked down the road with unseeing eyes, the whistle of an +incoming train, brought her back to a realization of things around her. +The station was barely half a mile away, and ere ten minutes had passed a +man appeared in the distance. Evidently the owner of that athletic figure +knew where he was bound, and was going to _get_ there as quickly as his +firm, long strides could carry him. He was a large man, sun-burned to the +point of duskiness, bearded and moustached as though barbers were unknown +in the land from which he hailed. Dressed in servicable tweed +knickerbockers and Norfolk jacket, his Alpine hat placed upon his head to +_stay put_, his grip slung by a strap across his broad shoulders, he came +striding over the ground as though intent upon very important business. +Toinette watched his approach in a listless sort of way, but as he drew +nearer and nearer seemed to recognize something familiar. + +"Who can he be, and where have I seen him, I wonder?" she said, half +aloud, as she peered at him from behind the lattice-work of the +summer-house. + +On he came, quite unconscious of the big eyes regarding him so intently, +and presently stopped to look about him, as though trying to recall old +landmarks. He now stood almost opposite Toinette, when, chancing to glance +toward the house, he became aware of her presence. + +"Why, little lady, you could have popped me over from ambush if you had +had a gun, for I walked straight upon you and never suspected that you +were there. Can you direct me to the Misses Carter's school? The +station-master said it was about ten minutes' walk, but it is so many +years since I have been here that I find I've forgotten the lay of the +land, and I don't want to waste much time, for I've a very precious +somebody there whom I'm very anxious to see. Last time I saw her she was +only about knee-high to a grasshopper, but I suspect I shall find a young +lady now, and have to be introduced to her." + +At the sound of his voice Toinette arose to her feet, her color coming and +going, and her heart beating so loudly that she was sure he could hear it. +As he finished speaking he regarded with very genuine surprise the young +girl who, with parted lips and outstretched hands, was walking toward him +like one who doubted the evidence of her own senses, and with a cry of, +"Papa! oh, papa! don't you know me?" she was gathered into the strong arms +whose owner had travelled half around the globe in order to win that one +precious moment. + +[Illustration: "YOU COULD HAVE POPPED ME OVER FROM AMBUSH."] + + + + +CHAPTER IV + +NEW EXPERIENCES + + +It did not take Clayton Reeve very long to gain a pretty clear idea of the +condition of things at the Misses Carter's school, or to realize what +influences had been brought to bear upon his only daughter. To say that he +was keenly disappointed but mildly expresses it, and he reproached himself +bitterly for having left her so long to the care of strangers. He remained +with Toinette until the school closed for the holidays, and the time was +the happiest she had ever known. Nor was it for her alone, for the other +girls came in for their full share. He was a very liberal man, and it gave +him genuine pleasure to make others happy. + +The Misses Carter lost no opportunity of putting their establishment in a +favorable light, for they had a strong suspicion that they were in a fair +way to lose something of much more tangible value to themselves: a very +handsome income. But Mr. Reeve easily saw through their little foibles, +and was not deceived by the pretty veneer into believing that all was +strong and firm beneath. + +He had traveled about the world too much during the past six years not to +have learned something of human nature, and to read it pretty correctly. +Furthermore, his feeling of self-reproach made him keenly alive to every +change upon Toinette's speaking countenance, and when he saw the look of +questioning surprise which came over it when one or the other of the +Misses Carter made some playful overture at petting her, or one of the +other girls, he drew his own deductions. + +When vacation arrived he settled his bill for the year, bade them a +courteous farewell, and, with Toinette, "scraped the dust from his feet +and left the mansion." Then came a two-weeks' holiday such as she had +never even dreamed of. Mr. Reeve took rooms in one of New York's finest +hotels, and gave himself up to the pleasure of renewing his acquaintance +with his daughter. That holiday was never forgotten by either of them, but +for very different reasons. + +"By Jove," he said to himself more than once, "I've let a good bit of +precious time, and many happy hours, slip away, if I'm not mistaken, and I +don't know whether I shall ever catch up." + +During their stay in the city Mr. Reeve went in quest of his old college +chum, Sydney Powell, Cicely's father, and had an interview with him that +was brief, but very much to the point. + +"Go ahead, Clint, old chap, and find what is needed for the little girls, +if you can. Cicely will never go back to the Carter school, and I should +be glad to have the girls keep together. They seem fond of each other. How +would you like to run out to Montcliff to look up that school? I've had +fine reports of it from Fred Hubbard, whose daughter is a pupil there?" + +And so it came to pass that directly after vacation the two girls were +escorted to Sunny Bank, as the school was called, and, after a very +satisfactory talk with its sensible principal, Mr. Reeve left them to her +care, feeling sure that this time he had not made any mistake. + +Toinette and Cicely had adjoining rooms, and nothing could have been +daintier than the room appointments. From their windows they could look +out over a wide sweep of the western valley, where the sun was just +sinking behind the hills, and leaving upon the sky a glorious promise of +the day to follow. + +They were still busy arranging their pretty trifles about the rooms when +the soft chime of the Chinese gong in the wide hall below announced +dinner. Thus far they had not seen any of the other girls, but as they +stepped from their rooms they were met by Miss Preston, who said, as she +slipped an arm about each waist: + +"I do not forget how lonely _I_ felt when I first entered a strange +school, so let me try to make it easier for my new girls by introducing +some of my old ones; _real_ old," she added, laughingly, as she called to +two girls who were curled up on one corner of the big divan at the lower +end of the hall. + +"Come here, chicks, and let me make you acquainted with Miss Reeve and +Miss Powell. These are Miss Gordon and Miss Osgood, my dears, but as we +are all sort of 'sisters, cousins and aunts' in this big home, I'll just +hint right off that their home names are Ruth and Edith, who will be glad +to welcome my Toinette and Cicely." + +By this time they had reached the cheerful dining-room, and with a very +significant exchange of glances Toinette and Cicely took their seats, the +latter whispering under cover of the bustle caused by the entrance of the +other pupils: "My goodness, if Miss Carter had ever spoken like that to +us, we should have fallen flat, shouldn't we?" + +Ruth sat upon one side, and Edith upon the other, and it did not take the +new girls long to discover that the dinner hour must be one of the +pleasantest of the day, for all talked and chatted in the liveliest +manner, discussing various happenings, and again and again appealing to +Miss Preston, who was not one whit behind in the spirit of good-fellowship +which prevailed. + +There were six tables, each accommodating ten people, and a teacher sat at +the head of each. In every instance a teacher who was wise enough not to +observe _too_ much, but who in reality saw everything, although she could +laugh and joke with the girls, put them at their ease, and at the same +time set them so perfect an example that few girls would have cared to +fail in following it. Far from exercising a restraining influence, they +proved the jolliest of companions, as the repeated appeals to their +opinions, or the requests for some anecdote or amusing story, evidently +old favorites, amply testified. + +When the pleasant dinner was ended the girls gathered in the big hall, +where Toinette and Cicely were introduced to many of the others. + +"What have we to do now?" asked Toinette, whose sharp eyes had been +observing everything worth observing, and whose active mind had received +more impressions within the past hour than it had been called upon to +receive in a year. It is needless to add that she was quick enough to +profit by them, and to appreciate that in _this_ school were taught more +surprising things than chemistry or science. + +"Do?" asked Ruth. + +"Yes; isn't there some RULE to be observed after dinner?" and a rather +ironical tone came into Toinette's voice. + +"Yes; come along, and Edith and I'll show you the rule, as you call it," +answered Ruth, as she caught up the big basket-ball lying upon one of the +chairs in the hall, flew through the door with it, across the piazza and +into the gymnasium beyond. + +After an instant's hesitation the two girls followed, joining her and +Edith, who had run Ruth a lively race. + +"You don't mean to say that the teachers let you run and romp like this, +do you?" demanded Cicely. + +"Let us!" cried Edith in surprise. "Why shouldn't they? We aren't doing +any harm, are we?" + +"No, I don't suppose there is any harm, but if we had done such a thing at +Miss Carter's, what do you think would have happened, Toinette?" + +Toinette pursed her mouth into the primmest pucker, rolled her eyes in a +horrified way, clasped her hands before her, and said, in a tragic tone: +"Young _ladies!_ Such conduct is most _unseemly_," in such perfect mimicry +of Miss Carter that Ruth and Edith shouted. + +"Well, all I can say is, that I'm thankful _we_ were not sent to that +school; aren't you, Ruth?" said Edith. + +"Better believe I am," was the feeling reply. "I get skittish even in this +blessed place sometimes, but if I had been sent there I'd have been just +like one of those little red imps that Miss Preston has standing on her +writing table." + +"Yes, you'd have felt all rubbed the wrong way, just as Cicely and I feel, +and just hate the sight of a teacher, and want to do everything you could +to plague them," said Toinette, petulantly. + +"Well, you won't want to do that _here_" answered Edith, emphatically. "If +you cut any such capers in _this_ school, it won't be the _teachers_ who +will go for you, but the _girls_," with a significant wag of her head. + +"The girls?" asked Cicely, with a puzzled expression. + +"Certain. We think our school about the best going, and we aren't going to +let anyone else think differently, if we can help it; are we, Ruth? So, if +a girl takes it into her head to be rude and cranky to the teachers, or +other girls, she finds herself in a corner pretty quick, I can tell you." + +"Suppose you break the rules?" asked Toinette. + +"Aren't any to break," answered happy-go-lucky Ruth, as she pranced down +the big room after the ball, which had gone bouncing off. + +"No _rules!_" incredulously. + +"Not a single one. All you've got to do is to be nice to everybody, +remember you're a gentlewoman (or you wouldn't be here, let me tell you), +and do your jolly best to pass your examinations. If you don't it is your +own fault, and you have to suffer for it; no one else, that's sure; for +you can have all the help you ask for." + +Toinette and Cicely exchanged glances. + +"Oh, I daresay you don't believe us," said Edith, who had correctly +interpreted the glances, "but just you wait and see. All the new girls +think the same, and I daresay that we should have, too, if we had come +here from some other school; but, thank goodness, we didn't. There aren't +any more schools like this, are there, Ruth?" + +"Nary one; there's only one, and we've got it," cried the irrepressible +Ruth, and two weeks later the girls found that, truly, no rules could be +broken where none existed. + + + + +CHAPTER V + +TWO SIDES OF A QUESTION + + +It could hardly be expected that, after her training of the past six and a +half years, Toinette would at once respond to the wiser, more elevating +influences now surrounding her. The old impulses would return, and a +desire to conceal where no concealment was necessary often placed her in a +false light. She distrusted those in authority simply because they were in +authority, rather than that they ever made it apparent. It seemed to have +become second nature with her, and bade fair to prove a work of almost +infinite patience and love upon the part of the teachers to undo the +mischief wrought in those miserable years. + +But, after making a toy of the poor child for all that time, fickle fate +seemed about to make amends, and, although it was yet to be proven, +Toinette was now launched upon a sunny sea, and destined to sail into a +happy harbor. + +She was sitting in her room one beautiful afternoon about a week after her +arrival at the school, and, unconsciously doing profitable examples in +rhetoric by drawing nice contrasts between her present surroundings and +her former ones. Presently a tap came upon her door, and she called: "Come +in." + +In bounced Ruth, crying: "Come on down to the village with us, will you? +Edith and Cicely are waiting at the gate." + +"Which teacher is going with us?" asked Toinette, suspiciously. + +"Teacher?" echoed Ruth. "Why, none, of course. Why don't you ask if we are +going in a baby-carriage?" and she laughed as she slipped her arm through +Toinette's. + +"You don't mean to say that we will be allowed to go by ourselves?" + +"Toinette Reeve, I think you've got the queerest ideas I ever heard of! +Come on!" + +In spite of Ruth's assurance, Toinette cast apprehensive glances about +her, as though she expected a frowning face to appear around some corner +and rebuke them. Instead, however, they came upon Miss Howard just at the +end of the corridor, who asked in a cheery voice: + +"Where away so briskly, my lady birds?" + +"Only to the village; good-bye," answered Ruth, waving her hand in +farewell. + +"Pleasant journey. You will probably run across Miss Preston down there +somewhere, and can act as bodyguard for her." + +The girls walked briskly on, and presently Cicely asked: + +"What are you going for, anyway?" + +"Some good things, to be sure. I'm just perishing for some +cream-peppermints, and my week's pocket-money is scorching holes in my +pocket as fast as ever it can." + +"Do you think Miss Preston would scold if I got something, too?" asked +Toinette. + +"What would she scold about? You didn't _steal_ the money you're going to +buy it with, did you? And your stomach's your own, isn't it? Besides, when +you've been here a while longer you'll learn that Miss Preston _doesn't_ +scold. If she thinks a thing isn't good for you to do, she just asks you +not to do it, and she takes it for granted that you've got sense enough to +understand why." + +"Oh, I guess you're all _saints_ in this school," replied Toinette, +sarcastically. + +"Well, as near as _I_ can make out, you had a pretty good supply of +sinners where you came from," was the prompt retort. + +When Ruth's pocket was saved from destruction the girls started homeward. +They had not gone far when three of the boys from the large school at the +upper end of the town were seen coming toward them. + +"Oh, jolly," cried Edith, "there are Ned, Allan and Gilbert! Now we'll +have fun; they're awfully nice. Allan has the dearest pony and trap you +ever saw, and is just as generous as can be with it." + +The boys were now beside them, and, raising their caps politely, joined +the party and were introduced to the new girls. This was a complete +revelation to Cicely and Toinette, for at Miss Carter's school boys had +been regarded as a species of wild animal, to be shunned as though they +carried destruction to all whom they might overtake. + +But here were Ruth and Edith walking along with three of those monsters in +manly form, and, still worse, talking to them in the frankest, merriest +manner, as though there were no such thing on earth as schools and +teachers. Toinette and Cicely dropped a little behind, and soon found an +opportunity to draw Edith with them. + +"Don't forget that Miss Howard said that Miss Preston was down in the +village. I'll bet a cookie there'll be a fine rumpus if she catches us +gallivanting with all these boys," whispered Toinette. + +A funny smile quivered about the corners of Edith's mouth, but before she +could answer Miss Preston herself stood before them. She had suddenly +turned in from a side street. As though detected in some serious +misdemeanor, Toinette and Cicely hung back, and Edith remained beside +them. + +With such a smile as only Miss Preston could summon, she bowed to the +group, and said: + +"How do you do, little people? Are you going to let me add one more to the +party? I'm not very big, you know, and I like a bodyguard. Besides, I +haven't seen the boys in a 'blue moon,' and I think it high time I took +them to task, for they haven't been to call upon us in an age. Give an +account of yourselves, young sirs. Before very long there is going to be a +dance at a house I could mention, and you don't want to be forgotten by +the hostess, do you?" + +Toinette and Cicely found it difficult to believe themselves awake. +Touching Edith's elbow, they indicated by mysterious signs that they +wished to ask something, and dropped still further behind. + +"What does it all mean, anyhow? She doesn't really mean to have the boys +at the house, does she?" + +Edith's eyes began to twinkle as though someone had dropped a little +diamond into each, and, without answering, she gave a funny laugh and took +a few quick steps forward. Slipping an arm about Miss Preston's waist, she +said: "Miss Preston?" + +"Yes, dear," turning a pleasant face toward the girl. + +"The girls are planning a candy frolic for next Friday night, and were +going to ask your permission to-day, only they haven't had time yet. May +we have it over in the kitchen of the cottage, and may the boys come, +too?" + +A merry smile had overspread Miss Preston's face, and when Edith finished +speaking, she said: + +"Young gentlemen, I hope you didn't hear the last remark made by my +friend, Miss Osgood; at all events, you're not supposed to have done so; +it would be embarrassing for us all. But, since you did not, I'll say to +her: Yes, you may have your candy frolic, and that is for her ears alone. +Now to you: The girls are to have a candy frolic Friday evening, and would +be delighted to have your company." + +It had all been said in Miss Preston's irresistibly funny way, and was +greeted with shouts of laughter. Toinette and Cicely had learned something +new. All now crowded about her urging her to accept some of their goodies, +and, joining heartily in the spirit of good-comradeship, she took a +sweetie from first one box and then another. Possibly another person, with +a stricter regard for Mrs. Grundy's extremely refined sensibilities, might +have hesitated to walk along the highways surrounded by half a dozen boys +and girls, all chattering as hard as their tongues could wag, and munching +cream-peppermints; but Miss Preston's motto was "Vis in ute," and, with +the fine instinct so often wanting in those who have young characters to +form, she looked upon the question from their side, feeling sure that +sooner or later would arise questions which she would wish them to regard +from hers; and therein lay the key-note of her success. + +She would no more have thought of raising the barrier of teacher and pupil +between herself and her girls than she would have thought of depriving +them of something necessary to their physical welfare. The girls were her +friends and she theirs--their best and truest, to whom they might come +with their joys or their sorrows, sure of her sympathy with either, and, +rather than cast a shadow upon their confidence, she would have toiled up +the hill with the whole school swarming about her, and an express-wagon of +sweets following close behind. That was the secret of her wonderful power +over them. They never realized the disparity between their own ages and +hers, because she had never forgotten when life was young. + + + + +CHAPTER VI + +DULL AND PROSY + + +It is to be hoped that those who read this story will not run off with the +idea that I am trying to set Miss Preston's school up as a model in every +sense of the word, for I am not. I am simply trying to tell a story of +boarding-school life as it really was "once upon a time." And I think that +I ought to be able to tell it pretty correctly, having seen with my own +eyes and heard with my own ears many of the pranks related. The methods +followed and the results obtained may be believed or not; that rests with +the individual reading. Long ago, in my own childhood days, our "old +Virginy" cook used to say to me: "La, chile, dey's a heap sight mo' flies +ketched wid 'lasses dan vingegar," and I have come to the conclusion that +she had truth on her side. + +The girls were by no means saints. Saints, after all, are rather ethereal +creatures, and Miss Preston's girls were real flesh and blood lassies, +brimful of life and fun, and, like most lassies, ready for a good time. + +As Ruth had said, there were no rules; that is, the girls were never told +that they must _not_ do this, or that they _must_ do the other thing. A +spirit of courtesy dominated everything, and a subtle influence pervaded +the entire school, bringing about desired results without words. The girls +understood that all possible liberty would be granted them, and that their +outgoings and incomings would be exactly such as would be allowed them in +their own homes, and if some were inclined to abuse that liberty they soon +learned where license began. + +No school turned out better equipped girls, and none held a higher +standard in college examinations. A Sunny Bank diploma was a sure +passport. When the girls worked they worked hard, and when playtime came +it was enjoyed to the full. Naturally, with so many dispositions +surrounding her, Miss Preston often in secret floundered in a "slough of +despond," for that which could influence one girl for her good might prove +a complete failure when brought to bear upon another. Never was the old +adage, "What is one man's meat is another man's poison," more truly +illustrated. + +But Miss Preston had a stanch friend, and trusted Him implicitly. Often, +when perplexed and troubled, a half-hour's quiet talk with Him close shut +behind her own door would give her wisdom and strength for the baffling +question, and when she again appeared among them the girls wondered at her +serene expression and winning smile, for in that half-hour's seclusion she +had managed to remove all trace of the soil from the "slough," and, +refreshed and strengthened by an unfailing help, could resume her +"Pilgrimage." + +She often said, in her quaint way: "The hardest work I have to do is to +undo," and that was very true. Many times the home influence was of the +worst possible sort for a young girl, or else there was just none at all. +Such girls were difficult subjects. Many had come from other schools, as +in Toinette's case, where distrust seemed to be the key-note of the +establishment, and then came Miss Preston's severest trials. The +confidence of such girls must be won ere a step could be taken in the +right direction. It was a rare exception when Miss Preston failed to win +it. + +"You feel such a nasty little bit of a crawling thing when you've done a +mean thing to Miss Preston," a girl once said. "If she'd only give you a +first-class blowing up--for that's just what you know you deserve all the +time--you could stand it, but she never does. She just puts her arm around +you and looks straight through you with those soft gray eyes of hers, and +never says one word. Then you begin to shrivel up, and you keep right on +shriveling till you feel like Alice in Wonderland. You can't say boo, +because _she_ hasn't, and when she gives you a soft little kiss on your +forehead, and whispers so gently: Don't try to talk about it now, dear; +just go and lock yourself in your room and have a quiet think, and I'm +sure the kink will straighten out. I could lie flat on the floor and let +her dance a hornpipe