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diff --git a/35730-8.txt b/35730-8.txt deleted file mode 100644 index c70561d..0000000 --- a/35730-8.txt +++ /dev/null @@ -1,5492 +0,0 @@ - Peggy Parsons at Prep School - - -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 http://www.gutenberg.org/license. - -Title: Peggy Parsons at Prep School - -Author: Annabel Sharp - -Release Date: March 30, 2011 [EBook #35730] - -Language: English - -Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 - -*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK PEGGY PARSONS AT PREP SCHOOL -*** - - - - -Produced by Roger Frank and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at -http://www.pgdp.net. - - - PEGGY PARSONS - AT PREP SCHOOL - - BY - ANNABEL SHARP - - - - - - - - - - - M. A. DONOHUE & COMPANY - CHICAGO -- NEW YORK - Made in U. S. A. - - - - - - - - - -Contents - - - - CHAPTER I--THE SERENADE - - - CHAPTER II--BEING A BELLE - - - CHAPTER III--A BACON BAT - - - CHAPTER IV--THE INSIDE OF GLOOMY HOUSE - - - CHAPTER V--MANAGING MRS. FOREST - - - CHAPTER VI--THE BEAN AUCTION - - - CHAPTER VII--MR. HUNTINGTON'S STORY - - - CHAPTER VIII--CHRISTMAS HOLIDAYS - - - CHAPTER IX--THE FORTUNE TELLER - - - CHAPTER X--MISS ROBINSON CRUSOE - - - CHAPTER XI--THE INITIAL H - - - CHAPTER XII--THE MEETING - - - CHAPTER XIII--SPRING AND ANNAPOLIS - - - CHAPTER XIV--WATER-SPRITES - - - CHAPTER XV--PARSONS COURT - - - - - - - - PEGGY PARSONS AT PREP SCHOOL - - - - - - -CHAPTER I--THE SERENADE - - -Peggy Parsons wove her curly hair into a golden braid, and stretching -her slim arms above her head yawned sleepily. - -"Oh, you mustn't do that," sniggered her room-mate out of the -semi-darkness of the one-candle-power illumination. "They don't allow it -here." - -"Don't allow what?" said Peggy, beginning to prance before the mirror to -admire the fluttering folds of her new blue silk kimono, which had been -given her by a cousin the week before school opened, with the delightful -label, "For Midnight Fudge Parties." - -"Don't allow what?" she repeated curiously, bobbing up and down before -her reflection, "can't I even _yawn_ if I want to?" - -"No," her room-mate unsympathetically insisted, "they teach us manners -along with our French and mathematics, and yawning isn't one,--a manner, -I mean. Yawning is enough to keep you from getting high marks. This is a -finishing school we've come to, please remember." - -"It will finish me," sighed Peggy, with a final whirl of blue draperies, -"if I can't do as I like. Why, I _always_ have." - -"I'm glad I've got you for a room-mate, then," said the other girl -heartily. "It will be such fun to see what happens." - -Peggy blew out the candle and crept across the room, in the darkness, -nearly colliding with a little rose tree that had been given to the -girls to brighten their room against their possible homesickness. - -"What's going to happen now is that I'm going to sleep," she laughed. -"And I'm glad I've got _you_ for a room-mate, Katherine Foster, -just--anyway." - -And both girls smiled into the darkness, for their first day at Andrews -had given them a sense of pleasant anticipation for the rest of the -year. - -Just as their vivid memories of the preceding twelve hours began to mix -themselves up confusingly with dreams, the sound of singing bursting -into triumphant volume under their windows caused both sleepy pairs of -eyes to pop open. - -"Katherine--?" breathed Peggy excitedly. - -"Peggy--?" whispered Katherine, "oh, do you suppose it _is_?" - -"Andrews opened late, and the other schools were already well into their -football and basketball stage: that afternoon the Amherst team had been -in town to play the local college football eleven, and there had been -rumors that the glee club had been among those who cheered on the -Amherst side." - -The song came up now, sweet and strong, with its sure tenor soaring -almost to their window, it seemed. - -Swiftly and silently the two were out of bed and had pattered across to -peep down. There they were! There they really _were_, in the moonlight, -the glee club, singing up to the open dormitory windows. - - "Cheer for Old Amherst, - Amherst must win. - Fight to the fin-ish, - _Never_ give in. - All do your best, boys, - We'll do the rest, boys, - For this is old Amherst's da--ay. - Rah, rah, rah...." - -Peggy felt her arm being pinched black and blue, but she was beyond -caring. - -"O--oh, it's heavenly," she sighed. - -"Peggy, it's a serenade," breathed Katherine happily. - -"Of course it is," assented Peggy, as if she were used to this kind of -thing, "and it's a very nice one." - -"Peggy, oughtn't you to--to throw down flowers when you're serenaded?" -Katherine demanded suddenly. - -"Oh, yes, you _have_ to," Peggy agreed, so that she might not show how -ignorant she was of the requirements of so delightful a situation. - -"We haven't any." Katherine's tone was forlorn and heartbroken. - -"Wait," cried Peggy, scrambling down from the window seat where she had -perched, "the roses,--off the rose tree." - -And she ran to their treasured plant and seized it, jardiniere and all, -and ran back to the window so that she might not miss any of the singing -while she was despoiling their little tree of its blossoms. From every -window in the wing a dim figure might be discerned behind the shaking -lace curtains. With the plant tucked firmly under one arm Peggy leaned -out dreamily. - -"It's all a lovely thing to have happen," she said, "now I'm going to -begin and throw the roses down. Ouch! Goodness,--oh, dear!" - -She pricked herself on a thorn and in jerking away her hand she forgot -that she was holding anything. - -The rose tree toppled an instant on the window-sill and then went down, -flower pot, jardinière and all, into those singing, upturned faces, two -stories below. There followed a frightful crashing sound, and then a -stupefied silence. - -Peggy, covering her face with her hands, turned and ran from the window, -jumped into bed and pulled the sheet over her head. - -"Oh, they're dead, they're dead, and I've killed them," she thought -miserably to herself. - -She never wanted to hear a glee-club again, she never wanted to look -into the face of a living soul. This was a fine ending of a wonderful -day, this was, that she should have killed, goodness knew how many fine -young men, and talented ones, too. Just when they were singing up so -trustingly, for her to have hurled this calamity down upon them! She -shook with sobs. Oh, she had only meant to do a kind deed, a _courteous_ -deed--and she had killed them. She buried her poor little crying face -deeper into the pillow. - -After a few moments she felt her room-mate shaking her, and when she -reluctantly uncovered her tear-stained face she was astonished to hear -laughter. - -"It's all right, come back to the window quickly," Katherine was -chortling, "it's--just great." - -Oh, the glorious shaft of light that shot across Peggy's mental horizon! -Then they weren't dead. No one--not even a heartless room-mate could -laugh at her if she had really killed them. She dashed her hand across -her eyes and went back to peer cautiously down in the moonlight. - -Each of the singers brandished some tiny thing in the shining white -light of the moon, could it be a--flower--a--_rose_? - - "Little Rose Girl! - Little Rose Girl! - We'll sing and shout your praises o'er and o'er, - To you ever, we'll be loyal, - Till the sun shall climb the heavens no more!" - -Peggy caught her breath. They were all singing straight at _her_ -window,--and oh, moonlit clouds! and wonder of stars!--to _her_. - -"Oh--oh, thank you," she said softly, over and over, "thank you, thank -you. I'm so glad you're alive,--and I'm glad I am, too." - -Fastening the tiny flowers in their buttonholes, the glee-club began to -move off. Peggy sat still in the window seat, her hands clasped tightly -in her lap. - -The cool moonlight drifted in around her, and she breathed it in slowly. -Katherine came and curled up beside her. - -"I don't feel a bit sleepy now, do you," she said, "and I'm glad we -showed we liked the serenade." - -Peggy smiled and then she gave one of the forbidden yawns. - -"Oh, it's nice to be alive, and to be young, and to be away at school," -she murmured, disregarding Katherine's observation. "And, just think, -to-morrow we have a perfectly good new day to wake up into." - - - - -CHAPTER II--BEING A BELLE - - -"To think that one of my young ladies--one of MY young ladies," the -principal repeated impressively, "should have been guilty of such a -misdemeanor--" - -"What's a misdemeanor?" Peggy whispered in her room-mate's ear as they -sat in chapel and listened to an address that was evidently going to be -serious for somebody. - -"Sh," said Katherine. "She means us." - -"Means _us_?" demanded Peggy incredulously. "Why, I never did any -misdemeanors in my life." - -"As to throw--or hurl--or drop a flower-pot down to the pavement from a -window in my school," the cold voice continued. - -"O--oh," murmured Peggy, "I thought maybe she'd seen me yawn." - -"Now I am going to put my young ladies upon their honor to tell me which -one of you showed so little regard for me and for the school as to -conduct herself in this manner." The principal lifted her chin in a -deliberate way she had, "and as you pass out from chapel I request the -young lady who has this particular thing on her conscience to come -forward and tell me that it was she who did it." - -The lines of marching girls swung down the aisles, and Peggy rose with -them. "I haven't it on my conscience," she told Katherine, "but I -suppose I ought to tell her." - -"I will go with you," offered Katherine generously. "It was just as much -my fault, and I'd have done it if you hadn't." - -But Peggy shook her head and threaded her way up the aisle to the -principal's desk. - -There she paused, waiting. - -"Good-morning, Miss Parsons," the principal said pleasantly, for she had -taken an especial fancy to Peggy the day before when she had been left -at the school by her aunt. And looking down into that gleeful little -face this morning, shining as it was with all the joy of living, and the -irresponsible happiness that comes only with a free conscience, how -could she dream of connecting Peggy's approach with the confession she -had requested from the girl who had dropped the rose tree. - -"Good-morning," said