on me if she wanted to." + +It was not to be expected that all the other teachers would display such +remarkable tact as their principal, but her example went a long way. +Moreover, she was very careful in the choice of those in whose care her +girls were to be given, and often said: "Neither schools nor colleges make +teachers: it is God first, and mothers afterward." And she was not far +wrong, for God must put love into the human heart, and mothers must shape +the character. When I see a child playing with her dollies, I can form a +pretty shrewd guess of the manner of woman that child's mother is. + +Frolics and pranks of all sorts were by no means unknown in the school, +and often they were funny enough, but what Miss Preston did not know about +those frolics was not worth knowing. Her instructions to her teachers +were: "Don't see _too much_. Unless there is danger of flood or fire, +appendicitis or pneumonia, be blind." + +Many of the girls had their own ponies and carriages, and drove about the +beautiful suburbs of Montcliff. If the boys chose to hop up behind a trap +and drive along, too, where was the harm? The very fact that it need not +be concealed made it a matter of course. Friday evenings were always ones +of exceptional liberty. Callers of both sexes came, and the girls danced, +had candy pulls, or any sort of impromptu fun. Once a year, usually in +February, a dance was given, which was, of course, _the_ event of the +season. + +During the week the girls kept early hours, and at nine-thirty the house +was, as a rule, en route for the "Land o' Nod," but exceptions came to +prove the rule, and nothing was more liable to cause one than the arrival +of a box from home. Upon such occasions the "fire, flood, appendicitis and +pneumonia" hint held good. + + + + +CHAPTER VII + +THE P. U. L. + + +"What upon earth are you doing!" exclaimed Toinette, as she opened Ruth's +door, in response to the "come in" which followed her knock, and stood +transfixed upon the threshold at the spectacle she beheld. + +"Cleaning house, to be sure. Didn't you ever do it?" + +"Well, not exactly that way," was Toinette's reply. + +Ruth threw back her head and gave a merry peal of laughter. + +"It _is_ rather a novel way, I will admit, but, you see, I hate to do +things just exactly as everybody else does, so I sailed right in, head +over ears. To tell the truth, now I'm in, I wish it wasn't _quite_ so +deep," and Ruth cast a look strongly savoring of despair at the +conglomeration surrounding her. + +She was seated in the middle of the floor, and almost buried beneath the +contents of every drawer and closet in the room. Not only her own, but +Edith's belongings, too, had been dumped in a promiscuous heap on the +floor, and such a sea of underclothing, stockings, shoes, dresses, waists, +jackets, coats, hats, gloves, collars, ties, ribbons, veils, +dressing-sacques, golf-capes and belts, to say nothing of the contents of +both their jewel boxes, no pen can describe. + +Not content with the contents, the drawers, too, had been dragged out to +be dusted, and were standing on end all about her, a veritable rampart of +defence. + +"I shouldn't think you would know where to begin," said Toinette. + +"I don't, and I think I'll leave the whole mess for Helma to tidy up in +the morning," and up jumped Ruth, to give the last stroke to the disorder +by overturning the tray of pins and hairpins which she had been sorting +when Toinette entered. + +"There, now you have done it!" exclaimed Edith, "and I can tell you one +thing, you may just as well make up your mind to put my things back where +you got them, 'cause I'm not going to," and she wagged her head +positively. + +"Oh, dear me, this is what comes of trying to be a P. U. L.," said Ruth. + +"A P. U. L.?" asked Toinette. "What in the world is that?" + +"_That's_ what it is! I found it stuck up in my room when I got back from +recitations to-day. I've been in such a tear of a hurry for the last few +mornings that my room hasn't been quite up to the mark, I suppose, but +Miss Preston never said a word, and now here's this thing stuck here." + +Toinette took the sheet of paper which Ruth handed to her, and began to +read: + + THE PICK-UP LEAGUE + + Do you wish to join the P. U. L.? + Then listen to this, but don't you tell, + For it's a great secret, and will be--well-- + We _hope_, as potent as "book and bell." + + A P. U. L. has a place for her hat, + And keeps it there; O wonder of that! + Her gloves are put away in their case; + Her coat hung up with a charming grace. + + School-books and papers are laid away, + To be quickly found on the following day. + Then, ere she starts, so blithe and gay, + She tarries a moment just to say: + + "Wait, just a jiff, while I stop to put + This blessed gown on its proper hook, + And tuck this 'nightie' snugly from sight + Under my pillow for to-night. + + "And all these little, kinky hairs, + Which, though so frail, can prove such snares, + And furnish some one a chance to say: + 'Your comb and brush were not cleaned to-day.' + + "Hair ribbons, trinkets, scraps and bits, + Papers and pencils and torn snips, + Left scattered about can prove _such_ pits! + And _in_ we tumble, and just 'catch fits.' + + "And this is the reason we formed the league, + And will keep its rules, you had better believe: + To keep our rooms tidy, to keep things neat, + So much that is 'bitter' may be turned 'sweet.'" + +[Illustration: "DO YOU WISH TO JOIN THE P. U. L.?"] + +When she had finished reading, she sat down on the edge of the bed and +laughed till she cried. + +"Great, isn't it?" asked Ruth. "That's the way Miss Preston brings us up +to schedule time. When I came home from the school-building this afternoon +I thought I'd do wonders; and," she added, ruefully, "I guess I've done +them. Good gracious, I'm so hungry from working so hard that I just can't +see straight. Isn't there something eatable in the establishment?" + +"If that much work reduces you to a state of starvation, what will you be +when it's all done?" asked Edith. "There _were_ some crackers on the +shelf, but land knows where they are now; you've dragged every blessed +thing off of it." + +"There are your crackers, right under your nose," said Ruth, triumphantly, +as she pointed to a box of wafers half hidden under Edith's best hat. +"There's some tea in that caddy, and you can heat some water in the +kettle. What more do you want?" + +Edith scratched a match and held it to the little alcohol lamp under the +tea-kettle, but no flame resulted. + +"Every bit of alcohol is burned out. Have you any more?" + +"Not a drop; used the last to get the pine-gum off my fingers after we +came back from the woods last Tuesday. Here, take the cologne, that will +do just as well," and forthwith the cologne was poured into the lamp, +which was soon burning away right merrily. The water was heated, the tea +made, and four girls sat down in the midst of the topsy-turvy room to sip +tea and munch saltines. + +"I came in to ask," said Toinette, "whether you girls have any secret +societies in this school; have you?" + +"Nary one, as I know of," answered the irrepressible Ruth. "Wish we had." + +"Let's start one," said Toinette. "We had two or three at Miss Carter's; +they had to be secret or none at all, and it was no end of fun. Papa wrote +me that he was going to send me a box of good things before long, and when +it comes let's meet that night and have a feast. He will no doubt send +enough for the entire school, he always does, and I want some of the girls +to have the benefit of it." + +"Don't believe you will have to urge them very hard," said Edith, +laughing. + +"Good!" cried Ruth. "Which girls shall we ask?" + +Toinette named eight girls beside themselves, saying: + +"That will make an even dozen to start with. More may come later, but that +is enough to begin; don't you think so?" + +"Plenty. If we have too many there will be sure to be someone to let the +cat out of the bag. Come on, Cicely, let's go hunt the others up," and, +leaving Toinette and Edith in the orderly (?) room, off they flew. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII + +CAPS AND CAPERS + + +The eight girls were quickly gathered in Ruth's and Edith's room and +listening eagerly to the scheme afoot. It need not be added that it was +unanimously carried, and it was only necessary to choose a name for the +society. + +"Let's all wear masks and caps and cut all sorts of capers. It will be +just no end of fun," cried Ethel Squire, a pretty, bright girl of fifteen +who was always ready for a frolic. + +"Splendid!" cried Toinette, "and Ethel has given me a fine idea for a +name; let's call it the C. C. C." + +"C. C. C.? What under the sun does that stand for?" asked Helen Burgess, a +quiet, serene little body, and a general favorite with the other girls. + +"Guess," said Toinette. + +"Cuffs and Collars Club," said May Foster; "mine cause me more trouble +than all the rest of my toilet, so they are never far from my thoughts." + +"Cake and Cackle Club," said another. + +"Cheese and Cider; a delicious combination when you've acquired a taste +for them!" said Marie Taylor. + +"Clandestine Carnivori," was the last guess, which raised a shout. + +"Good gracious! let me tell you quickly before you exhaust the +dictionary," laughed Toinette; "how will the Caps and Capers Club do?" + +"Hurrah!" cried Ruth, "just the very thing. We'll all wear our bath-robes +and white caps and masks. I've loads of white crepe paper, which will be +the very thing to make them of, so let's sit down and make them right +away. Come on, girls, help clear up this mess, and then I'll find the +paper. I can give the finishing touches to the closets and bureau drawers +to-morrow." + +All turned to with more ardor than skill, and in a very few moments the +conglomeration upon the floor had vanished. How it fared with Ruth and +Edith when it came time to dress has never been disclosed. However, the +room restored to outward order, twelve girls set to work to fashion caps +and masks, and, as the last one was completed, the dressing-bell rang and +all scattered to prepare for dinner. + +The evening hours at Sunny Bank were very pleasant ones, for during the +winter, while days were short and nights were long, there was not much +opportunity for outdoor diversion. Immediately after dinner Miss Howard, +the literature teacher, would place her snug little rocking-chair before +the cheerful open fire in the big hall, and the girls would gather about +her; some on chairs, some on hassocks, and some curled upon the large fur +rug in front of the blazing logs, while she read aloud for an hour. A fine +library in Mont Cliff supplied books of every imaginable sort, and the +girls were allowed to take turns in selecting them; providing, of course, +their selections were wise ones. But with Miss Howard as guide they could +not go far astray, and many a delightful hour was passed before the fire. +Just at present the books chosen were those relating to English history, +and contained good, hard facts, but, when the girls grew a little tired of +such substantial diet, historical novels came handy for a relish. As +England was cutting a prominent figure in the world just then, the girls +were encouraged to keep in touch with the current events, and to talk +freely about them. The last book read, at least the one they were just +concluding, was one which brought into strong contrast the reigns of +England's two greatest queens, and the subject was discussed in a lively +manner. + +The book was finished shortly before the hour ended, and, laying it upon +her lap, Miss Howard began to ask a few leading questions in order to get +the girls started. As always happens, there were some girls not wildly +enthusiastic over historical subjects, and such books did not hold their +attention as a modern novel filled with thrilling situations would have +done. But these were the very ones whom Miss Howard most wished to reach, +and, feeling sure that her chances of doing so through such methods were +far greater than could be hoped for if she pinned them right down to hard, +dry facts, she took infinite pains to make her readings as interesting as +much research and a careful selection of books could make them. + +The conversation was in full swing, and Miss Howard, in high feather over +the very evident impression the book had made, was congratulating herself +upon her choice of that particular volume, when one girl asked: + +"Miss Howard, what particular act of Elizabeth's reign do you think had +the greatest influence upon later reigns?" + +"That is rather a difficult question to answer, Natala. It was such a +brilliant reign and so fraught with portentous results in the future that +it would be very difficult to say that this or that one act was greatest +of all; although, unquestionably, the translation of the Bible was one of +the greatest blessings to posterity. Who can tell me something of great +interest which happened then?" + +"I can!" cried Pauline Holden. + +"I'm more than delighted to hear it," answered Miss Howard, for Pauline +was at once her joy and her despair. Affectionate and good-natured to the +last degree, she was never disturbed by anything, but I put it very mildly +when I say that Pauline did not possess a brilliant mind. + +"Yes," continued Pauline. "There are not many things in history that I +care two straws about, but I remembered that because the names made me +think of a rhyme my old nurse used to say when she put me to bed." + +"Miss Howard's hopes received a slight shock, but she asked: + +"Will you tell us what it is?" + +"It was letting Matthew, Mark, Luke and John out," triumphantly. + +"Letting whom out?" asked Miss Howard, wondering what upon earth was to +follow. + +"Yes, don't you remember they let them out during Elizabeth's reign?" + +"Let them out of _where_?" + +"Why, out of the Tower, to be sure, and it made such a difference in a +history some man was writing just then, because they had had a lot to do +with it somehow--I don't remember just what it was. Maybe one of the other +girls can." + +By this time all the other girls were nearly dying of suppressed laughter, +and when poor Pauline turned to them so seriously it proved the last +straw, and such a shout as greeted her fairly made the wall ring. It was +too much for Miss Howard, and, with one last look of despair, she gave way +and laughed till she cried. + +When the laugh had subsided and they had recovered their breath, Miss +Howard endeavored to explain to the brilliant expounder of English history +that Queen Elizabeth had had more to do with keeping Matthew, Mark, Luke +and John out of the Bible than _in_ the Tower of London. + + + + +CHAPTER IX + +A MODERN DIOGENES + + +"Half-past nine. Sh! Yes, down in the old laundry." + +"Who's coming?" + +"The whole club. No end of fun." + +This whispered conversation took place in the upper corridor. Many of the +girls had come from schools where frolics were looked upon as an almost +heinous crime, and strict rules and surveillance had made their lives a +burden to them. + +It was about ten o'clock when ghostly figures began to slip through the +dark halls. Lights had been extinguished at nine-thirty and all was now +silent. + +Miss Preston was in her room in a remote part of the house, and most of +the other teachers had rooms in the adjoining building. The laundry in +this house was never used, and stout blinds shut out--and in--all light. + +Tap, tap, tap. + +"Who's there?" was whispered from within. + +"C. C. C., open for me." + +The door opened, and in skipped a figure arrayed like the six already +assembled, in a warm dressing-gown and a high peaked paper cap, with white +tissue mask and spy-holes. + +All spoke in whispers, so it was almost impossible to recognize any one. +But this only added to the fun and mystery. "Spread the feast, girls; the +others will soon be here. Let's see, how many are there? Seven! Why don't +the other five hurry? I wonder which ones here aren't here?" one girl +laughingly whispered. + +"They'll come, never fear, but their rooms are nearer 'headquarters,'" +said another. + +"What luck! Miss Preston doesn't suspect a thing. I met her in the hall +just before 'lights' bell, and she said as innocently as could be, 'You +look as though you were quite ready for the "land o' dreams," Elsie, but +so long as you do not take a gallop on a "night mare" all will be well,' +and I could hardly help laughing when I thought how soon I might be +equipped for one." + +"This fudge is my contribution," said another. + +"Hold on, girls! I've a brilliant idea," said Toinette. "Who's got a long +hairpin? Good! that's fine. Now prepare for something delectable," and, +straightening out the pin, she stuck a marsh mallow on it and held the +white lump of lusciousness over the one candle until it was toasted a +golden if rather smoky brown. + +Tap, tap, tap. + +"It's the others. Quick! let them in, for it's half-past ten already." + +The signals were exchanged, and in walked not five but nine more figures. + +"Oh, girls, such luck! Just as I came out of my room I ran right into Maud +Hanscomb's arms, and she _wouldn't_ let me go till I'd told her what was +up and promised to let her and the other girls share our fun. She said +they suspected something was up, and they were bound to share it. And such +a spread! Land knows how they got it! Just look." + +The tubs were now groaning under their burden of king apples, cookies, +which bore a striking resemblance to those served at dinner; crackers, +which had surely rested in the housekeeper's pantry, and, joy of joys, a +huge tub of ice cream, to say nothing of what the original five brought. + +"Now, girls, come on! Let's eat our cream and make sure of it in case of +accidents," said the stout red ghost, in red cap and mask, who presided +over the tub. "No time to get plates, so hand over anything you've got, +and excuse the elegance of my spoon. It's cook's soup spoon, and may give +the cream an oniony flavor, but that will add to the novelty," she said as +she served it. + +"Who is she, anyhow?" asked one girl, who sat eating cream from a soap +dish. + +"Haven't the least idea. One of the old girls, I dare say, but who cares +when she can conjure up such delicacies?" + +As midnight struck appetites and feast came to an end. + +"I vote," whispered one girl, "that we all take off our masks and have a +good look at each other, so we'll know who's who when we meet in public." + +"It's a go," whispered several others, and off they all came. + +"Let's have more light," said the donor of the cream, and reached up and +touched the electric button. + +"Oh! Oh! Oh! Don't! Miss Preston will catch us!" cried dismayed voices, +but Miss Preston herself stood before them, a red mask in one hand and a +great spoon in the other. + +"This isn't the first spread I've attended," she said, "and I hope it +won't be the last. I've had too good a time. I had an idea the old laundry +would prove an inviting place to-night, but I never attend a feast without +my tub and candle--or electric light in this twentieth century--for, like +another mortal who had a fancy for tubs and a candle, I am in search of +honest folk. + +"Your spread was a great success, girls. Only next time let me know +beforehand. I may not be able to be present in person, but I can still +furnish the tub and light, and it will be a comfort to me to know the menu +in order to guard against future ills. Good-night. I'm ready for my bed, +and I shouldn't wonder if you were, too," and, with a flourish of her red +cap and big spoon, Miss Preston slipped through the door. + +Some very wise ghosts sped away through the dark corridors, and whispered +conversations were held far into the "wee, sma' hours." + +The next day the story was all over the school, and met with various +comments. One of Miss Preston's combined torments and blessings was the +teacher of chemistry, a thoroughly conscientious woman, and exceptionally +capable, but a woman who took life very seriously. Miss Preston used to +say that Mrs. Stone must have been forty years old when she was born, and +consequently had missed all her child and girlhood. She was kind and just +to the girls, but could not for the life of her understand why they _must_ +have fun, and that fun in secret was twice the fun that everybody knew +about. + +Well Miss Preston knew that Mrs. Stone would take advantage of her +privilege as an old friend, as well as one of the oldest teachers, and +come in her solemn way to discuss the latest escapade, pro and con, so she +was not in the least surprised when there came a light tap upon her door +that afternoon, and Mrs. Stone entered. "'Save me from my friends,'" +quoted Miss Preston, under her breath. + + + + +CHAPTER X + +"THEY COULD NEVER DECEIVE ME" + + +"Well, Mrs. Stone, what can I do for you, and why such a serious +expression?" + +"My dear Marion," said Mrs. Stone, using Miss Preston's Christian name, as +she sometimes did when more than usually solicitous of her welfare, "I've +come to have a little talk with you regarding what happened last night, +and I'm sure you will not take it amiss from one who has known you since +your childhood." + +"Do I often take it amiss?" asked Miss Preston, with an odd smile. + +"Indeed, no; you are most considerate of my feelings, and I fully +appreciate it, considering our business relations. Of course, I have not +the slightest right to dictate to you, nor would I care to have you regard +it in the light of dictation. It is only my extreme interest in your +welfare that prompts me to speak at all." + +"And is my welfare in serious peril now?" asked Miss Preston, half +laughing as she recalled the previous evening's prank and her own very +thorough enjoyment of the fun. + +"No, my dear, not in peril, but I fear that you will never grow to look +upon your position in the world with sufficient seriousness, for, I assure +you, your responsibility is enormous." + +"Would I could forget that mighty fact for one little fleeting moment," +thought Miss Preston, but, aloud, she asked: + +"And do you think that I am not fully conscious of it, Mrs. Stone?" + +"Oh, most conscious! most conscious! You could not be more conscientious, +I am sure, but you sometimes let a misdemeanor, such as occurred last +night, go unpunished, and it establishes an unfortunate precedent, I +fear." + +"Did you ever know me to punish any girl placed in my charge?" asked Miss +Preston, a slight flush creeping over her face. + +"Certainly not! Certainly not!" cried Mrs. Stone, hastily, for she had +touched upon a point which she knew to be a very sensitive one with her +principal, and wished to smooth matters down a trifle. "I do not mean +punishment in the generally accepted term, but do you think it wholly wise +to let the girls feel that they can do such things and, in a measure, find +them condoned?" + +"Do you think that forbidding them would put an end to them?" + +"Merely forbidding might not do so, but exacting some penalty for such +disobedience would probably make them think twice before they disobeyed +again." + +"Did they disobey this time?" Miss Preston asked quietly. + +Mrs. Stone looked a trifle disconcerted as she answered: + +"Possibly it was not direct disobedience, but it certainly savored of +deceit." + +"I should be glad to have you ask any girl who has become a member of that +comical C. C. C. if she thinks she has been guilty of deceit, and I'll +venture to say that she will look you squarely in the eyes and say: +'Deceit! How could _that_ fun be deceitful?'" + +"Do you not think that it may lead to other undesirable lines of +conduct?" + +"It may lead to other sorts of innocent fun," was the dry remark. "Mrs. +Stone, were you ever young? Surely, you have not forgotten what the world +looked like then. Wasn't it invariably the thing you were least expected +to do that it gave you the most satisfaction to do? Listen to me one +moment, for, while I appreciate your sincere interest in my work and +myself, I cannot allow you to run off with the idea that I regard my girls +as prone to deceitful actions. It is just fun, pure and simple, and the +natural result of happy, healthy girlhood. Far better let it have a safe +vent than try to suppress it, and take very strong chances of directing it +into less desirable channels. At the worst, a deranged stomach can follow, +and a glass of bi-carbonate of soda-water is a simple remedy, if not an +over-delightful one. I knew all about the feast several days ago, and took +my own way of letting the girls know that I'd found it out. It was no use +to forbid it for that night, for, just as sure as fate, they would have +planned it for another, and devoured a lot of stuff far less wholesome +than the contents of Toinette's box and my tub. As it was, we all had a +good time, and I'll warrant you that the next time the C. C. C.'s meet +I'll get a hint regarding the tub, at any rate." + +"Perhaps it will prove so. I trust so, at all events. You are a far wiser +woman than I am." + +"Perhaps no wiser, but better able to recall the things which helped to +make my girlhood a sunny one, and school frolics played no small part in +them." + +"I can but hope that the girls will refrain from practicing deceit. Of +course, they cannot deceive _me_; no girl has ever yet succeeded in doing +so, although many have tried to. But I can invariably detect the sham, and +meet it successfully." + +"I hope you may never find yourself undone," said Miss Preston, with a +laugh. "Girls are pretty quick-witted creatures." + +Girls are not blind to their elders' weaknesses and pet delusions, and it +was an understood thing among them all that Mrs. Stone was easily "taken +in," to use their own expression. Consequently, they told her things, and +laid innocent little traps for her to walk into, such as they would never +have thought of doing for a more wide-awake teacher, or, at least, one who +did not make such a strong point of her power of discernment. + +It was the very night after the Caps and Capers escapade that the girls +were gathered in the upper hall talking about the previous night's fun. + +"It's no use talking; you _can't_ get ahead of Miss Preston," said one of +the older girls. "You may think you have, and feel aglow clear down to the +cockles of your heart, then--whew! in she walks upon you as cool as--" + +"Ice cream!" burst in another girl. "To my dying day, girls, I shall never +forget that red ghost." + +"How did she ever find it out, I'd like to know," asked Toinette. "Not a +soul said a word, and my box didn't come till the very last minute. I +hardly had time to let the girls know, and how Miss Preston ever got her +tub of cream in time is more than I can puzzle out. Maybe Mrs. Stores had +it on hand." + +"Mrs. Stores! Yes, I guess so," cried the girls, scornfully. "You don't +for one moment suppose that _she_ would let us have a whole tub of ice +cream, do you? Not much," said Lou Perry. + +"Why, if Miss Preston wanted it it would be different, you see," answered +Toinette. + +"No, it wouldn't, either. Miss Preston never bothers with the housekeeping +or the housekeeper, although she is always just as lovely to her as she +can be--she is to everybody, for that matter." + +"For my part, I'm glad she found it out," laughed Cicely, "but if I'd +suspected beforehand that she would, wild horses wouldn't have dragged me +into that laundry. It's pretty easy not to be afraid of such a teacher; +she seems just like one of us. Wasn't she too funny with that big spoon +and the red mask?" + +"Are all the other teachers so quick to 'catch on?'" asked Toinette. + +"Most of them are sharp as two sticks," replied Ethel, "but they never let +on. There is only one who makes the boast that she has never been deceived +by any girl, and we've all been just wild to play her some trick, only +we've never yet hit upon a really good one." + +"You ought to get Toinette to do the scene from 'Somnambula,'" said +Cicely, laughing. + +"What is it? What is it? What is it?" cried a half-dozen voices. + +"The funniest thing you ever saw in all your born days," said Cicely. + +"Oh, tell us about it; please, do," begged the girls. + +"Let her do it for you; it will be ten times funnier than telling it." + +"When will you do it?" + +"To-night, if I can manage it; it will be a good time after last night's +cut-up." + + + + +CHAPTER XI + +"LA SOMNAMBULA" + + +When the bell for retiring rang at half-past nine that night, it produced +a most remarkable effect, for, instead of suggesting snug beds and +dream-land, it seemed instantly to banish any desire for sleep which the +previous study hour from eight to nine had aroused in several of the +girls. + +They all went to their rooms, to be sure, but once within them a startling +change took place. Instead of undressing like wise young people, they +slipped off their dresses, and put on their night-dresses over the rest of +their clothing, then all crawled into bed to await the first act of "La +Somnambula." + +They had barely gotten settled when footsteps were heard coming softly +down the corridor, as though the feet taking the steps were encased in +wool slippers, and the owner of those feet wished to avoid being heard. A +few steps were taken, then a pause made to listen, then on went the +cat-like tread from door to door. + +Toinette's and Cicely's rooms communicated, and just beyond, with another +communicating door, was the room occupied by Ruth and Edith, but the door +was always fastened. Perhaps Miss Preston considered three communicating +rooms altogether too convivial, and decided that "an ounce of prevention +was always worth a pound of cure." + +As the stealthy footfalls passed on down the hall, a light tap fell upon +Toinette's door, and, springing out of bed, she flew to give a +corresponding tap, and listen for what might follow. + +"Sh-h!" came in a whisper from the other side. + +"Yes," was the low reply. + +"Did you hear the 'Princess' walk down the hall?" The Princess was the big +Maltese house cat, and a privileged character. + +"A pretty big _cat_," was whispered back. + +"That was Mother Stone, and she was just as anxious to avoid being heard +by Miss Preston as she was anxious to hear what might be going on in our +rooms. If Miss Preston caught her listening at anybody's door, she would +be angrier than if we sat up all night." + +"What does she think we're up to, anyway?" whispered Toinette. + +"No telling, but she knows we had a frolic last night and is on the +lookout for another to-night, I guess." + +"Maybe she won't look in vain," laughed Toinette, softly. + +Twelve o'clock had just been struck by the tall clock in the lower hall, +when a white figure walked slowly down the corridor. Her hair fell in +long, waving ringlets far below her waist, her pretty white hands were +outstretched in front of her, and the great eyes, wide open, stared +straight before her with a strange, unseeing stare. As she walked along +she whispered softly to herself, but the words were hardly audible. On she +went, through the long corridor, down the little side hall, which led to +the pantry below, still muttering in that uncanny manner. + +It had long been a standing joke in the school that Mrs. Stone slept like +a cat, with one eye open and one ear alert for every sound, for she was +continually hearing burglars, or marauders of some sort or other. So it is +not surprising that before that ghost had gone very far another white +figure popped its head out into the hall and uttered a smothered +exclamation at sight of number one. + +"Dear me! dear me!" she murmured, "my suspicions were not amiss. Poor, +dear Marion, is so very self-confident. I was sure the last night's folly +would lead to something else. Such is invariably the case," and she +followed rapidly after the figure which was just vanishing around the turn +in the lower hall. + +"Those children are certainly planning another supper, and, what is far +worse, are adding to the discredit of such an act by resorting to +dishonest means of procuring the wherewithal for it. Oh, it is shocking, +shocking! And yet Marion cannot be convinced that her girls are capable of +deceit. Poor child, poor child, it is fortunate for her that there is +someone at hand to come to her rescue at such a crisis," and Mrs. Stone +reached the bottom of the stairs just as the evil-intentioned ghost +slipped into the housekeeper's pantry. + +"Really, I must be quite sure before I speak, or I may bring about still +greater trouble. But what _can_ she want here at this hour of the night if +it be not some of Mrs. Store's provisions?" and she wrung her hands in +despair. + +A dim light burned in the lower hall, rendering everything there plainly +visible from above; and if Mrs. Stone had not been so distressed by that +which was before her, she might have been aware of certain happenings just +above her. Why did not some good fairy whisper in her ear just at that +moment: "An' had you one eye behind you, you might see more detraction at +your heels than fortune before you," but there were apparently none out of +Dream Land. + +As her foot touched the lower step, five or six heads peered over the +banister railing above, and what mystery of gravitation prevented as many +bodies from toppling over after them I am unable to say. + +"Do look! Do look! She is after her full tilt, girls," whispered Cicely. +"Didn't I tell you it would be the funniest thing you ever saw?" + +"Sh! She'll hear us, and the whole thing will be spoilt," said Ethel. + +"No, indeed, she won't," answered Ruth, "she is too intent upon catching +Toinette." + +"O, why _can't_ I stretch my neck out a yard or two so that I may see what +is going on in that pantry? Come on girls, I'm going downstairs if I die +for it," and down crept Lou, followed by all the others, for there was no +lack of bedroom slippers at Sunny Bank. + +Meantime Toinette had entered the store-room, and, going straight to the +corner where some smoked hams and bacon were hanging, took a monstrous ham +from its hook, then, muttering, "Crackers, too, crackers, too," opened the +cracker box and drew forth a handful. + +Mrs. Stone was thoroughly scandalized, but, just as she was about to +speak, Toinette turned full upon her and said: + +"Yes, I will have some mustard, and a beefsteak, and baked beans, please. +Mrs. Stores had some on the table to-night." + +By this time Mrs. Stone began to realize that the girl was not accountable +for her actions, for never was there a better bit of acting for an +amateur. Yet she dared not wake her, for stories of the serious harm which +had befallen somnambulists, when wakened suddenly in unfamiliar +surroundings, flashed through her brain, and she was nearly beside herself +with anxiety. + +"What shall I do? what _shall_ I do?" she said aloud in great distress; +and, as though in answer to her question, Toinette answered: + +"Go, tell Mrs. Stone that she isn't up to snuff as much as she thinks she +is." + +This was too much, and, laying her hand gently on Toinette's arm, she +said, softly: + +"My dear child, hadn't you better come back upstairs with me?" + +Without changing her expression, Toinette replied: + +"How oats, peas, beans and barley grow, nor you, nor I, nor Mrs. Stone +knows," and began to dance around in a circle with her ham tightly clasped +in one arm, and the crackers scattering from one end of the pantry to the +other. + +Now thoroughly alarmed, and almost in tears, Mrs. Stone said: + +"Oh, my dear, dear little girl, won't you come back to your room with me?" +and, grasping hold of Toinette's arm, endeavored to lead her from the +pantry. + +[Illustration: "GO, TELL MRS. STONE SHE ISN'T UP TO SNUFF."] + +But my lady was having altogether too good a time to end her frolic so +soon, while the audience upon the stairs were nearly dying from their +efforts not to scream. So, without changing that dreadful stare which she +had maintained throughout her performance, she said, as though repeating +Mrs. Stone's own words: + +"Come back--come back--come back, my Bonny, to me," and turned to leave +the pantry. She had barely gotten outside the door, however, when she +paused, and, muttering something about lemons and pickles, slipped away +from Mrs. Stone's grasp and disappeared within the pantry again. + +Trembling with excitement, Mrs. Stone stood for one instant, and then +saying, "Miss Preston must be called, Miss Preston must be called," turned +and literally flew up the stairs, for once too lost to everything but the +matter in hand to be aware of anything else, which was certainly fortunate +for the white-robed figures, which nearly fell over each other in their +scramble to escape. + + + + +CHAPTER XII + +"HAVE YOU NOT BEEN DECEIVED THIS TIME?" + + +When Miss Preston arrived upon the scene Toinette was serenely making her +way upstairs, her burdens still in her arms, but supplemented by several +lemons and a bottle of pickles. She took no notice whatever of the new +arrival, but walked straight to her own room, and, placing her treasures +upon her bed, covered them carefully with her bedclothes. At this covert +act poor Mrs. Stone gasped despairingly, and, grasping Miss Preston's arm, +said, in a most tragic whisper: "Marion, Marion, what did I tell you?" + +But "Marion" was very much alive to the situation, and, had not a slight +quiver about Toinette's mouth while Mrs. Stone was speaking confirmed her +suspicions, some very audible giggles from the rooms close at hand would +have done so. + +Having tucked her ham snugly to bed, Toinette proceeded to tuck herself +there, and, with a sigh as innocent as a tired infant's, she closed those +staring eyes and slipped off to the land of dreams. + +"Well, I think the first act is ended," said Miss Preston, with the +funniest of smiles, "and we shall not have the second to-night, at any +rate. But this one was certainly performed by a star," and, stepping to +Toinette's bedside, she quietly drew from beneath the covers the "dry +stores" there sequestered, placed them upon the table, and then smoothed +the clothes carefully about her. + +Mrs. Stone began to gather up the articles Miss Preston laid upon the +table, and, consequently, did not see her slyly pinch the rosy cheek +resting upon the pillow nor the flash of intelligence which two big brown +eyes sent back. + +They then left Toinette to her slumbers (?), and, after carrying the +pilfered articles back to the housekeeper's pantry, returned to Miss +Preston's room, where Mrs. Stone dropped into the first chair that came +handy. She was as near a nervous collapse as she well could be, and came +very close to losing her temper when Miss Preston seated herself upon her +couch, clasped her hands before her, and laughed as poor Mrs. Stone had +never known her to laugh before. + +"Why, Marion! Marion!" she cried. "_Have_ you taken leave of your +senses?" + +It was some seconds before Miss Preston could control her voice enough to +reply, and, when she did, it proved the very last straw to complete Mrs. +Stone's discomfiture, for her words were: + +"Mehitable Stone, had anyone told me that I was sheltering beneath my +roof-tree such a consummate actress, I should have been the most surprised +woman in Montcliff. Upon my word I never saw anything better done." + +"Acting!" exclaimed Mrs. Stone, aghast. "You do not for one moment imagine +that poor child was acting? Impossible! Why, she was as sound asleep as +she ever was in all her life, and there was not the least sign that she +was conscious of my touch when I took hold of her arm to lead her from the +pantry. Do you suppose it would have been possible for her to dissemble to +that extent? _Never!_" + +Miss Preston did not answer, but laughed softly again. + +It was too much for Mrs. Stone; rising suddenly to her feet, she said, +with asperity: "It is useless for us to discuss the matter further +to-night, nay, _this morning_," looking at the tiny clock ticking away +upon Miss Preston's desk, "but I trust that in broad daylight you may see +more clearly. For my part, nothing will ever convince me that that child +was deceiving me; my knowledge of girls is too perfect. It was a most +pronounced case of somnambulism, the outcome of last night's injudicious +eating, and, in my opinion, a very alarming condition, as one can never +tell to what it may lead. Her digestion may be seriously impaired. It is +quite unsafe to leave her alone to-night, for she may be seized with +another attack at any moment. I shall spend the remainder of the night +upon the couch in her room," and away she went to take up her sentinel +duty. + +"It is quite unnecessary," called Miss Preston after the retreating +figure, but no heed was given to the words, and when Toinette waked in the +morning what was her surprise to find Mrs. Stone bending over her asking, +in the most solicitous of voices, if she were feeling quite well. + +For a moment Toinette was unable to take in the situation, but her wits +got into working order pretty quickly, and only her quivering lips would +have betrayed her to a more discerning person. Mrs. Stone, however, saw +nothing but an inclination to weep, and, stooping over Toinette, said, +soothingly: "There, there, dear, don't hurry to rise, you are a little +nervous this morning and ought to rest." + +But Toinette was at the breakfast table as promptly as anyone, and as she +took her seat she gave a quick glance toward Miss Preston; but that astute +woman was pouring cream into her coffee-cup. An hour later, when all were +scurrying about getting ready for the walk to the schoolhouse, which was +situated several blocks from the home house and its adjacent cottages, +Toinette came face to face with Miss Preston in one of the upper halls. +Both stopped short, looked each other squarely in the eyes, and said +nothing. Then Miss Preston's eyes began to smile, and her mouth followed +their example, and, placing one finger under Toinette's chin, she said: + +"I am forced to admit that it was one of the funniest things I've ever +seen, and extremely well done, but it scared Mrs. Stone nearly to death; +so, please, don't favor us with the second act." + +And that was the only allusion ever made by Miss Preston to the midnight +ramble, nor was it ever repeated for Mrs. Stone's benefit, although +nothing could ever have persuaded the good lady that she had been the +victim of a hoax that night. + +It would have been difficult to find a more consummate teacher than Miss +Preston, or one who, without their ever suspecting it, could so bring her +girls up to the mark. It was a rare exception when she failed to +accomplish her aim, and her tact was truly wonderful. There was rarely a +harsh word spoken, although Miss Preston could speak sharply enough when +occasion required. But she seldom felt that it did. She had most unique +methods, and they proved wonderfully successful. Then, too, some very +old-fashioned ideas were firmly imbedded in her mind, which in the present +day and age are often forgotten. That bad spelling is a disgrace to any +girl was one of these, and most nobly did she labor to make such a +disgrace impossible for any of her girls. + +Knowing how cordially human nature detests doing the very thing best for +it, she never had regular spelling lessons in the school, but twice a week +every girl in it, big and little alike, gathered in the large assembly +room to choose sides and spell each other down. So irresistibly funny were +these spelling matches, and so admirably did they display Miss Preston's +peculiar power over the girls, and their response to her wonderful +magnetism, that I think they deserve a chapter to themselves. + + + + +CHAPTER XIII + +ENGLISH AS SHE IS SPELLED + + +The last half hour before recess on Wednesdays and Fridays was the time +set aside for the spelling matches. On Wednesday the words were chosen at +random, sometimes from history, sometimes from geography, again from +something which the classes had been reading; but Friday's words were +invariably a surprise. + +One morning, immediately after the opening exercises were concluded, Miss +Preston rang her bell, and, when the girls were all attention, said: + +"It will be well for those girls who are to lead the opposing sides of the +spelling match to-day to choose with exceptional acumen--Annabel, spell +that word!" So suddenly had the command been sprung upon her that, +whatever knowledge poor Annabel might have possessed five seconds before, +promptly flew straight out of her head, and she answered: + +"_Ackumen._" + +"Sorry I haven't time to pass it on just now, but I'll reserve that honor. +As I was saying, the heads had best keep their wits wide-awake, for I'm +going to choose the words from a highly scientific and instructive volume +to-day. It is called "How to Feed Children," and in this you will observe +that I have a double object in view: to teach you which words, as well as +the sort of food, to be digested. Wholesome instruction, my dears; and now +to work, every woman Jill of you." + +At ten-thirty all were again assembled in the big room, and a lively +choosing of sides ensued. It was not by any means invariably the older +girls who could spell best, for often some of the younger ones led them a +fine race. + +Taking up the brilliantly bound little book, Miss Preston said: + +"Now, my friends, I hope you will look upon the cover of this book as a +brilliant and rosy example of what I expect, and, I beg of you, do not +disappoint me," holding up the bright red book for the inspection of all. +"Do not become excited, but learn to take a 'philosophical' view of it." +Miss Preston paused, and so well did the girls understand her original way +of doing things that "philosophical" was at once essayed. The first +attempt resulted in "_philosopical_." + +"A little too suggestive of milk-toast, I'm afraid, Marion. We must have +our philosophy upon a sound basis. Next." + +Several words passed successfully down the line until "course" was given, +and when that was spelled "_cource_" Miss Preston's face was a study. + +"That which we are most inclined to accept as a matter _of course_ we may +be sure will prove a matter of mortification to us. Katherine, you are +given to poetic flights. Who was it that said: 'The course of true love +never did run smooth?' He would have had an opportunity to learn that +there were also other courses which did not run smoothly had he +followed--'pedagogy.'" + +This proved a stumbling-block for the first girl, but the next one spelled +it correctly. + +"You see, Alma, that even the road thereto has its pitfalls, so take +warning." + +"Catch me ever teaching," was the half-audible reply, but softly as it was +spoken sharp ears caught it. + +"Posterity will be grateful for the blessings in store for it, +'undoubtedly.'" + +The word fell to a little girl, but was rattled off as quick as a wink, to +Miss Preston's great amusement, for the child was an ambitious little body +who hated to be outdone by the big girls. + +"Desirability" was the next word, and was given to one of the largest, +although by no means the most brilliant, girls in the school. + +She hesitated a moment, and then said: "If desire is spelled d-e-s-i-r-e, +I suppose the other end of it will be a-b-i-l-i-t-y." + +"A quality in which you are lacking," was the instantaneous retort. "If +you desired it more, your ability would be greater." + +When desirability had been successfully dealt with, ten or more words were +happily disposed of, then came another poser in the form of +'physiognomical,' and the groans which greeted it foretold its fate. + +"What does it _mean_, anyway, Miss Preston?" asked one girl. + +"Well, there is more than one way of telling you its meaning, but I +believe in simple explanations, so I will say, that when you all rush off +to the cloak-room at one o'clock that it would be well for you to observe +carefully the expression upon the other girl's face when you throw down +her hat and coat in your eagerness to get your own first. You will then, +doubtless, have an excellent opportunity to form a correct idea of the +meaning of physiognomical. Then you may come and tell me whether you +consider her character an angelic or impish one." + +How well Miss Preston was aware of their besetting sins, and how shrewdly +did she use them to their undoing. + +I should never dare tell the wonderful combinations of letters which were +brought together ere that dreadful word was spelled correctly; but such a +rapid sitting down followed that a stranger coming suddenly upon them +might have supposed that Miss Preston's girls were fainting one after +another. + +About fifty words, all told, were spelled with more or less success, and +then came the grand summing up, and those girls who could not yield a +clean record from beginning to end had to pay the penalty. + +Not a very severe one, to be sure, but one they were not likely to forget, +for each word that they had misspelled was written upon a good-sized piece +of paper and pinned upon their breasts "as a reward of demerit," Miss +Preston told them, and, although it was all done in fun and joked and +laughed over at the time, each girl knew that those words must be +thoroughly committed to memory before the Wednesday spelling match began +its lively session, or her report at the end of the term would be lacking +in completeness. + +And so, between "jest and earnest," did Miss Preston handle her girls, +drawing by gentleness from a sensitive nature, by firmness from a careless +one, by sarcasm (and woe to the girl who provoked it, for it was, truly, +"like a polished razor keen") from a flippant, and by one of her rare, +sweet smiles from the ambitious all that was best to be drawn. + +Toinette was naturally a remarkably bright girl, and possessed qualities +of mind which only required gentle suggestions to develop their latent +powers. Refined and delicate by nature, keen of comprehension, she slipped +into her proper niche directly way was made for her, and filled it to her +own credit and the satisfaction of others. Nor did it take Miss Preston +long to discover that a delicately strung instrument had been placed in +her hands, and that it must be touched with skillful fingers if its best +notes were to be given forth. + +The weeks slipped away, and winter, as though to pay up for its tardy +arrival, came in earnest, bringing in February the heavy snowstorms one +looks for much earlier in the season in this part of the globe. The girls +hailed them with wild demonstrations, for snow meant sleigh-rides, and it +is a frosty old codger who can frown and grumble at the sound of +sleigh-bells. + + + + +CHAPTER XIV + +"JINGLE BELLS, JINGLE BELLS" + + +One morning early in February the girls looked out of their windows to +behold a wonderful new world--a white one to replace the dull gray one, +which would have made their spirits sympathetically gray, perhaps, had +they been older. But, happily, it must be a very smoky gray indeed that +can depress fifteen. + +"Quick, Edith, come and look!" and then, flying across the room, Ruth +thumped upon Toinette's door, and called out: "Sleigh-bells! Sleigh-bells! +Don't you hear them?" + +The snow had fallen steadily all night, piling up softly and silently the +great white mounds, covering up unsightly objects, laying the downiest of +coverlids upon the dull old world until it was hardly recognizable. Every +ledge, every branch and tiny twig held its feathery burden, or shook it +softly upon the white mass covering the ground. Hardly a breath of air +stirred, and the fir trees looked as though St. Nick had visited them in +the night to dress a tree for every little toddler in the land. + +Down, down, down came the flakes, as though they never meant to stop, and +as one threw back one's head to look upward at the millions of tiny +feathers falling so gently, one seemed to float upward upon fairy wings +and sail away, away into the realms of the Snow Maiden. + +It was hard to keep one's wits upon one's work that day, and many a stolen +glance was given to the fairy world beyond the windows of the +recitation-rooms. About five o'clock the weather cleared, the sun setting +in a glory of crimson and purple clouds. An hour later up came my lady +moon, to smile approval upon the enchanting scene and hint all sorts of +possibilities. + +Lou Cornwall came flying into Toinette's room just after dinner to find it +well filled with seven or eight others. + +"May I come, too?" she asked. "Oh, girls, if we don't have a sleigh-ride +to-morrow, I'll have a conniption fit certain as the world." + +"Do you always have one when there is snow?" asked Toinette. + +"Which, a sleigh-ride or a conniption fit?" laughed Lou. "You'd better +believe we have sleigh-rides." + +"You'd better believe! I've been here five years, and we've never missed +one yet. Do you remember the night last winter, when we all went sleighing +and came home at eleven o'clock nearly frozen stiff, Bess? Whew! it was +cold. When we got back we found Miss Preston making chocolate for us. +There she was in her bedroom robe and slippers. She had gotten out of bed +to do it because she found out at the last minute that that fat old Mrs. +Schmidt had gone poking off to bed, and hadn't left a single thing for +us." + +"I guess I _do_ remember, and didn't it taste good?" was the feeling +answer. + +"You weren't here the year before," said Lou. "Sit still, my heart! Shall +I ever forget it?" + +"What about it? Tell us!" cried the girls in a chorus. + +"That was the first year Mrs. Schmidt was here, and, thank goodness, she +isn't here any longer, and she hadn't learned as much as she learned +afterwards. My goodness, wasn't she stingy? She thought one egg ought to +be enough for six girls, I believe. It took Miss Preston about a year to +get her to understand that we were not to be kept on half rations. Well, +that night we were expecting something extra fine. We got it!" and Lou +stopped to laugh at the recollection. "We rushed into the house, hungrier +than wolves, and ready to empty the pantry, and what do you think we +found? A lot of _after-dinner coffee cups_ of very weak cocoa, with _nary_ +saucer to set them in, and two small crackers apiece. 'I was thinking you +would come in hungry, young ladies, so I make you some chocolate. You +don't mind that I have not some saucers, it make so many dishes for +washing,' she said, smiling that pudgy smile of hers. Ugh! I can't bear to +think of it even to this day, and she was ten million times better before +she left last spring. That was the reason Miss Preston took matters into +her own hands the next time, I guess." + +Just then a tap came at the door, and Miss Preston put her head in to +ask: + +"Can you girls do extra hard work between this and eight o'clock?" + +Had she entertained any doubts of their ability to individually do the +work of three, the shout which answered her in the affirmative would have +banished them forever, for the girls were not slow to guess that some +surprise was afoot. + +"Very well, I'll trust you all to prepare tomorrow's lessons without +exchanging an unnecessary word, and at eight o'clock I'll ring my bell, +and then you must all put on extra warm wraps and go out on the piazza +to--look at the moon. I shall not expect you to come in till ten-thirty." + +As the last word was uttered Miss Preston met her doom, for five girls +pounced upon her, bore her to the couch and hugged her till she cried for +mercy. + +"Come with us, oh! come with us," they cried. "It will be twice as nice if +you'll come!" + +"Come _where_? Do you suppose I've lived all these years and never seen +the _moon_?" and laughing merrily she slipped away from them, only pausing +to add: "It is ten minutes of seven now." + +The hint was enough, and not a girl "got left" that night. + +At eight o'clock a silvery ting-a-ling was heard, and never was bell more +promptly responded to. Had it been a fire alarm the rooms could not have +been more quickly emptied. + +The moonlight made all outside nearly as bright as day, and when the girls +went out upon the porch they found three huge sleighs, with four horses +each, waiting to whirl them over the shining roads for miles. Miss Preston +did not make one of the party, but Miss Howard was a welcome substitute, +for, next to Miss Preston, the girls loved her better than any of the +other teachers, and Toinette was sorely divided in her mind as to which +she was learning to love the better. + +Off they started, singing, laughing at nothing, calling merrily to all +they overtook, or passed, and sending the school yell, which Miss Howard +had made up upon the spur of the moment for them, + + "Hoo-rah-ray! Hoo-rah-ray! + Sunny Bank, Montcliff, + U. S. A.," + +out upon the frosty air, until the very hills rang with the cry, and flung +it back in merry echoes. + +Miss Howard's sleigh led the van, and one or two of the girls had +clambered up to ride upon the high front seat with the driver, a sturdy +old Irishman, who would have driven twenty horses all night long to please +any of Miss Preston's girls. Ruth sat beside him, with Toinette next to +her, and Edith was squeezed against the outer edge. But who cares about +being squeezed under such circumstances? It's more fun. + +The snow had fallen so lightly that sometimes the runners cut through +slightly; but, all things considered, the sleighing was very good. Still, +the driver kept the horses well in hand, for they were good ones and ready +to respond to a word. Moreover, the hilarity behind them seemed to have +proved infectious, for every now and again a leader or a wheeler would +prance about as though joining in the fun, and presently another animal +became infected and wanted to prance, too. Had she not, the next chapter +need not have been written. + + + + +CHAPTER XV + +"PRIDE GOETH BEFORE A FALL" + + +More than five miles had slipped away under those swiftly-moving runners +ere Ruth was suddenly seized with a desire to emulate a famous charioteer +of olden time, one "Phæton, of whom the histories have sung, in every +meter, and every tongue," if a certain poet may be relied upon. So, +turning a beguiling face toward the unsuspecting Michael beside her, she +said: + +"You're a fine driver, aren't you, Michael?" + +"'T is experience ivery man nades; I've had me own," observed Michael, +complacently. + +"It must be very hard to drive four horses at once." + +"Anny one what kin droive two dacently should be able enough to handle +four; 't is not the number of horses, but the sinse at the other ind av +the reins." + +"Is that so? I thought it needed a strong man to drive so many." + +"Indade, no; it does not that. I've seen a schmall, little man, hardly +bigger than yerself, takin' six along with the turn av his hand." + +"Could he hold them if they started to go fast?" + +"Certain as the woirld, he cud do that same. 'T was meself that taught him +the thrick av it. 'T is easy larnt." + +"Then teach me right now, will you?" + +Poor Michael, he saw when it was too late that boasting is dangerous work, +but to refuse anything to "wan av the young ladies" never for an instant +occurred to him. Probably had he asked Miss Howard's consent he would have +been spared complying with a request which his better judgment questioned, +but that did not occur to him, either, so, giving one apprehensive glance +behind him at the twenty or more passengers in the sleigh, he placed the +reins in Ruth's hands, adjusting them in the most scientific manner. + +They were skimming along over a beautiful bit of road with a thick fir +wood upon one side and open fields upon the other. The road was level as a +floor, and no turn would be made for fully half a mile. Horses know so +well the difference between their own driver's touch and a stranger's +hand, and the four whose reins Ruth now held were not dullards. They had +been going along at a steady round trot, with no thought of making the +pace a livelier one, but directly the reins passed out of Michael's hands +the spirit of mischief, ever uppermost in Ruth, flew like an electric +fluid straight through those four reins, and, in less time than it takes +to tell about it, those horses had made up their minds to add a little to +the general hilarity behind them. + +The change was scarcely perceptible at first, but little by little they +increased their pace, till they were fairly flying over the ground. Not +one whit did the girls in the sleigh object; the faster the better for +them. The sleighs behind did their best to keep up, but no such horses +were in the livery stable as the four harnessed to Michael's sleigh, for +Michael was the trusted of the trusted. + +But he was growing very uneasy, and, leaning down close to Ruth, said: +"Ye'd better be lettin' me take thim now, Miss. We've the turn to make +jist beyant." + +"O, I can make it all right; you know you said that anybody who drives two +horses decently could drive four just as well, and I've driven papa's +always." + +"Yis, yis," said Michael quickly, seeing when too late that he had talked +to his own undoing, "but ye'd better be lettin' me handle thim be +moonlight; 't is deceptive, moonlight is," and he reached to take the +reins from her. But alas! empires may be lost by a second's delay, and a +second was responsible for much now. + +As Michael reached for the reins the turn was reached also, and where is +the livery stable horse that does not know every turn toward home even +better than his driver, be the driver the oldest in that section of the +country! Around whirled the leaders, and hard upon them came the wheelers, +and a-lack-a-day! hard, _very_ hard, upon a huge stone at the corner came +the runner of the front bob. + +Had the whole sleighful been suddenly plunged into a hundred cubic feet of +hydrogen gas, sound could not have ceased more abruptly for one second, +and then there arose to the thousands of little laughing stars and their +dignified mother, the moon, a howl which made the welkin ring. + +Shall I attempt to describe what had happened in the drawing of a breath? +A bob runner was hopelessly wrecked; two horses were sitting upon their +haunches, while two others were striving to prove to those who were not +too much occupied with their own concerns to notice that, after all is +said and done, the Lord _did_ intend that such animals should walk upon +two legs if they saw fit to do so. Michael stood up to his middle in a +snow-drift; Ruth sat as calmly upon a snow bank as though she preferred it +to any other seat she had ever selected, albeit she was well-nigh +smothered by the back and cushions of her novel resting-place; Toinette +was dumped heels-over-head into the body of the sleigh, where she landed +fairly and squarely in Miss Howard's lap; Edith hung on to the seat +railing for dear life, and screamed as though the lives of all in the +sleigh (or out of it) depended upon her summons for assistance. The sleigh +had not upset, yet what kept it in a horizontal position must forever +remain a mystery, and such a heap of scrambling, squirming, screaming +girls as were piled up five or six deep in the bottom of it may never be +seen again. Some had been dumped overboard outright, and were floundering +about in the snow, which, happily, had saved them from serious harm. With +the inborn chivalry of his race, Michael's first thoughts said: "Fly to +the rescue of the demoiselles," but stern duty said: "Sthick to yer +horses, Moik, or they'll smash things to smithereens, and, bedad, I sthuck +wid all me moight, or the Lord only knows where we'd all have fetched up +at that same night," he said, when relating his experiences some hours +later. + +[Illustration: "STHICK TO YER HORSES, MOIK."] + +When excitement was at its height the other sleighs arrived upon the +scene, and if there had been an uproar before, there was a mighty cry +abroad in the land now. But, dear me, it is all in a lifetime; so why +leave these floundering mortals piled up in heaps any longer? They were +unsnarled eventually, gotten upon their feet (or their neighbors'), packed +like sardines into the two other sleighs, and, with six instead of four +horses now drawing each, started homeward, none the worse for their spill, +excepting a good shaking up, a few handfuls of snow merrily forming rills +and rivulets down their necks, some badly battered hats and torn coats, +and one of them, at least, with some wholesome lessons regarding handling +four frisky horses when the air is frosty and a number of lives may depend +upon keeping "top side go, la!" + + + + +CHAPTER XVI + +LETTERS + + +When the sleighing party reached home they found hot chocolate and ginger +cookies awaiting them. Before retiring, Miss Preston had seen to it that +neither shivering nor hungry bodies should be tucked into bed that night. + +Five weeks had now sped away, and Toinette was beginning to look upon her +new abiding-place as home; at least, it was nearer to it than any she +could remember. The old life at the Carter school seemed a sort of +nightmare from which she had wakened to find broad daylight and all the +miserable fancies dispelled. + +She and Cicely were seated at their desks one afternoon. It was half-past +four and study hour. Cicely was hard at work upon her algebra lesson, but +Toinette was writing a letter. This, she knew quite well, was not what she +was supposed to be doing, but the five weeks had not sufficed to undo the +mischief done in seven years, and she was writing simply from a spirit of +perversity. There was ample time to do it during her hours of freedom, but +the very fact of doing it when she knew full well that she ought to be at +work on her German added piquancy to the act. Moreover, the letter was to +a boy with whom she had become acquainted while at Miss Carter's, and had +kept the acquaintance a most profound secret. Not that she cared specially +for the boy, although he was a jolly sort of chap, and had been a pleasant +companion during their stolen interviews, and often smuggled boxes of +candy and other "forbidden fruit" into the girl's possession. + +Still, at Miss Carter's a boy sprouting angel's wings would have been +regarded in very much the same light as though he were sprouting imp's +horns, and any girl caught talking to one--much less corresponding--would +have had a very bad quarter of an hour, indeed. So, though she did not +care two straws whether she ever saw him again or not, all the +wrong-headedness which had been so carefully fostered for the past years +delighted in the thought that she was doing something which might not be +approved; indeed, from her standpoint, would be decidedly criticised, and +to get ahead of a teacher had been the "slogan" of the Carter school. + +It was the custom at Sunny Bank for the teachers to go around to the +girls' rooms during the study hour to help, suggest, or give a little +"boost" over the hummocky places, so when a pleasant voice asked at the +door: "Can I help you any, dearies?" Cicely answered from her room: + +"Oh, Miss Howard, will you please tell me something about this problem? I +am afraid my head is muddled." + +"To be sure, I will," was the cheery reply, and Miss Howard passed through +Toinette's room to Cicely's. + +As she did so her dress created a current of air which carried a paper +from Toinette's desk almost to her feet. She stooped to pick it up and +hand it back to Toinette, who had sprung up to catch it, and, as she +handed it to her, Miss Howard noted the telltale color spring into the +girl's face. + +"Zephyrus is playing you tricks, dear," she said, smiling, and passed on +to Cicely. After giving her the needed assistance, she left them, and a +little further down the corridor met Miss Preston. + +"How are my chicks progressing, Miss Howard?" + +"Nicely, Miss Preston. Cicely needed a little help with a problem in +algebra, but I think Toinette needs a little of yours in the problem of +life," and Miss Howard went her way. + +A word to the wise is sufficient. + +Meanwhile, the letter was finished, addressed, and slipped into Toinette's +pocket, to be mailed later. + +Ordinarily, all letters were placed in a small basket to be carried to the +office by the porter. As Toinette came down the hall shortly before dinner +Miss Preston was just taking the letters from the basket to place them in +the porter's mailbag. + +"Any mail to go, dear?" she asked. + +"No, thank you, Miss Preston," answered Toinette, and, jumping from the +last step, ran off down the hall to join Cicely and the other girls. In +jumping from the step something jolted from her pocket, but, falling upon +the heavy rug at the foot of the stairs, made no sound. As the porter was +about to take the pouch from her hands Miss Preston's eyes fell upon the +letter, and, supposing it to be one which had been dropped from the +basket, stooped to pick it up. She was a quick-witted woman, and the +instant she saw the handwriting and the address she drew her own +conclusions. + +"So that is part of the life problem, is it? Poor little girl, she has got +to learn something which the average girl has to unlearn; where they +entirely trust their fellow-beings, she entirely distrusts them. I wonder +if I shall ever be able to show her the middle path?" Telling the porter +to wait a moment, Miss Preston slipped into the library, and, catching up +a pencil and slip of paper, wrote down the name and address which was +written upon the envelope, then, stepping back to the hall, handed the +porter the letter to post. + +Toinette joined the girls, and in the lively chatter which ensued forgot +all about the letter until several hours later, and then searched for it +in every possible and impossible place, but, of course, without finding +it, and was in a very _un_comfortable frame of mind for several days, and +then something happened which did not serve to reassure her, for a reply +came to her from her correspondent. + +How in the world her letter had ever reached him was the question which +puzzled her not a little, and she fretted over the thing till she was in a +fever. Then she determined to write again to ask how and when the letter +had reached him, although she was beginning to wish that boy, letter and +all, were at the bottom of the Red Sea, so much had they tormented her. So +a second letter was written, and then came the puzzle of getting it into +the mail bag unnoticed. At Miss Carter's school all letters had been +examined before they were allowed to be mailed, and as Toinette's +correspondence was supposed to be limited to the letters she wrote to her +father, she had never inquired whether Miss Preston first examined them or +not, but, taking it for granted that she did so, handed them to her +unsealed. On the other hand, Miss Preston, thinking that it was simply +carelessness that they were not, usually sealed them and sent them upon +their way. + +Although she had not said anything about it, the little affair had by no +means passed from Miss Preston's thoughts, but she was trying to think of +the wisest way of going about it, and was waiting for something to guide +her. + +"If I can only win her confidence," she said to herself more than once. + + + + +CHAPTER XVII + +"HAF ANYBODY SEEN MY UMBREL?" + + +It was the last week in February, and in a few days the school dance was +to be given. One afternoon a dozen or more girls were gathered in Ethel's +room to see her dress which had been sent out from town. It was as dainty +an affair as one could wish to see, and many were the admiring glances +cast upon it, and many the praises it received. Possibly it was a trifle +elaborate for a girl of fifteen, for it was made of delicate white chiffon +over pale yellow satin, and exquisitely embroidered with fine silver +threads. But Ethel looked very lovely in it as she preened herself before +the mirror, and was fully aware of the fact. + +"What are you going to wear, Toinette?" she asked. + +"I've never worn anything but white yet," answered Toinette. "At Miss +Carter's all my dresses were ordered by Miss Emeline, and she said I ought +not to wear anything else till I was eighteen. I hope Miss Preston won't +say the same." + +"I should think you would have hated to have the teachers say just what +you must wear, as well as what you must study. Didn't your father ever +send you any clothes?" + +"Papa was too far away to know what I wore or did," answered Toinette, +rather sadly. + +"Aren't you glad he is home again?" asked quiet little Helen Burgess, who +somehow always managed to say soothing things when one felt sort of +ruffled up without knowing just why. + +"You had better believe I am!" was the emphatic reply. "What will you +wear, Helen?" + +"The same thing I always wear, I guess. I haven't much choice in the +matter, you know." + +Toinette colored slightly at her thoughtless remark, for she had not +paused to think before speaking. All the girls knew that Helen's purse was +a very slender one, and that it was only by self-sacrifice and close +economy that her parents were able to keep her at such an expensive +school. She made no secret of her lack of money, but worked away bravely +and cheerfully, always sunny, always happy, with the enviable faculty of +invariably saying the right thing at the right time. She had pronounced +artistic tendencies, and Miss Preston was anxious to encourage them in +every possible way. Her great desire was to go to Europe and there see the +originals of the famous paintings of which she read. Each year Miss +Preston went abroad and took with her several of the girls whose parents +could afford such indulgences for them, and Helen longed to be one of +them, although she never for a moment hoped to be. + +She did really remarkable work for a girl of her age, and was improving +all the time, but the trip over the sea seemed as far off as a trip to the +moon. Toinette was somewhat of a dilettante, and pottered away with her +water-colors with more or less success. But she admired good work, and was +quick to see that Helen was a hard student, and to respect her for it. +Although so unlike in disposition, as well as position, a warm regard had +sprung up between them, and Toinette spent many hours watching Helen work +away at her drawing. The girl's ambition was to illustrate, and there was +hardly a girl in the school who had not posed for her, and the drawings in +her sketch-book were excellent. + +Toinette had never been taught to think much about others, and so it is +not surprising that, while she admired Helen, and wished that she could +have those things she so longed for, it never occurred to her that perhaps +there were other and more fortunate girls who might have helped a trifle +if they chose to do so. That she, herself, had it within her power to do +it never entered her head till the girls began to talk about their new +dresses, and what put it there then would be hard to tell. Nevertheless, +come it did, and when she heard Helen speak so composedly of wearing to +the school dance, _the_ event of the season, in their eyes, the same dress +which had done service for many a little entertainment given through the +winter, and which gave unmistakable signs of having done so, she realized +for the first time what it must mean to be deprived of those things which +she had always accepted as a matter of course. + +Still, no definite plans took shape in her head regarding it, and it is +quite possible that none might ever have done so had not something +occurred within a short time which seemed to be the hinge upon which her +whole after-life swung. + +As the girls were in the midst of their chatter about the new gowns a tap +came at the door, and Fraulein Palme looked in to ask: + +"Haf anyone seen my umbrel? I haf hunt eferywhere for him, and can't see +him anywhere." + +"No, Fraulein, we haven't seen it," answered several voices. + +"Where did you last have it?" asked Ruth. + +"Right away in my room a little while before I am ready to go out. I go +down to the post-office and must get wet without him." + +Two or three of the girls went into the hall to look for the missing +umbrella, and others went back to Fraulein's room with her to make a more +exhaustive search. But without success. + +"Have you more than one?" asked Edith. + +"No, it is but one I haf got. It is very funnee," and poor Fraulein looked +sorely perplexed. + +"Take mine, Fraulein. Yours will turn up when you least expect it," said +Toinette. + +"What did it look like, Fraulein?" asked Cicely. + +"Chust like thees," was the astonishing answer, as absent-minded Fraulein +held forth the missing umbrella, which all that time she had held tightly +clasped in her hand, and which had been the cause of Edith's question as +to whether she had more than one, for she supposed, of course, that the +one Fraulein was so tightly holding must either be one she did not care to +carry, or else one she was about to return to someone from whom she had +probably borrowed it. + +The shout which was raised at her reply speedily brought poor Fraulein +back to her senses, and murmuring: + +"Ach, so! I think I come _veruckt_," she hurried off down the hall with +the girls' laughter still ringing in her ears. + + + + +CHAPTER XVIII + +THE LITTLE HINGE + + +The day before the dance was to be given Toinette wrote her second letter, +arguing that when everybody else had so much to occupy their thoughts they +would have little time to notice other people's doings, and the letter +could be mailed without exciting comment. Waiting until the very last +moment, she ran down to the mail-basket to slip the letter in it +unobserved. As ill-luck would have it, Miss Preston also had a letter to +be slipped in at the last moment, and she and Toinette came face to face. +It was too late to retreat, for the letter was in her hand in plain view, +so, forced into an awkward position, she made a bad matter worse. Dropping +the letter quickly into the basket, she said: + +"Just a note for papa about something I want for the dance to-morrow, Miss +Preston; I didn't think you'd care, and I hadn't time to do it earlier," +and, with flaming cheeks, she turned to go away. + +"Wait just one moment, dear," said Miss Preston, "I've something to say to +you. Walk down to my room with me, please," and she slipped her arm about +the girl's waist. + +No more was needed, and all the suspicion and rebellion in Toinette's +nature rose up to do battle with--windmills. It was a hard young face that +looked defiantly at Miss Preston. + +"Toinette, dear, I want to have a little talk with you," she said, as she +locked the door of her sitting-room, and, seating herself upon the divan, +drew Toinette down beside her. + +Toinette never changed her expression, but looked straight before her with +a most uncompromising stare. + +"You said just now that you did not think I would care if you sent a note +to your father; why should I, sweetheart?" + +It must have been a stubborn heart, indeed, which could resist Miss +Preston's sweet tone. + +"Oh, I don't know, but teachers always seem to mind every little thing one +does," replied Toinette, sulkily. + +"It seems to me that this would be entirely too 'little a thing' for a +teacher or anyone else to mind. Don't you think so yourself?" + +"Well, of course, I didn't think you would mind simply because I wrote to +papa, but because I posted the letter without first letting you read it," +answered Toinette. + +Now, indeed, was Miss Preston learning something new, and not even a child +could have questioned that her surprise was genuine when she exclaimed: + +"Read your letters, my dear little girl! What are you saying?" and a +slight flush overspread her refined face. + +It was now Toinette's turn to be surprised as she asked: + +"Isn't that the rule here, Miss Preston?" + +"Is it anywhere? I can hardly believe it. One's correspondence is a very +sacred thing, Toinette, and I would as soon be guilty of listening at +another person's door as of reading a letter intended for another's eyes. +Oh, my little girl, what mischief has been at work here?" + +While Miss Preston was speaking Toinette had risen to her feet, her eyes +shining like stars, and her color coming and going rapidly. Now, taking +both Miss Preston's hands in her own, she said, in a voice which quivered +with excitement: + +"Is that _truly_ true, Miss Preston? Aren't the girls' letters ever read? +Haven't mine been? _Do_ you trust me like that?" + +Miss Preston looked the girl fairly in the eyes as she answered: + +"I trust you as I trust the others, because I feel you to be a +gentlewoman, and, as such, you would be as reluctant to do anything liable +to cast discredit upon yourself as I would be to have you. I do not wish +my girls to fear but to love me, with all their hearts, and to trust me as +I trust them. I do not expect you to be perfect; we all make mistakes; I +make many, but we can help each other, dear, and remember this: 'Love +casteth out fear.' Try to love me, my little girl, and to feel that I am +your friend; I want so much to be." + +Miss Preston's voice was very sweet and appealing, and as she spoke +Toinette's eyes grew limpid. Miss Preston still held her hands, and, as +she finished speaking, the girl dropped upon her knees and clasped her +arms about her waist, buried her face in her lap and burst into a storm of +sobs. All the pent-up feeling, the longing, the struggle, the yearning for +tenderness of the past lonely years was finding an outlet in the bitter, +bitter sobs which shook her slight frame. + +Although Miss Preston knew comparatively little of the girl's former life, +she had learned enough from Mr. Reeve, and observed enough in the girl +herself, to understand that this outburst was not wholly the result of +what had just passed between them. So, gently stroking the pretty golden +hair, she wisely waited for the grief to spend itself before she resumed +her talk, and, when the poor little trembling figure was more composed, +said: + +"My poor little Toinette, let us begin a brand new leaf to-day--'thee and +me,' as the Quakers so prettily put it. Let us try to believe that even +though I have spent thirty more years on this big world than you have, +that we can still be good friends, and sympathize with each other either +in sunshine or shadow. To do this two things are indispensible: confidence +and love. And we can never have the latter without first winning the +former. Remember this, dear, I shall never doubt you. Whatever happens, +you may rest firm in the conviction that I shall always accept your word +when it is given. Our self-respect suffers when we are doubted, and one's +self-respect is a very precious thing, and not to be lightly tampered +with." + +[Illustration: "LET US BEGIN A BRAND NEW LEAF TO-DAY."] + +She now drew Toinette back to the couch beside her, put her arm about her +waist, and let the tired head rest upon her shoulder. The girl had ceased +to sob, but looked worn and weary. Miss Preston snuggled her close and +waited for her to speak, feeling sure that more was in her heart, and +that, in a nature such as she felt Toinette's to be, it would be +impossible for her to rest content until all doubts, all self-reproach +could be put behind her. + +She sat perfectly still for a long time, her hands clasped in her lap, and +her big, brown eyes, into which had crept a wonderfully soft expression, +looking far away beyond the walls of Miss Preston's sitting-room, far +beyond the bedroom next it, and off to some lonely, unsatisfied years, +when she had lived in a sort of truce with all about her, never knowing +just when hostilities might be renewed. It had acted upon the girl's +sensitive nature much as a chestnut-prickle acts upon the average mortal; +a nasty, little, irritating thing, hard to discover, a scrap of a thing +when found--if, indeed, it does not succeed in eluding one altogether--and +so insignificant that one wonders how it could cause such discomfort. But +it is those miserable little chestnut-prickles that are hardest to bear in +this life, and so warp one's character that it is often unfitted to bear +the heavier burdens which must come into all lives sooner or later. + + + + +CHAPTER XIX + +"FATAL OR FATED ARE MOMENTS" + + +"Nobody has ever spoken to me as you have, Miss Preston," Toinette began +presently, "and I can't tell you how I feel. Maybe heaven will be better, +but I don't believe I shall ever feel any happier than I feel this minute. +It seems as though I'd been living in a sort of prison, all shut up in the +dark, and that now I am out in the sunshine and as free as the birds. But +I must tell you something more: I can't rest content unless I do. The +letter I posted to-day wasn't to papa, I sent it to Howard Elting, in +Branton, and it isn't the first I've written him, either. I didn't lie +about the other one, Miss Preston; I was ready to mail it, but lost it; I +don't know how. Somebody must have found it and posted it, for he got it +and answered it, and I was so puzzled over it that I wrote again. That was +the letter you saw me post. Now, that is the truth, and I know that you +believe me." + +Toinette had spoken very rapidly, scarcely pausing for breath, and when +she finished gave a relieved little sigh and looked Miss Preston squarely +in the eyes. Truly, her self-respect was regained. + +Will some of my readers say: "What a tempest in a teapot?" To many this +may seem a very trivial affair, but how small a thing can influence our +lives! A breath, the passing of a summer shower, may help or hinder plans +which alter our entire lives. And Miss Preston was wise enough to +understand it. Here was a beautiful soul given for a time into her +keeping. Now, at the period of its keenest receptive powers, a delicate +and sensitive thing needing very gentle handling. + +Stroking the head again resting upon her shoulder, as though it had found +a safe and happy haven after having been tossed about upon a troubled sea, +she said, quietly: + +"I posted the letter, dear; I found it in the hall where it had been +dropped; it never occurred to me that there was any cause for concealment; +the girls all correspond with their friends; it is an understood thing. I +recognized your writing, and, as I had friends at Branton, I wrote to ask +if they knew the person written to. They replied that they did, and told +me who he was. Knowing how few friends you have, I wrote to this boy +asking him to come to our dance to-morrow night, because I thought the +little surprise might give you pleasure, and you would be glad to welcome +an old friend. Does it please you, my little girl?" + +"Oh, Miss Preston!" was all Toinette said, but those three words meant a +great deal. + +The dressing-bell now rang, and Toinette sprang up with rather a dismayed +look. As though she interpreted it, Miss Preston said: + +"You are in no condition to meet the other girls to-night, dear. They +cannot understand your feelings, and, without meaning to be unkind or +curious, would ask questions which it would embarrass you to answer. You +are nervous and unstrung, so lie down on my couch and I will see that your +dinner is brought up. I shall say to the other girls that you are not +feeling well, and that it would be better not to disturb you." Then, going +into her bedroom, Miss Preston quickly made her own toilet. She had just +finished it when the chimes called all to dinner, and, stooping over +Toinette, she kissed her softly and slipped from the room. + +Some very serious thoughts passed through Toinette's head during the +ensuing fifteen minutes, and some resolutions were formed which were held +to as long as she lived. + +A tap at the door, and a maid entered with a dainty dinner. Placing a +little stand close to the couch, she put the tray upon it, and then asked: +"Can I do anything more for you, Miss Toinette?" + +"No, thank you, Helma. This is very tempting." + +When Miss Preston came to her room an hour later she found the tray quite +empty, and Toinette fast asleep. Arranging the couch pillows more +comfortably, and throwing a warm puff over the sleeping girl, she +whispered, softly: "Poor little maid, your battle with Apollyon was short +and sharp, but, thank God, you've conquered, even at the expense of an +exhausted mind and weary body." + +It was nearly midnight when Toinette opened her eyes to see Miss Preston +warmly wrapped in her dressing-gown, and seated before the fire reading. +The lamp was carefully screened from Toinette, who could not at first +realize what had happened, or why she was there, but Miss Preston's voice +recalled her to herself. + +"Do you feel rested, dear?" she asked. "Don't try to go to your room; just +undress and cuddle down in my bed with me to-night; I've brought in your +night-dress." + +Toinette did not answer, but, walking over to Miss Preston, just rested +her cheek against hers for a moment. Twenty minutes later she was fast +asleep in her good friend's bed. + +The following day all was bustle and excitement at Sunny Bank, for great +preparations were being made for the dance in the evening, and +understanding how much pleasure it gave the girls to feel that they were +of some assistance, she let them fly about like so many grigs, helping or +hindering, as it happened. + +They brought down all the pretty trifles from their rooms, piled up sofa +pillows till the couches resembled a Turk's palace; arranged the flowers, +and rearranged them, till poor Miss Preston began to fear that there would +be nothing left of them. However, it was an exceedingly attractive house +which was thrown open to her guests at eight o'clock that evening, and the +girls had had no small share in making it so. + +A very complete understanding seemed to exist between Toinette and Miss +Preston now, for, although no words were spoken, none were needed; just an +exchange of glances told that two hearts were very happy that night, for +love and confidence had come to dwell within them. + + + + +CHAPTER XX + +"NOW TREAD WE A MEASURE." + + +Shall we ever grow too old to recall the pleasure of our school dances? +Then lights seem brighter, toilets more ravishing, music sweeter, our +partners more fascinating, and the supper more tempting than ever before +or after. + +The house was brilliantly lighted from top to bottom, excepting in such +cosy corners as were specially conducive to confidential chats, and in +these softly shaded lamps cast a fairy-like light. + +Miss Preston, dressed in black velvet, with some rich old lace to enhance +its charms, received her guests in the great hall, some of the older girls +receiving with her. + +There were ten or more girls who were taking special courses, and these +were styled "parlor boarders," and at the end of the school term would +enter society. Consequently, this dance was looked upon as a preliminary +step for the one to follow, and the girls regarded it as a sort of "golden +mile-stone" in their lives, which marked off the point at which "the brook +and river meet." + +A prettier, happier lot of girls could hardly have been found, and none +looked lovelier, or happier, than Toinette. Her dress, a soft, creamy +white chiffon, admirably suited to her golden coloring, had been sent to +her by her father, whose taste was unerring. No matter how many miles of +this big globe divided them, he never forgot her needs, and, if unable to +supply them himself, took good care that some one else should do so. So +the dress had arrived the night before, and Miss Preston had been able to +give her another pleasant surprise for the dance. And now she looked as +the lilies of the field for fairness. + +She was whirling away upon her partner's arm, when, chancing to glance +toward the door, she beheld something which brought her to an abrupt +stand-still, much to her partner's amazement. Miss Preston stood in the +doorway, and, standing beside her, with one hand resting lightly upon his +hip and the other raised a little above his head, and resting against the +door-casing, stood a tall, remarkably handsome man. His attitude was +unstudied, but brought out to perfection the fine lines of his figure. + +Hastily exclaiming: "Oh, please, excuse me, or else come with me," +Toinette glided between the whirling figures, and, forgetful of all else, +cried out in a joyous voice: "Papa, papa Clayton, where _did_ you come +from?" + +It was so like the childish voice he had loved to hear so long ago, that +he started with pleasure. + +During the brief holiday Toinette had spent with him he had missed the +spontaneity he had known in the little child, and, without being able to +analyze it, felt that something was wanting in the girl. She had been +sweet and winning, yet under it all had been a manner quite +incomprehensible to him, as though she did not feel quite sure of her +position in his affections. Her laugh had lacked the true girlish ring, +and her conversation with him seemed guarded, as though she had never +quite spoken all her thoughts. + +He had been immeasurably distressed by it, for he could not understand the +cause, and bitterly reproached himself for not being better acquainted +with his own child. In the merry girl who now stood before him, her eyes +shining, her cheeks flushed with excitement, her voice so joyous, he saw +no trace of the listless one he had placed in Miss Preston's charge two +months before. + +Slipping one arm about her, he snuggled her close to his side, as he +answered: + +"A blue-coated biped left a good, substantial hint at my office not long +since, and this is what came of following it." + +"_You_ did it! I'm sure of it," laughed Toinette, shaking her finger at +Miss Preston, as the latter said: "I leave you to a livelier entertainer, +now, Mr. Reeve, while I go to look after some of my guests who may not be +so fortunately situated," and she slipped away, Toinette calling after +her: "You are responsible for most of the nice things which happen here. +Oh, daddy," dropping unconsciously into the old childish pet name, "I've +such stacks of things to tell you. But, excuse me just one second, while I +find a partner for that boy I've left stranded high and dry over there; +doesn't he look miserable? Then I'll come back," and, kissing her hand +gaily, she ran off. Returning a moment or two later, she said: + +"There! he's all fixed, and is sure to have a good time with Ethel and +Lou; they're not a team, but a four-in-hand. Now, come and have a dance +with me, and then we'll go off all by ourselves and have the cosiest time +you ever dreamed of. I feel so proud to have you all to myself," she +added, as they glided away to the soft strains of the music, "so sort of +grown-up and grand with such a handsome partner." + +"Hear! hear! Do you want to make me vain? I haven't been accustomed to +hearing such barefaced compliments. They make me blush." + +"I really believe they _do_," answered Toinette, throwing back her head to +get a better look at him, and laughing softly when she saw a slight flush +upon his face. "Never mind, it is all in the family, you know." + +"Perhaps I have other reasons for feeling a trifle elated," he said, as +the dance came to an end and he followed Toinette to one of the cozy +corners. Springing up among the cushions, she patted them invitingly, and +said: + +"Come, sit down here beside me, and let me tell you all about the +loveliest time of my life. Oh, daddy, I _do_ so love to be here, and you +don't know how good Miss Preston is to me. She is good to us all, but, +somehow the other girls don't seem to need so much setting straight as _I_ +have. I think I must have been all kinked up in little hard knots before I +came here, and Miss Preston has begun to untie them. She hasn't got all +untied yet, but I feel so sort of loosened up and easy that everything +seems lots more comfortable." + +[Illustration: "I FEEL SO SORT OF GROWN UP AND GRAND."] + +Clayton Reeve did not smile at Toinette's odd way of explaining her +feelings. He knew it to be a fourteen-year-old girl who spoke, and that +her thoughts, to be natural, must be put into her own words. + +On she rambled, telling one thing after another, and, while they were +talking, Helen Burgess stopped near their snuggery. It was too dimly +lighted for her to discover them, and the next thing they knew they were +unwitting eavesdroppers, for Helen was talking very earnestly to one of +her boon companions, a day-pupil at the school, and one of the brightest +in it, but, like Helen, not embarrassed with riches. For some time the +girls had been saving their small allowances toward the purchase of +cameras, but so slowly did the sums accumulate that it was rather +discouraging for them. They were now talking about their respective ways +of procuring the sums of money needed, and the trifle they had managed to +save, and the small amounts they earned in one way or another, to augment +the original sums, seemed so paltry to Toinette, who never stopped to ask +whence came the five-dollar bills so regularly sent her each week, and +who, had a fancy entered her head for one, would have walked out and +bought a camera very much as she would have bought a paper of pins. + + + + +CHAPTER XXI + +CONSPIRATORS + + +Mr. Reeve would have risen from his snug corner and discovered himself to +the girls, but Toinette laid her finger upon her lips to enjoin silence, +and, although he could not quite understand her desire to play +eavesdropper, he complied. From the subject of the cameras the girls went +on to Helen's work in the art class, for Jean was much interested in that +also, and they often built air-castles about the wonderful things they +would do when that fabulous "stone ship" should sail safely into port. +They talked earnestly for girls of thirteen and fifteen, and Mr. Reeve +could not fail to be impressed by the strength of purpose they seemed to +possess, and, having a good bit of stick-to-ativeness himself, admired it +in others. Moreover, he had been forced to make his own way in life when +young, and could sympathize with other aspiring souls. + +Presently the two girls moved away, and then Toinette whispered: "I don't +know what you think of me for making you play 'Paul Pry,' but I had a +reason for it, and now I'll tell you what it was." + +"I inferred as much, so kept mum." + +"Well, you see, since I've been here I've waked up a little, and, somehow, +have begun to think about other people, and wonder if they were happy. At +Miss Carter's school everybody just seemed to think about themselves, or, +if they thought of anybody else, it was generally to wonder how they could +get ahead of them in some way. But here it is all so different, and +everybody seems to try to find out what they can do to make someone else +happy. I can't begin to tell you how it is done, because I don't know +myself; only it _is_, and it makes you feel sort of happy all over," said +Toinette, trying to put into words that subtle something which makes us +feel at peace with all mankind, and little realizing that its cause lay +right within herself; for a sense of having done one's very best and a +clear conscience are wonderful rosy spectacles through which to see life. + +"Go on, I'm keenly interested, and these little confidences are very +delightful," said her father, with an encouraging nod and smile. + +"So I began to want to do little things, too, and, do you know, daddy, +you'd be really surprised if you knew what a lot of ways there are of +making the girls happy if you only take the trouble to look for them. For +instance, there is Helen Burgess, the larger of the girls you saw just +now: we have become real good friends, and she is very clever, and draws +beautifully. But she has so little to do with that she can't afford to get +the things the other girls have to work with, nor have the advantages they +have. She and Jean have been trying ever so long to get cameras, for they +think that they could take pretty views of Montcliff and sell them to the +people who come here in the summer, and I'm sure they could, too. It does +not make so much difference to Jean, for, although she isn't rich, she +isn't exactly poor, either, you know, and has a good many nice things, but +Helen never seems to have any. So I thought I'd have a little talk with +you and get you to send out a cute little camera for each of them and +never let them know where they came from. Wouldn't that be great fun? But +I want to pay for them. You can use ten dollars of my money, and not send +me my allowance for two weeks; I've got enough to last." + +"And what will my poverty-stricken lassie do meantime?" asked Mr. Reeve. + +"Oh, she is not so poverty-stricken as you think," laughed Toinette. "She +won't suffer. And then I wanted to ask you if there wasn't some way of +helping Helen in her art work. She wants so much to go abroad with Miss +Preston, but has no more idea of ever being able to do so than she has of +going to the moon. What would it cost, papa? Isn't there some way of +bringing it about? Couldn't you have a talk with Miss Preston and find out +all about it, and then we could plan something, maybe." + +Toinette had become very earnest as she talked, and was now leaning toward +her father, her hands clasped in her lap, and her expressive face alive +with enthusiasm. + +Mr. Reeve hated to spoil the pretty picture, but said, in the interested +tone so comforting when used by older people in speaking to young folk: "I +am sure we can evolve some plan. I shall be very glad to speak to Miss +Preston before I return to the city, and haven't the slightest doubt that +great things will come of it." + +"How lovely! You're just a darling! I'm going to hug you right here behind +the curtains!" cried Toinette, as she sprung up and clasped her arms about +his neck. + +"Haven't you one or two more favors you'd like to ask?" said Mr. Reeve, +suggestively. + +"No, not another one, just now," she answered, laughing softly. "Too many +might turn your head, and mine, too. But it is so good to have you home +once more. You don't know how lonely I've been without you, daddy. There +wasn't anyone in the world who cared two straws for me till you came back +and I came here. But I've got you now, and I'm not going to let you go +very soon again, I can tell you. You are too precious, and we are going to +have lovely times together by-and-by when I grow up, aren't we?" + +"We are not going to wait till then, sweetheart; we are going to begin +right off, this very minute. I can't afford to waste any more precious +time; too much has been wasted already," he said, as he raised the pretty +face and kissed it, and then, drawing her arm through his, added: "Now let +me do the honors. Introduce me to your friends, and let me see if seven +years' knocking about this old world has made me forget the 'Quips, and +Cranks, and Wanton Wiles, Nods, and Becks, and Wreathed Smiles' I used to +know." + +They left the snuggery, and, blissfully conscious of her honors, Toinette +presented her father to the girls. Just how proud they were of the marked +attention he showed to each I'll leave it to some other girls to guess. He +danced with them, took them to supper, sought out the greatest delicacies +for them, and played the gallant as though he were but twenty instead of +forty-two. "He treated us just as though we were the big girls," they +said, when holding forth upon the subject the next day. + +Twelve o'clock came all too soon. + +Mr. Reeve remained over night, and the following day found an opportunity +to have a long talk with Miss Preston--a talk which afforded him great +satisfaction for many reasons. + +Toinette, with several of the other girls, escorted him to the train, and +gave him a most enthusiastic "send-off." + +In the course of a few days a package was delivered at the school. Had +bomb-shells been dropped there they could hardly have created more +excitement. Jean's house was only a few blocks from the school, and one +Saturday morning--for the cameras were obliging enough to choose that day +to appear--Mrs. Rockwood's sitting-room was the scene of the wildest +excitement. + + + + +CHAPTER XXII + +"WE'VE GOT 'EM! WE'VE GOT 'EM!" + + +Mrs. Rockwood was in her sitting-room one morning. It was Saturday, and a +day of liberty for Jean. She had gone over to the school to spend a few +hours with Helen, and Mrs. Lockwood did not expect her home until +lunch-time, but, happening to glance from her window about ten o'clock, +what was her surprise to see two figures approaching, one with a series of +bounds, prances and jumps, which indicated a wildly hilarious and +satisfied frame of mind in Jean, and the other with a subdued hop and +skip, and then a sedate walk, which, although less demonstrative, was +quite as indicative of a very deep and serene happiness to any one +familiar with Helen. + +A moment later the front door slammed, and two pairs of feet came tearing +up the stairs as though pursued by Boer cavalry, and two eager voices +cried: + +"We've got 'em! We've got 'em! We've got 'em!" and both girls came tearing +into the room to cast themselves and two very suggestive looking parcels +upon Mrs. Rockwood. + +"What in this world has happened?" she asked, in amazement, for both girls +were breathless, and could only point at the parcels in her lap and say: +"Open them! Open them, quick!" + +Mrs. Rockwood was a woman who entered heart and soul into her daughter's +pleasures, and nothing was ever quite right in Jean's eyes unless her +mother shared it. Every little plan must be talked over with her, and it +was pretty sure not to suffer any from one of her suggestions. Helen spent +a great deal of time with Jean and was devoted to Mrs. Rockwood. +Consequently, when the cameras arrived at the school that morning, and +they found out that there was really no mistake, but that they were +certainly intended for the persons whose names were so plainly written +upon the boxes, and sent in Miss Preston's care, they could hardly wait to +get over to Jean's house to show their treasures to her mother. Many had +been the surmises as to whom had sent such beauties, but Toinette kept a +perfectly sober face, and no one suspected the secret. + +Carefully removing the wrappings, Mrs. Rockwood brought the contents of +the boxes to view. She was as much surprised as the girls, and exclaimed: +"Why, who could have sent them to you, and how did anyone learn that you +were so anxious to have them? Such beauties, too!" + +"That is the funniest part of it all, for we never told a soul, and didn't +mean to till we had them, and now here they are. I believe St. Nick must +have heard us wishing for them," said Helen. + +"And to _both_ of us, and just _alike_! Think of it! Oh, moddie, isn't it +lovely?" and Jean threw her arms about her mother's neck by way of giving +vent to her feelings. + +"I'm as delighted as you and Helen are, dear, only I wish we might learn +who our benefactor is." + +"Yes, isn't it too bad. Well, it may crop out later. I thought first it +must be Miss Preston, but she said that she did not know any more about it +than we did," said Helen. + +"Now, when may we take our pictures, and what shall we take?" cried Jean. + +"You suggest something, Mrs. Rockwood; it will be nicer if you do it," +said Helen, dropping down upon her knees beside Mrs. Rockwood, and placing +her arm around her friend's waist. + +Mrs. Rockwood drew her close to her side as she replied: + +"Let me examine these treasures which have arrived so mysteriously, read +the directions concerning them, and then we'll see what we'll see," and +she began to read: "Take the camera into a perfectly dark closet, where no +ray of light can penetrate (even covering the keyhole), and then place +within it one of the sensitive plates, being careful not to expose the +unused plates. Your camera is now ready to take the picture, etc." "That +is all very simple, I'm sure, and if the taking proves as simple as are +the directions you need have little apprehension of failure. But your +directions add very explicitly that you must _not_ attempt to take a +picture unless the day is sunny. So I fear those conditions preclude the +possibility of your taking any upon this cloudy day, and you will have to +possess your souls in peace till 'Old Sol' favors you." + +"Oh, dear, isn't that too bad! I thought we could take some right off. +Don't you think we might at least try, mamma?" + +"I fear they would prove failures; better wait a more favorable light." + +As though to tantalize frail humanity, "Old Sol" remained very exclusive +all day, and, even though Helen remained till evening in the hope that he +would overcome his fit of sulks, nothing of the kind happened, and she was +forced to go back to the school without one. + +"Just wait till Monday, and we'll do wonders; see if we don't," said Jean, +as she bade her farewell, little dreaming what wonders she was destined to +do with her magical box ere the sun set Monday night. + +"I'll ask Miss Preston to let me come over at four o'clock on Monday, and +then we'll go out in the little dell and get a lovely picture. You know +the place I mean: where that old clump of fir-trees stands by the ruined +wall," said artistic Helen. + +But when Monday arrived unforeseen difficulties arose for Jean. The day +was the sunniest ever known, and, while waiting for Helen to come, she got +out the precious camera to set the plates. + +"Why, mamma, there isn't a dark closet in the whole house; not a single +one," cried Jean, coming into her mother's room as she was dressing to go +out on Monday afternoon. "Now, where in this world am I to open my +plate-box, I'd like to know?" + +Mrs. Rockwood laughed as she turned toward Jean, whose face was the +picture of dismay. "True enough, there isn't. Now, who would have supposed +that the architect who designed this house, and put a window in every +closet, could have been so short-sighted as not to anticipate such a need +as the present one?" + +"But what am I to do?" desperately. + +"Try putting a dark covering over the windows." + +"I have, but it's just no use, for I can't get it pitch dark to save me." + +"And to think that barely forty-eight hours ago I was congratulating +myself that every closet in the house could be properly aired. Alas! how +do our recent acquisitions alter our views?" + +"Now, moddie, don't laugh, but stop teasing me, and just think as hard as +ever you can _how_ I am to find a dark place." + +Mrs. Rockwood thought for a few moments, and then said: + +"I have it! Mary's pot-closet, under the back stairs; that is as dark as a +pocket, I'm sure." + +"There! I knew you'd find a way; you always do. Just the very place, and +now I'm going straight down to fix it. Good-bye," and, kissing her mother, +away she flew. + + + + +CHAPTER XXIII + +A CAMERA'S CAPERS. + + +"Mary!" cried Jean, as she bounced into the kitchen, where the maid, a +typical "child of Erin," who worshipped the very ground Jean trod upon, +stood at the sink paring her "taties" for the evening meal, "see my new +camera; I'm going to take a picture with it, and I've got to go into your +pot-closet to fix the plates." + +"A picter, is it? And will ye be afther takin' a picter wid that schmall +bit av a black box? How do ye do it at all, I do' know." + +"Oh, I go into a dark closet and put a gelatine plate in the box, and then +I go outdoors and take my picture." + +"A gilitin plate, is it? Thin, faith, ye'll take ne'er a picter this day, +for Oi'm jist afther usin' the last schrap av gilitin in the house to make +the wine jilly fer the dinner." + +"I don't mean _that_ kind of gelatine; the kind I use is already prepared +on little plates in this box, and I have to go in the dark closet to fix +them." + +"Faith, I'd fix thim out here, thin, where ye can see what ye're about. +It's dungeon dhark in the pot-closet." + +"That is exactly what I want, and, _please_, don't come near it, or open +the door while I'm in there, will you?" + +"No, no; I'll not come near ye. The minute I've done me taties it's down +in the laundry Oi'm goin', an' Oi'll not bother ye at all; but here, take +this schmall, little candle wid ye whan ye go in, fer it's that dhark +ye'll not see yer hand forninst ye," and she caught up a candle from the +shelf. + +"No, no! I don't _want_ any light; the darker it is the better." + +"It's crackin' yer head aff ye'll be." + +"No, I sha'n't," said Jean, as she whisked into the closet and drew the +door together just as Mary started down the back stairs to the laundry. + +Had the closet been designed for an eel-pot it would have proved the most +complete success, for getting into it was a very simple matter, whereas, +getting _out_ required considerable ingenuity. Absorbed in the one idea of +getting the plates placed in the camera, Jean entirely forgot the +peculiarities of the fastening upon the door. As she slammed it together +every ray of light vanished, and she was instantly enveloped in an +Egyptian darkness. Carefully opening her box, she drew from it one of the +plates, touched it with her fingers to find which side was coated with the +gelatine preparation, placed it in the camera and turned to leave the +closet. + +"Now, I'll have a picture in just about two jiffs," she said, and pushed +against the door. To her surprise, it did not open. Another push, with the +same result. It then dawned upon her that the spring-bolt had fastened +upon the outer side. Feeling carefully about in the pitch darkness, she +laid her things upon the shelf and tried to find a way of getting out. +But, push, shake and rattle as she might, it was useless; the door +remained tightly fastened. + +"Mary," she called, "come and let me out, please." + +No response. + +"M-a-r-y! I'm locked in; come let me out!" + +"What in the whorld is the matter wid ye?" came from the foot of the +stairs. + +"I'm locked _in_ and can't get out; come and open the door!" + +"Och, worra! Don't be callin' to me not to _open_ the door; didn't Oi tell +ye Oi wouldn't come near ye, and Oi _won't_. It's goin' down to the bharn +Oi am, and ye needn't be for worritin', at all, at all," and receding +footsteps proved Mary's words only too true. + +"Now, I'm in a pretty fix, am I not? Like enough she won't come back for +twenty minutes, and here I've got to stay. Plague take the old bolt!" + +What imp of mischief made Mary return to the laundry by the cellar-door, +take up her basket of freshly laundered clothes, and, after carrying them +up to Mrs. Rockwood's bedroom, go on to her own in the third story to +dress for the afternoon, must forever remain a mystery. But this she did, +and, as Jean heard her go up the back stairs, beneath which she was +securely fastened in the pot-closet, she thumped and pounded with renewed +energy. But the only response was: + +"No, no; not for the whorld, darlint, would Oi disthurbe ye and spoil yer +purty picter." + +About an hour later Mrs. Rockwood, returning from her call, met Helen upon +the front piazza. + +"Has Jean got everything ready to take the pictures?" she asked, eagerly. +"It is such a perfect day for it, and I am so anxious that I can hardly +wait. It seems too good to be true that we have really got cameras at +last, doesn't it?" + +"It seems as though the fairies must have been aware of your great desire +to have them, and so took matters into their own hands," replied Mrs. +Rockwood, as she unfastened the front door with her latch-key and held it +open for Helen to enter. + +As they entered the hall they were greeted with a series of muffled thumps +and bangs. + +"I _do_ wish Mary would remember what I have so often told her about +breaking her kindling upon the cellar floor," she exclaimed. + +Rattle, rattle! Bang, bang! and then a crash as though the roof were +falling. + +"What under the sun can be the matter!" exclaimed Mrs. Rockwood. + +Just then Mary appeared at the head of the stairs. + +"Why, Mary, what is all this noise?" + +"Shure, it was comin' down mesilf Oi was to see. Saints presarve us, can +there be thieves in the house, Oi do' know!" + +"Rather noisy thieves, I should think. Where is Miss Jean?" + +"Out in the fields beyant, wid her bit av a camela takin' her picter, Oi'm +thinkin'. 'Twas there she said she'd be goin' afther she came out of the +pot-closet--saints have mercy! Could she _git_ out at all, at all?" and +Mary tore down the stairs, with Mrs. Rockwood and Helen close at her +heels. She reached the closet, flung open the door, and beheld a +spectacle. Seated on the floor, in the midst of a scattered array of pots, +kettles and frying-pans, her box of plates upset, her precious camera in +her lap, and blissfully unconscious that the slide was open, sat Jean, a +very picture of despair. + +"Mighty man! And have ye been in here all this toim, an' not to be +smothered dead!" cried Mary. + +"How could I be anywhere _else_, I'd like to know?" said Jean, +indignantly. "I called and _called_, but I couldn't get you to let me +out," and, bouncing up, she scrabbled the plates back into their box, then +caught up the camera to see if all was as it should be with that. As she +jumped up the slide closed, and, quite unaware that it had ever been open, +she announced to her nearly convulsed audience: + +"Well, I'm _out_ at last, and now I hope I can take a picture; come on, +Helen," little dreaming that the treacherous sunlight, which flashed +through the hall window and straight into the pot-closet, had already +printed a most perfect one on the plate. + +A few moments later both she and Helen were out in the fields back of the +house, and had snapped charming little scenes. + +Bemoaning her unintentional trick, Mary went back to her work, while Mrs. +Rockwood went up to her room to laugh heartily over the mishap, never +suspecting that the funniest part would appear in the sequel. + +A half hour later the girls came flying into her room to say, excitedly: + +[Illustration: "AN' HAVE YE BEEN IN THERE ALL THIS TIME?"] + +"We've taken them! We've taken them!" + +"And I know they will be just lovely, for the sun shone right on the trees +and the ruins. How I wish we could develop them; don't you, Helen?" + +"Yes, I'd like to know how, and, now that I have the camera, I shall get a +developing outfit and learn; but let's take these right over to Charlton's +and have him develop them for us." + +They started for the village to leave the plates to be developed, and +waited with what patience they could for the following day, when the +photographer promised to send them the proofs. + +They came, and one at least was truly a marvel. + +In the foreground of Jean's was a pretty clump of fir-trees growing beside +an old ruined stone wall, under which nestled a bunch of dry goldenrod. +But the background! Did ever the maddest artist's brain conceive of such? +Clear and distinct, where sky should have been, stood--a frying-pan! + + + + +CHAPTER XXIV + +WHISPERS + + +March, with its winds and storms, slipped away as though glad to whisk +such trying days off the calendar, and, ere the girls realized it, Easter +vacation was upon them, and capricious April was playing the schoolgirl +herself, with one day a smile and the next a frown. But, like the +schoolgirl, her smiles were all the sunnier for the frowns. + +It must indeed be a dull, prosy old heart which cannot respond to the soft +beauty of early spring, and want to frisk and frolic for very sympathy +with all the new life springing into existence all about it. And there +were no dull or prosy ones at Sunny Bank. + +For some time the girls had known that this would be Miss Howard's last +year with them; but now little whispers began to fly about, as little +whispers have a trick of doing, that Miss Howard was about to enter +another school, where she would be pupil instead of teacher, and there +learn the sweetest lesson ever taught on this big earth--a lesson which +says, "Not mine and thine, but ours, for ours is mine and thine;" and, +while they rejoiced in her happiness, they were nearly inconsolable at the +thought of losing her, for she had filled a very beautiful place in their +lives--far more beautiful than they suspected. It was always Miss Howard +who entered into all their little plans and pleasures, participated in +their joys, and sympathized with their sorrows. + +She was little more than a girl herself, yet possessed the strength of +character sometimes wanting in a much older person, and by it set a +beautiful example for her girls to follow. And they followed it +unconsciously to themselves and to her, for never was there a more modest +little body than Miss Howard, and had anyone hinted that she was a mighty +balance-wheel to her fly-away girls, a source of encouragement to her +timid ones, an inspiration to her ambitious ones, and an object of very +sincere affection to all, she would probably have been the most surprised +person in the school. Yet such was undoubtedly the fact, and it would have +been a very wrong-headed girl, indeed, who was not ready to yield to her +influence. + +"If I felt criss-cross with all the world, I believe I'd have to smile +back when Miss Howard smiled at me," said Toinette, shortly after she +became a pupil in the school. "Her eyes are just as soft as the little +Alderney bossie's, and her lips look sort of grieved if the girls look +cross." + +And so the whispers grew louder and louder till just after the Easter +holidays were over, and then all who loved her best learned that early in +June wedding bells would ring and a very bonny bride would step forth from +Sunny Bank, with several bonny bridesmaids leading the way, and one maid +of honor to scatter the posies which were to be symbolical, as all hoped, +of her future pathway through life. + +And then arose the all-important question as to whom Miss Howard would +choose for that great honor, and excitement ran high. + +All the girls had a strong suspicion that it would be Toinette, although, +to do her justice, Toinette herself did not suspect it. Still, Miss Howard +had taken a keen interest in the girl ever since she entered the school, +and felt strongly drawn toward her, being quick to see her good qualities, +and to understand that the undesirable ones were very largely the result +of unfortunate circumstances. So she had striven in her sweet and gracious +way to help Toinette without words, and had been a strong support to Miss +Preston. + +As the warm spring days made wood and field to blossom, the girls spent a +great deal of their time out of doors. Sunny Bank's grounds were very +beautiful, and the adjacent field and woodland very enticing at that +season. Basket-ball was a favorite source of amusement, and the lawn +devoted to it as soft and smooth as velvet. So nearly every afternoon the +team could be seen bounding about like so many marionettes, and if +touseled hair and demoralized attire resulted, what did it matter? Rosy +cheeks and ravenous appetites were excellent compensations. + +It was the fifteenth of April, and Toinette's birthday. Many a climb had +the expressman's horse taken up the long hill leading to Sunny Bank that +morning, for, if Toinette had but few friends, she certainly had a very +generous father, who meant that she should have her full share of birthday +remembrances, and they kept coming thick and fast all day. With each came +a funny note to say that he was sending still another package because he +did not want her to have all her surprises in a lump; they would seem so +much more if coming in installments. So they kept coming all day long, and +by four o'clock her room looked like a fancy bazaar. Last of all to arrive +was a large box upon which was printed in flaring scarlet letters: "Not to +be opened till it is ten A. M. in _Bombay_." + +The box stood in the hall when Miss Preston passed through the hall to +dinner, and, unless suddenly stricken with ophthalmy, she could not fail +to see the flaring notice. "Ah," she said, softly, to herself, "you have a +triple mission, you inanimate bit of the carpenter's skill: first, to +teach my girls a lesson in longitude and time, second, to mutely ask my +permission for a frolic to-night, and, third, to suggest that when +birthdays arrive it would be a most auspicious time for the "C. C. C.'s" +to hold their revels, and that Diogenes' tub, if not himself, would be +welcome, so I had better act upon the hint and contribute my share. Thank +you, sir," and, with a funny little nod to the box, she went on to the +dining-room. + +"What is the joke, Miss Preston?" asked Cicely, as Miss Preston took her +seat. + +"Do you think I'm going to spoil it by revealing it so soon? No, indeed," +and she laughed softly. + +When dinner was ended the girls flocked around the box and curiosity ran +riot. "What does that mean, Miss Preston? Do tell us." + +"I have other matters of such importance on hand that I must deputize Miss +Howard to unravel the mystery for you," she said, as she slipped away to +the upper hall where the telephone was placed, and a moment later the +girls heard the bell jingle and a funny, one-sided conversation followed. +"Hello, Central! 1305. Is this 1305? Send me the usual order. Yes, four +kinds. Eight. Well packed. Be prompt." + +The porter carried the big box to Toinette's room and removed the lid for +her. Such an array! I'm not going to attempt to tell about it, but shall +let every girl who has ever attended a chum's birthday feast mention the +articles of which that feast consisted, and then, after combining the +entire list, they can form some idea of the contents of Toinette's box. + +"Fly, Cicely, and hunt up every C. C. C., and a dozen besides! We can +never dispose of such a cartload of stuff in a week if we don't have the +entire school to help us," cried Toinette, as she lifted one thing after +another from the box. + +There is a saying that "Ill news flies fast," but, in my humble opinion, +it is as a stage-coach beside the Empire State Express when compared to +the fleetness of good news. So it did not take long to start this bit like +an electric fluid through the school, and what sort of "Free Masonry" +filled in details so successfully I know not. + + + + +CHAPTER XXV + +"WHAT ARE YOU DOING UP THIS TIME OF NIGHT?" + + +It so happened that of the ten resident teachers but three were at home +that evening; the others having joined a theatre party going to town, and +it would be midnight before they returned. + +Those at home were Miss Preston, Miss Howard, and, unfortunately, Mrs. +Stone. Of the first two mentioned the girls felt small apprehension, for +they understood them pretty thoroughly, but Mrs. Stone was an obstacle not +so easily surmounted, and it seemed to them that she was never more +ubiquitous. + +At nine-thirty Miss Preston had bade all good-night in an unusually +solicitous manner, wishing each happy dreams. Miss Howard had also retired +to her room promptly at the stroke of the clock, and everything worked +most auspiciously excepting the tucking away of Mother Stone, and she +positively refused to be tucked, but kept prowling about like a lost +spirit, till Ruth said, in desperation: "If she doesn't get settled down +pretty soon I'll do something desperate; see if I don't." + +From room to room she went, popping her head in at one to ask if there was +anything she could do for this girl, listening at the next door for sounds +of insomnia, creeping stealthily on through the corridors to learn if any +girl who ought to be en route for Sleepy Town had by chance missed her +way. + +She had made her way as far as the lower end of the hall, where on one +side the stairs leading to the third story joined it, and on the other a +door opened into the bath-room, when a rustle at the head of the stairs +caused her to glance quickly in that direction; but it was too dark for +her to see anything at the top of them. She paused to listen, and her +sharp ears detected the sound again. That was sufficient. Up she flew and +came plump upon Lou Cornwall, who had not had time to fly. Lou was stout +and did not move quickly, and was fair prey for Mrs. Stone, who was as +thin as a match, and managed to glide about like a wraith. + +Lou was arrayed in her bath-robe, and had her cap and mask in her hand. +Quickly concealing them behind her lest Mrs. Stone's sharp eyes should +discover them even in the dark, she stood stock still waiting +developments. Mrs. Stone stooped from her towering height of five feet +nine to peer into the face of the plump little figure huddled in the +corner. "How you startled me," she said. "Why are you standing here when +everyone else is in bed, and what are you doing up this time of night?" + +"I had to get up, Mrs. Stone." + +"Why, may I enquire?" + +"I am going to the bath-room." + +"Then, why in the world don't you _go_ and not stand huddled up here as +though you were bent on some mischief? It is no wonder that we suspect you +when you take such extraordinary ways of doing perfectly simple things. Go +on at once, and, if you have been hesitating because you are timid, I'll +wait here till you return," and down she planted herself upon the top step +to mount guard. + +Groaning inwardly, away went Lou, muttering: "If I don't keep you perched +there till you nearly freeze, my name isn't Lou Cornwall!" + +And keep her she did, till Mrs. Stone had another trouble added to her +many, for she began to fear that Lou had been taken ill, and went to the +bath-room door to speak to her. Finding that she could not hold out any +longer, out she came, and, after receiving some very emphatic admonitions +from Mrs. Stone, crept away to her room disgusted with herself, the world +at large, and Mrs. Stone in particular. + +Meantime, the other girls began to suspect that Lou had fallen into +ambush, and sent out a scout to reconnoiter, and it was not many seconds +before the scout came scuttling back with the alarming information that +the enemy was close at hand; in fact, that she was even now coming upon +them in force, for, when Mother Stone found that Lou did not come from the +bath-room as promptly as she thought she should, all her suspicions were +instantly aroused, and she was keen to make discoveries. + +The girls had planned to meet in Toinette's room, and creep from there to +the old laundry as soon as all were assembled. About a dozen were already +there, but, when the scout returned with such dire tidings, they decided +that discretion was the better part of valor, and all made haste to get +back to their rooms ere the enemy appeared. But, alack-a-day! that enemy +could flit about in a surprisingly lively manner, and, ere some of them +had reached safety behind their own doors, she came in view. To get to +their rooms now was out of the question, so, making a virtue of necessity, +they all slipped into a large closet used by the housemaids for their +brooms, etc. + +Whether it was from a wholesome fear that Miss Preston would be very apt +to criticize a too pronounced vigilance that Mrs. Stone refrained from +opening the girls' doors, but contented herself with simply listening, I +cannot say, but if she heard no sound within she always passed on and left +them to their innocent (?) slumbers. So on she went from one room to +another, but, luckily, the alarm had gone before, and at each room +darkness and profound silence prevailed. Satisfied that "all was well," +she murmured something about, "It is always well to be upon the alert, for +once the girls understand that someone is sure to detect the first signs +of mischief, they are far less liable to carry it to excess," she set off +for her own room. In passing by the housemaid's door she saw that it was +not tightly closed and locked, as was the custom at night, and, with a +joyous chuckle at her own astuteness, she pounced upon it, locked the +door, and withdrawing the key sailed triumphantly to her room, where, +serene in her sense of well-doing, she fell as sound asleep as her nature +permitted. + +Meantime, how fared it with the mice in the trap? When the key was turned +in the door, and they were made prisoners, nothing but the pitch darkness +which enveloped them as a garment prevented each girl's face from plainly +announcing to her neighbor: "Here is a pretty kettle of fish!" There were +five in the closet: Ruth, Edith, Pauline, May and Marie. Luckily, a +resourceful party. When all sound from the hall had ceased, Ruth gave just +one howl, and then jumped up and down three times as hard as she could +jump, by way of giving vent to her state of mind. Fortunately, the door +was a heavy one and the sound did not reach Mother Stone's ears. + +"You crazy thing!" exclaimed Edith, "next thing you know you will have her +after us again." + +"Suppose we do; we've got to get out somehow, haven't we?" + +"Yes, but she is the last one in the world we want to let us out. What a +fix! If the girls only knew of it, they would come and let us out." + +"How could they when she has the key, I'd like to know?" + +Edith groaned: "I never thought of that plagued old key. Bother take her +and it, too! Why couldn't she have gone to bed just as everybody else did, +and have minded her own business, too." + +"That was exactly what she thought she was doing," laughed May. + +"It's all very well to laugh, but _how_ are we to get down to the laundry, +I'd like to know; or the girls ever find out where we are?" + +While all this talking had been going on, little Marie, the liveliest, +slightest, most quick-witted girl in the school, had been doing a lot of +thinking, and now turned to the others and said: + +"Do you see that scrap of a window up there?" + +"Yes, we see it, but it might as well be a rat-hole, for all the good it +will do us; nothing but a rat could crawl through it!" + +"Don't be too sure," answered Marie, with a knowing laugh. "I can get +through a pretty small space when occasion demands, and, if I'm not much +mistaken, the demand is very urgent just at this moment." + +"How under the sun can you reach it, even if you can get through it after +you've reached it?" + +"What good have you derived from your gymnastic training this winter, I'd +like to know, if you have to ask me that?" demanded Marie. + +The window was one of those odd little affairs one sometimes sees built in +houses, perhaps simply to excite curiosity and make one wonder why they +were ever built at all, for they do not seem to be of the slightest use. +The one in question was situated high up in the closet, and had probably +been put there for ventilating purposes, if anyone ever felt inclined to +get a step-ladder and clamber up to open it. It was shaped like a segment +of a circle, was only about eighteen inches high at the widest part, and +fastened at the top with a bolt. Getting at it in broad daylight would not +have been an easy matter, and now, with only the light of the moon shining +through it, it seemed an impossibility. + + + + +CHAPTER XXVI + +"LOVE (AND SCHOOLGIRLS) LAUGH AT LOCKSMITHS" + + +"Here, I'm going to take command of affairs, since no one else seems +inclined to," cried Marie. "May, you are the strongest girl here; just +give me a shoulder, will you?" + +"What shall I do?" + +"Stand close to the wall underneath the window, and let me get on your +shoulder; it may hurt a bit, but we can't stay stived up in here all +night. Lend a hand, Ruth, and boost me up." + +A step-ladder of knees and arms was formed, and up scrambled Marie as +nimbly as a squirrel. Then another obstacle confronted her. The window had +probably never been opened since it was built, and, having never been +called upon to do its share in the economy of that household, was +disinclined to begin now. Marie's slender fingers were dented and pinched +in vain; that window remained obdurate. + +"For mercy sake come down and give the old thing up! My shoulder is +crushed flat," said May. + +"Wait just one second longer, and I'll have it; see if I don't. Ruth, hand +me that stair-brush, please." + +Ruth gave her the brush, and, saying to May: "Now, brace yourself for a +mighty push," she used the handle as a lever, gave a vigorous jerk, when +away went bolt, window, Marie and all. Down she came with a thud, but, +luckily, on a pile of sweeping cloths, which saved her from harm. + +Scrabbling up, she cried: "Never mind, I'm not hurt a bit; now boost me up +again, and let me see what is outside." + +She was promptly lifted up, and, poking her saucy head out into the +moonlight, drew in long whiffs of the sweet night air, which was +wonderfully refreshing after the stuffy closet. + +"The shed is about ten feet below, girls. If I had anything to lower +myself down with I could easily reach it; I'm almost afraid to let myself +drop, the shed slopes so." + +"Hang fast a second while Ruth and I tie the sweeping-cloths together," +cried May, and quickly catching up the calico covers they began to tie +them together. + +"See that you tie them tightly," warned Marie. "I've had one bump already, +and I don't want another." + +The cloths were soon ready, and one end handed to her. She fastened it +securely about her waist, and, warning the others to hang on for dear +life, she began to crawl through the narrow opening. + +"My goodness, she is just like a monkey," said Pauline. "I never could +have done it in the world," a most superfluous assertion, as no one in the +world would ever have suspected her of being able to. + +Away went Marie, vanishing bit by bit from their sight till only her +laughing black eyes, with the soft dark hair above them, were visible in +the moonlight. The girls lowered away slowly, and presently felt the +strain upon the cloths relax. + +"She's on the shed! Good!" said Edith, "and now she'll have us out in less +than jig time." + +But "many's the slip twixt the--lip and the birthday box," and the girls +began to suspect Marie of treachery to the cause ere they again heard her +voice. + +[Illustration: "AWAY WENT MARIE, VANISHING BIT BY BIT."] + +Meantime, how fared it with her? Once upon the shed all seemed plain +sailing, but the shed was somewhat like the mountains Moses climbed so +wearily; it gave her a glimpse of the promised land without permitting her +to enter it. The ground was fully sixteen feet below her, and to reach it +without some means other than her own nimble legs was obviously +impossible. The shed was only a small one built out over the kitchen, but +just beyond, with perhaps five feet dividing them, was the end of the +piazza roof, and if she could only reach that she could let herself down +to the ground by the thick vines growing upon it. But those five feet +intervening looked a perfect gulf, and how to get over them was a poser. +Jump it she dared not; step it she could not. It began to look as though +she must signal to the girls in the closet to haul in their big fish, when +she chanced to spy something sticking up through the honeysuckle vines. +Crawling carefully down to the edge of the shed, she peered over, and saw +the ends of the gardener's ladder. Pauline had not made a mistake when she +called her a monkey, for in just one second she was at the bottom of that +ladder. + +"Now I'm all right, and will soon have the girls free," and off she +scurried to the side of the house upon which Toinette's room was situated. +Gathering up a handful of soft earth she threw it against the window, but +with no result. Then a second one followed. Had she but known it, Toinette +and her revellers had long ago given them up, and were now down in the old +laundry spreading forth their array of goodies. After wasting considerable +time, Marie suddenly bethought her of the above fact, and instantly +skipped off to that Mecca. + +There was not a ray of light visible, but, happily, sight is not the only +sense with which we are endowed, and Marie's ears were as keen as her +eyes. Giving the three signal taps upon one of the tightly closed +window-blinds, she waited a reply. But the girls were not expecting taps +from that quarter, and at once became suspicious. But precious moments +were fleeing, and Marie was becoming desperate, so, flinging prudence to +the winds, she gave three sounding bangs upon that window, and called +out: + +"If you don't open this window and let me in I'll set Mother Stone on your +track, sure as you live!" + +Open flew the window, and a moment later Marie was relating her +experiences to them. Then came the question of rescuing the others. Not an +easy one to answer. But Marie had gone so far, and, being a very +resourceful little body, had no notion of giving up yet, and saying to the +revellers: "I'm going to let those girls out if I have to take the door +down to do it," off she flitted, as quickly and silently as a butterfly. +In less time than it takes to tell it she stood outside their prison, and +saying, encouragingly: "Don't give up, girls; I'll soon have you out," she +slipped into the sewing-room opposite, and emerged a second later with the +little oil-can and screw-driver from the machine drawer. + +"For gracious sake, what _are_ you going to do?" whispered Cicely, who had +come with her to help if possible. + +"Something I once saw a carpenter at our house do, if I can. Sh! Don't +make any noise," and, reaching up to the top hinge, Marie dropped a few +drops of oil from her can upon it, and then treated the lower one in the +same manner. The hinges were what are known as "fish hinges," the door +being held in place by a small iron peg slipped into the sockets of the +hinge. After she had oiled them, she placed her screw-driver under the +knob of the peg, when, lo! up it slid as easily as could be, and when both +had been carefully slid out of place, nothing prevented the door from +being softly drawn away from the hinges, swung outward, and if it did not +open from left to right, as it had been intended to open, it was quite as +easy to walk through it when it opened from right to left. To slip it back +into place, when five giggling girls had escaped, was equally easy, and no +one would ever have suspected the skillful bit of mechanical engineering +that had taken place under their very noses at ten-thirty that night. + + + + +CHAPTER XXVII + +ARIADNE'S CLUE + + +The manner in which those liberated girls skipped down to the laundry was +certainly not snail-like. They had nearly reached it when Ruth's feet +became entangled in a piece of string, and, stooping down to loosen it, +she discovered a slip of paper fastened to the end, and a large pin which +had evidently stuck it fast to the door-casing. No doubt some of the girls +had brushed against it in their hurry-scurry to reach the laundry, and, +but for the ill wind which blew five of them into the housemaid's closet, +this significant scrap of paper would never have been discovered. The +candle they carried was brought to bear upon it, and they read the +following words: + + In ancient days, so the stories say, + One Theseus found a remarkable way + Of reaching a point he wished to gain, + And down to posterity came his fame. + + So, perhaps, posterity may also do well + To follow a "clue," but never to tell + Just what they found at the further end, + Lest a rule should break instead of bend. + +"What can it mean? Where does it lead to?" were the questions eagerly +whispered. + +"Come on, and let's find out," was Ruth's practical remark, and she began +to wind up the string. There seemed no end to it, and it led them through +the corridor, out of that into the kitchen, then out to a small store-room +built beneath the kitchen porch. Here the end was tied to a very +suggestive-looking tub. + +Had Diogenes succeeded in discovering an honest man he could not have felt +greater satisfaction than these girls felt at the sight of that modest +little oval tub, with its sawdust covering; and the way in which it was +pounced upon, and borne in triumph to the laundry, brings my story of that +night's revels to a climax, and no more need be told. + +When the twelve o'clock train whistled it was the signal for the revels to +end, and, ere the carriages which were to meet the theatre-goers could +bring them up the hill, Sunny Bank was as quiet and peaceful as though all +its inmates had been dreaming for hours. + +The weather had become beautifully soft and balmy for the middle of April, +and the girls were able to sit out of doors, and do many of the things +they had not hoped to do till May should burgeon and bloom. + +A few days after the frolic Toinette was sitting in one of the pretty +little summer-houses, of which there were several dotted about the +grounds, when Miss Howard came in and took her seat beside her. + +"You have been playing at hide-and-seek with me without knowing it," she +said, "for I have been searching for you everywhere, and only discovered +you here by the glint of the sunshine upon your hair." + +"Did you want me, Miss Howard? I'm sorry you had to hunt for me," answered +Toinette. "What can I do for you?" + +"Give me some wise advice," said Miss Howard, smiling. + +"_I_ give you advice!" exclaimed Toinette. + +"Yes; don't you think you can?" + +"I shall have to know what it is about before I dare say yes or no, Miss +Howard." + +"You know that I am going to leave you in a few weeks, dear, and I want my +leave-taking to be closely identified with my girls, whom I have learned +to love so dearly, and whom, I think, love me as well as I love them. I +have spent many happy years in this school, first as pupil and then as +teacher, and it has been a very dear home to me. Now I am going away from +it forever, and though the future looks very enticing, and I have every +reason to believe that it will be happy, still I cannot help feeling sad +at the thought of leaving the old life behind. These are serious +confidences for me to burden you with, Toinette, but you have crept into a +very warm corner of my heart since you became a pupil here, and I know +that there is a wise little head upon these shoulders," said Miss Howard, +as she placed her hand on Toinette's shoulder. + +The girl reached up, and drawing the hand close to her cheek held it +there, but did not speak. + +"So now," continued Miss Howard, "I am going to ask you to help my +outgoing from this happy home to be a pleasant one, by being my maid of +honor when the time comes; will you, dear?" + +"You want _me_ to be the maid of honor, Miss Howard? You don't truly mean +it? There are so many other girls whom you have known so much longer, and +whom you must love better than you do me; although I don't believe they +_can_ love _you_ any better than I do," said Toinette, naively. + +"That is just it, dear. I do love them all, and am sure that they are very +fond of me. But in your case it is just a little different. All these +girls have pleasant homes, and many loved ones in them who plan for their +happiness, and to whom they will go directly vacation begins. For many +years you, like myself, have had no home but the one a school offered, and +which, unlike mine, was sometimes not as happy a home as it might have +been, I fear. So, you see, we have, in one way, had a bond of sympathy +between us even before we knew it to be so. And now we have still another, +for when we leave here in June we shall each go to our own dear home; you +to one your father shall make for you, I to the one my husband will +provide for me." + +A soft, pretty color had crept over Miss Howard's face as she spoke, and a +very tender look came into her beautiful eyes. Truly, she was carrying +something very sweet and holy to the one who was to bear that name. + +"So we shall step out into the new life together, shall we not, Toinette, +and each will be the sweeter for our having done so?" asked Miss Howard. + +"It is too lovely even to think about, Miss Howard. I don't know how to +make you understand how proud and happy it makes me to think that you +chose me from among all the others, and I hope they will not feel that you +should not have done so. Do you think they will mind?" + +"On the contrary, they are delighted with my choice, for I told them my +reasons, as I have told them to you, and they see it in the same light +that I see it." + +"Then I shall be the happiest girl in Montcliff," cried Toinette. + +"No, _next_ to the happiest," said Miss Howard, laughing softly. + +"Well, I shall be the happiest in _my_ way, and you in _yours_," and +Toinette wagged her head as though it would be of no use for Miss Howard +to try to make her concede _that_ point. + +"And now let us plan our maid of honor's toilet, and also what our six +bridesmaids must wear. It was upon that important question I wished your +advice, and, now that you know, do you feel qualified to give it?" + +"Oh, how lovely!" cried Toinette. "Why, Miss Howard, it is almost like +planning for my own wedding, and you are too sweet for anything to let +me." + + + + +CHAPTER XXVIII + +"WHEN BUDS AND BLOSSOMS BURST" + + +The planning of the toilets took considerable time, and Miss Howard felt +that she had made no mistake when she asked the girl's advice. Like her +father's, Toinette's taste was unerring, and when she said: + +"Wouldn't it be pretty to have the girls represent flowers?" Miss Howard +was delighted with the idea. + +"What flowers would you suggest, dear?" she asked. + +"Let me think just a moment, please," said Toinette, and she rested her +chin upon her hands, a favorite attitude of hers when thinking seriously +of anything. "How would a lily, a violet, a pansy, a daffodil, a +narcissus, and a snowdrop do?" + +"How pretty!" exclaimed Miss Howard. "What put such a picturesque idea in +your head? It is beautiful, and can be carried out admirably. You must be +my fair and lovely lily; then shall come my violet and daffodil; then my +narcissus and lilac; then my pansy and modest little snowdrop. That will +exactly suit Helen." + +"Who are to be the bridesmaids?" + +"Edith, May, Ruth, Marie, Natala and Helen." + +"How nice of you to choose all the younger girls; it makes us feel so +important. Now, let's plan just what the dresses are to be," said +Toinette, becoming quite excited, and looking at Miss Howard as though all +must be completed ere they left the summer-house. + +"I am waiting for your suggestions," said she. + +"Wouldn't it be pretty to have all the dresses made of white chiffon, or +something soft like that, and have white, violet and yellow slips under +them? Then have the hats trimmed with the flowers they represent. Would +you like that, Miss Howard?" + +"Yes, immensely; but now I want to think about Helen. You know she has +very limited means, and what might seem a small outlay for the others +would probably be a large one for her, and I do not want to tax her +resources, much as I wish to have her for one of my bonny maids." + +"Yes," said Toinette, meditatively, "I suppose the dresses will be rather +expensive, but it would be too bad not to have Helen; she is so sweet and +is so fond of you, Miss Howard." + +"Yes, she is a dear child, and I have felt a great interest in her from +the moment she entered the school. I wish I knew of some way of bettering +her circumstances. Mr. Burgess is a most estimable man, but not one liable +to advance rapidly through his own efforts, I fear. He is most reliable +and capable, but seems to lack the push so essential in this bustling day +and age. He would prove invaluable in any position of trust, but would +never secure such if it depended upon his own efforts to do so." + +Toinette had listened very attentively while Miss Howard was talking, and +when she finished said: + +"When papa was out here for the dance I spoke to him about Helen, and we +had such a nice little talk. The next day he spoke with Miss Preston about +those very things, but I do not know what came of it. I wish I did. His +business affairs bring him into contact with so many large firms of +different kinds that I am almost sure he could secure something for Mr. +Burgess. Do you know what I am going to do?" said Toinette, eagerly, "I am +going to write to him right off, tell him all about our plans; may I? +About the wedding, the bridesmaids, and everything; then I am going to ask +him if he has heard of anything that he thinks would help Mr. Burgess, +and, who knows, maybe, by the first of June all will be fixed up so nicely +that Helen can have things as nice as the other girls--and, oh, Miss +Howard!--wouldn't it be _lovely_ if she could go abroad with Miss +Preston?" and Toinette clasped her hands in rapture at the very thought. + +Miss Howard laughed a happy little laugh, and, taking Toinette's face in +both her hands, kissed her cheeks very tenderly, saying as she did so: + +"I see that I made no mistake in my estimate of your character, dear, +although I did not bargain for quite such a wise, resourceful little head +and efficient helper as you have proved. How did you manage to think out +so much in so short a time?" + +"I suppose it is because my brains have never been overburdened with +thoughts for other people," said Toinette, with an odd expression +overspreading her face, "and so the part of them devoted to that sort of +thing has had time to develop to an astonishing degree. But I guess I'd +better begin to use the power before it becomes abnormal; Miss Preston +says that abnormal development of any sort is dangerous," and she gave a +funny little laugh as she glanced slyly into Miss Howard's eyes. + +Miss Howard understood the quaint remark, and, rising from her seat, said: +"I shall not soon forget our little talk, but must leave you now for the +'school ma'am's' duties. One of them will be to endeavor to persuade +Pauline that it was _not_ Henry VIII. who sought to reduce the American +Colonies to submission, nor Lafayette who won the battle of Waterloo. +Good-bye," and away tripped Miss Howard over the soft green lawn. + +Toinette sat for a few moments, and then, springing up, said to herself: +"I might as well go and write that letter this very minute, and I do hope +papa will know of something right off. How lovely it would be!" + +The letter was soon written, and within two hours was speeding upon its +way to New York. Toinette had reasoned well, and, as good luck would have +it, the letter arrived at a most auspicious moment. As Mr. Reeve sat +reading it, his face reflecting the happiness he felt at receiving it so +close upon the one which came to him every Monday morning, a client was +shown into his office. + +It happened to be one who was about to embark upon a new line of business +in which he was venturing large sums of money, and which required capable, +trustworthy men to carry out his plans. He had consulted with Mr. Reeve +many times before, and nearly all details were completed; the few that +remained dealt with minor matters, so Mr. Reeve felt considerable +satisfaction at the thought of having brought all arrangements through so +successfully. But it was certainly anything but a contented face he saw +before him when he glanced up from Toinette's letter upon Mr. Fowler's +entrance, and his first words were: "Well, for a prosperous capitalist, +you bear a woeful countenance, Ned." + +"If mine is woeful, yours certainly is not," was the prompt answer. "You +look as though you had been the recipient of some very pleasing news." + +"A pretty good sort," said Mr. Reeve, smiling. "The sort that makes a man +feel old and young at the same time. Ever get any of that?" + +"Don't know as I do; it must be a rare specimen," said Mr. Fowler, dryly. +"Better let me know the kind it is; perhaps it will counterbalance the +kind I have for you this morning; confound it!" + +Seeing that Mr. Fowler was really disturbed about something, Mr. Reeve +dropped his bantering tone, and went to serious matters. He then learned +that the bookkeeper whom Mr. Fowler had engaged for the new line of +business, and who would also act as his confidential clerk and office +manager, would be unable to accept the position, as he was called to +England by the death of his father, and would in future make his home +there. This was a serious loss to Mr. Fowler, for he had known this man +for years, and felt deep satisfaction at the thought of having such an +efficient assistant. + +"And now," he said, when he had told Mr. Reeve all the facts, "who under +heavens am I to find to fill his place at such short notice, I'd like to +know? Such men are not to be picked up at every corner." + +"Read that letter," was all Mr. Reeve said, and handed him Toinette's +letter. + +Mr. Fowler took the letter, and began reading with a very mystified +expression, as though he could not for the life of him understand what a +letter from Mr. Reeve's daughter had to do with his private affairs. But, +as he read, his expression changed, and when he came to the end he said: +"Well, it may be Kismet; can't say. Funnier things have happened. Look +into it, will you, Clayton? I'm sick and tired of the thing, particularly +when I thought all important details settled." + +And Clayton Reeve did "look into it" very thoroughly, leaving no stone +unturned which would help him to learn all that it was necessary to know +about Mr. Burgess, and nothing could possibly have been more gratifying +than what he learned. As a result of it, Mr. Burgess was offered the +position from June first, and the salary offered with it seemed a princely +one to him as compared to the one he had received as clerk in the bank in +Montcliff. It would be hard to understand the happiness which that +schoolgirl letter brought to one family, or how the writing of it changed +two lives very materially, and a third completely. + + + + +CHAPTER XXIX + +COMMENCEMENT + + +Many a girl has asked: "Why do they call it commencement when it is really +the end?" If they have not found out why, I am not going to tell the +secret. But one thing I have found out is this: Never in after life do we +ever feel _quite_ so important as we do when that day has been reached +upon our life's calendar. + +It was no exception at Sunny Bank, and when the fifth of June dawned that +year it found a busy, bustling household. No, I am not telling the exact +truth: it was not when it _dawned_, but fully three hours later, and then +began the hurry-scurry which continued till all were assembled in chapel +to listen to the opening prayer of the good man who had for many a year +opened the Sunny Bank commencement exercises. + +He had grown old in faithful service in Montcliff, and was beloved and +revered by all. + +It is of no use for me to tell you all about those exercises; to an +outsider they were exactly like many others that had taken place before; +to the girls themselves they were unique, and stood out pre-eminent above +all others. Everybody was there who had the smallest excuse for being, and +just how happy six bodies were I will leave you to learn from what +follows. + +The exercises were to take place in the evening, and all day long +relatives and friends of the girls arrived thick and fast. Among the first +was Toinette's father. "Couldn't wait till evening, you see," he cried, as +he met Toinette at the railway station. "Yes, it is all settled; I got +them by a lucky chance at the very last moment." + +"Did you say anything to Mr. Burgess about it?" asked Toinette. + +"No, I have not seen him; daresay he has had his hands full since the +first. We'll speak to Miss Preston first, and then call at the Burgess' +and tell them." + +"How perfectly splendid! Oh, daddy, you are a perfect wonder! How do you +ever manage to fetch things about so successfully?" + +"Because I have found a wonderful incentive to spur me on," he answered as +he handed her into the carriage which was waiting for them, and they +whirled off up the hill. + +"And you will stay here till after the wedding, won't you?" asked +Toinette, snuggling close to his side and slipping her arm through his. + +"What! Five whole days? What will you do with me all that time?" + +"No danger of your suffering from ennui, I guess," laughed Toinette. "I +will guarantee to keep you occupied. And then, daddy, after all is over +we'll go off together, and won't we have glorious times!" and she gave a +rapturous little bounce at the thought of the delightful days to come. + +Miss Preston was to sail for Europe on the fifteenth of June, five days +after Miss Howard's wedding, and six girls were to go with her. When it +became an understood thing that Mr. Burgess' financial affairs were to be +so improved, the possibility of Helen making one of the party was talked +over, although Mrs. Burgess was filled with dismay at the thought of +having her daughter take such a step upon such short notice; it seemed a +tremendous thing to that quiet, home-staying body. Still, Miss Preston had +long been anxious to have Helen go with her, and, now that there seemed no +further obstacle to her doing so, could not make up her mind to go without +her. + +She had talked it over with both Mr. and Mrs. Burgess, but, it must be +confessed, had met with only lukewarm enthusiasm. Furthermore, it was very +late in the day to secure stateroom accommodation upon the steamer by +which Miss Preston would sail, her own and the girls having been engaged +for weeks. + +Helen herself said very little, but Miss Preston knew that the girl's +heart had long been set upon going, and this year the route planned took +in the very points she had most wished to visit, and which would prove the +most profitable for her to visit. In desperation, Miss Preston turned to +Mr. Reeve once more, for she had found him a most resourceful man, and one +not likely to be easily baffled. + +The result was that he had succeeded in making a mutually agreeable +exchange of staterooms with some other people, and was now primed and +ready to carry the war into the enemy's country. + +Soon after luncheon they all drove to Stonybrook, a town about ten miles +from Montcliff, and Helen's home. Evidently their persuasive powers were +strong, for ere the visit ended it was decided that Helen should make one +of Miss Preston's party to sail with her "over the ocean blue," and some +very happy people drove back to Montcliff that afternoon. + +The house seemed very quiet after the girls' departure for their homes on +the day following commencement, for, excepting those who lived too far +away to return for the wedding, and would remain as Miss Preston's guests +until after the tenth, all had left that morning, and when a house has +been filled with twenty-five or thirty girls, and all but eight or ten +suddenly depart from it, the quiet which ensues cannot be overlooked. + +Mr. Reeve gave himself up to the enjoyment of his five days' vacation as +only a busy man can, and when I add that he was a very happy man, too, I +need say no more. + +The year had been one of many experiences both for him and for Toinette, +and for both was ending far more happily than he had hoped it would. The +future seemed to promise a great deal to them both, for they were growing +to understand each other better every day, and Toinette was developing +into a very lovely, as well as a very lovable, companion. They had planned +a delightful summer vacation, to be spent in travelling leisurely from +place to place, as the fancy took them, and Toinette had suggested nearly +all. + +The five days at Montcliff were spent in driving about the beautiful +country, playing tennis, rambling about the pretty woods, and doing an +endless number of delightful nothings, as people can sometimes do when +they fully make up their minds to put aside the cares of the world for a +time. + +They soon came to an end, and then came Miss Howard's wedding day. + +There has always seemed something inexpressibly sweet in Longfellow's +words in reference to the forming of new ties and establishing the new +home. In Miss Howard's case it was to be a home filled with all the +sweetest hopes that can come into a woman's life: hopes sanctified by love +and founded upon respect. Could they have a firmer foundation? The future +held great promise for her, although worldly-minded folk might say that +the step she was about to take was not marked off by a _golden_ +mile-stone, nor the path she would follow be paved with a golden pavement. +She knew that quite well, and had wisely decided that a noble character +and a brilliant mind were excellent substitutes, however agreeable it may +be to have the former, and, also, that the former minus the latter are +fairy gold. + + + + +CHAPTER XXX + +"O FORTUNATE, O HAPPY DAY" + + + "O fortunate, O happy day, + When a new household finds its place + Among the myriad homes of earth, + Like a new star just sprung to birth, + And rolled on its harmonious way + Into the boundless realms of space!" + +As though all that was loveliest had united to do her honor, and make the +boundary-line between the old and the new life one to be long remembered +by all who stood beside her at it, the day set for Miss Howard's wedding +was all that Lowell has written about it. It was as "rare" and "perfect" +as dear Mother Nature could make it for one of her loveliest children. + +The girls had dressed the church, until it seemed a very bower of bloom, +and at every turn Miss Howard would find the posies of which she was so +fond. The three colors, if white may be called a color, chosen for the +bridesmaids' dresses were used in the decorations, and altar, chancel, +transept and aisles were brilliant with daffodils, narcissuses and lilacs, +which filled the church with their perfume. + +The wedding was to take place at four o'clock, and when that hour arrived +little space was left in the church for the tardy ones. + +Nearly all the girls had returned for the ceremony, and a bonnier lot it +would have been difficult to find than that which filled the front pews of +the church, for Miss Howard would have them all near her, insisting that +none of the other guests could possibly have the same loving thoughts for +her that her girls would have. + +Promptly at the stroke of four the great organ rolled out its message to +all, and, after her few distant relatives had been conducted to their +seats, Miss Howard's bonny bridesmaids appeared, following another fancy +of hers by walking together, with the ushers leading. First came Edith and +Marie; Edith's yellow golden hair a perfect background for the big white +chip hat, with its masses of violets, and her fair, soft skin made softer +and fairer by the fairy-like chiffon draped so artistically over the pale +violet satin beneath it. A daintily gilded basket filled with violets told +all the story. + +Saucy and pert beside her walked the little brownie Marie, looking for all +the world like the bobbing daffies in her white basket. One wanted to sing +the old nursery rhyme: "Daffy-down-dilly has come to town," for they were +nodding a friendly greeting from her hat, and seemed to lend their golden +sheen to the satin beneath the white chiffon gown. + +Behind them followed May Foster and Natala King. May's bronze-brown hair +and brilliant coloring were a perfect foil for the creamy-white narcissus +blossoms on her hat and the creamy-white of her gown. While Natala's +light-brown hair and hazel eyes needed just the lilac tints to show how +pretty they were. + +Then came Ruth and Helen. Could Miss Howard have chosen two who, placed +beside each other, would have formed a more pronounced contrast? Not even +the solemnity of the occasion could overcome Ruth's ruling passion, +curiosity: she was determined to see all to be seen if it rested with her +to do so. Nor were the pert pansy blossoms upon her hat, nodding a welcome +to all, more on the alert. Or could those which peeped from the folds of +her pansy-yellow gown, with its white chiffon draperies, smile in a more +friendly manner than did Ruth, as she walked slowly up that aisle, with +shy, modest Helen at her side. Helen looked the snowdrop to perfection, +for if the pansies needed Ruth's gypsy coloring for a foil, the snowdrops +needed Helen's pale blonde daintiness for theirs. The only color which +relieved its pure white was the deep green of the wax-like leaves, and the +contrast was perfect. The dress was of that soft silvery white only to be +contrived by the combination of satin and chiffon, and Helen looked very +lovely. + +Behind them, a dream of fairness, walked Toinette. Through the chiffon of +her gown ran fine golden threads, which caused it to glint and glisten as +the sunbeams. The white satin underneath was of that peculiar ivory tint +which combines so exquisitely with gold tints. Her hat was made of the +chiffon, and trimmed with Easter lilies, which nestled in its soft folds +and against the beautiful golden hair beneath them. Her basket was also +white, and she was a fitting emblem of the pure soul she was leading to +the altar. + +Then came the bride, her hand resting lightly upon the arm of the friend +who had led her along the greater part of her life's pathway, for Miss +Preston had been Miss Howard's "guide, philosopher and friend" almost as +long as she could remember. Very stately did she look, as she walked up +that aisle to give away at the altar something which the years had +rendered very precious to her, for sometimes "old maids' children" are +more dear to them than are the children who claim the love of parents. + +Miss Preston was very proud of her honors. + +But no words can describe the girl who walked at her side, her beautiful +face made transcendently so by the tenderest, holiest thought that can +fill a woman's heart: that she is about to become the wife of the man she +loves. She seemed to forget the church and all who were gathered there to +witness her happiness, and the soft, dark eyes looked straight before her +to the altar, where her husband to be awaited her, as though that altar +was to her as the entrance to the holy of holies; as, indeed, it was. + +How brief is a marriage ceremony! A few words are spoken and two lives are +changed forever, never again to be the same as they were less than ten +minutes before, but filled with new duties, new obligations, and the +responsibilities we must all assume when we utter the words: "I will." God +meant that it should be so, and it is one of this world's many blessings. + +[Illustration: "THE BRIDE, HER HAND RESTING LIGHTLY ON THE ARM OF HER +FRIEND."] + +The reception Miss Preston gave for her "adopted daughter," as she called +Miss Howard, now Mrs. Chichester, was long talked over by the school, and +quoted by the girls as "our reception" for months. + +Mr. and Mrs. Chichester sailed for Europe on the same steamer which +carried Miss Preston and her girls, and a happier, merrier party it would +have been hard to find. Toinette and Mr. Reeve went to bid them farewell +and a pleasant voyage, and the last faces those upon the great ship saw as +they swung out into the stream were Toinette's and her father's. + +And now we, too, must leave them--leave them to the happy summer vacation, +when they learned how dear they were to each other, and what a dear old +world this is, after all, when two people manage to look at it through +little Dan Cupid's spectacles. + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Caps and Capers, by Gabrielle E. 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