Peggy, her face crumpling into its funny little -smile, "I didn't mean to." - -"What? Didn't mean to--child, are you telling me--?" - -There was certainly nothing of the hangdog about Peggy. - -She nodded. - -"I was just as sorry as you are for a time," she continued, "but you see -it made them sing to me and I _can't_ be sorry about that, can I? Nobody -could. It was so beautiful." - -She explained simply. - -"I'm very sorry such a thing should have happened," the principal said -solemnly when the recital was over. "The other young ladies are going to -see a performance of the 'Blue Bird' this afternoon, and this prevents -your going. I cannot permit you to go, of course, after this, much as I -regret it." - -Peggy turned away, a little twinge of disappointment in her heart. She -had heard the girls discussing the matinée party for to-day, and she had -never dreamed of not going with them. As she left the chapel Miss -Carrol, the youngest teacher, timidly approached the principal. - -"I am going to chaperone the girls to-day, am I not?" she asked. - -"Yes, Miss Carrol." - -"I thought I'd venture to suggest that Peggy Parsons be forgiven this -once--I don't think she did anything so very terrible--and that she be -allowed to come with us to the first party. Don't you remember when -_you_ were away at school--how heartbreaking it was if you were shut out -of anything, and how easily a fit of homesickness came on to blot out -all the sunlight of the world? Don't you remember--Mrs. Forest?" - -Mrs. Forest didn't remember at all. It wasn't just because all such -experiences for her had been very long ago--many women remember all the -more tenderly as they grow older,--but she had set out to be a good -disciplinarian, and the girls she graduated from her school must be as -nearly alike as possible, she wanted them all run in the same mold of -training. But Miss Carrol's pleading voice and her eager eyes did what -Mrs. Forest's own reminiscences could not do for her--they softened her -attitude toward Peggy and finally she gave her consent for Peggy to go. - -Peggy, flying back to her room, her heart full of disappointment, -unaware of the change in her immediate fortunes brought about by Miss -Carrol, heard her name mentioned by a group at the foot of the big -staircase. - -"This is really a very clever paper little Miss Parsons has written for -my English class," one teacher was saying, tapping the folded sheet -Peggy had labored over as the first of her work for Andrews. - -"Yes?" politely inquired another. "That's rather unusual for Andrews. We -have so many beautiful girls, but so few brilliant ones. Peggy Parsons -may be popular--and she may develop into a genius, but she'll never be a -belle, will she? Not like some of our girls." - -Peggy's feet grew heavy on the stairs. She went miserably on to her room -and there carefully locked the door, and went and stood before the -mirror. She had never been conscious of just how she did look before. -She had never thought of being beautiful, but much less had she thought -of being NOT beautiful. That was too tragic. She saw a little sober -face, with clear brown eyes, and goldy flyaway hair above them. - -"Oh, people will only like me when I laugh," she cried, and her face -crinkled into its familiar expression of merriment, and she watched the -fine dark eyebrows curve upward, and the dimples dance crookedly into -the flushed cheeks. - -"Ye--es," she said slowly. "It isn't so bad then. But I _will_--be a -belle, anyway. You see if I'm not, I will be one and surprise them all. -Maybe I've never tried to make myself look pretty before. I will try -awfully hard now. And I'll turn out the most wonderful belle of them -all, I shouldn't wonder. So there, now." - -She danced back from the mirror, her hair-brush in her hand. - -"I'll begin at the top," she said, "and I'll see what I can do." - -Just then Miss Carrol knocked at the door. - -"Come in," sang Peggy blithely, her spirits more or less restored by the -prospect of the task she had set herself. - -The door rattled. - -"I can't," announced Miss Carrol's voice. - -"Oh, I forgot," cried Peggy, and she ran to the door and turned the key. -Flinging it open, she laughed up into Miss Carrol's face. "Come in," she -invited a second time, "I'm _very_ glad to see somebody even if you've -only come to scold me. _Have_ you come to scold me?" - -Miss Carrol shook her head, and explained that Mrs. Forest had relented, -and she was to be of the matinée party, after all. - -Peggy hugged her gratefully. - -"Excuse me," she said, "for mussing up your dress, but I just had to. -People have been hurting my feelings all the morning and now you come -and are--kind. And it means that I can be one right now. I'll be one for -this!" - -"One what?" asked the youngest teacher, puzzled. "You girls have the -oddest things in your minds half the time. What is it you're going to be -now?" - -Peggy hesitated, and then she came over and whispered. - -"A belle," she said with her lips near Miss Carrol's ear. "One of the -teachers said I couldn't be one." - -To her hurt surprise, her companion threw back her head and laughed. -"Oh, is that all?" she said. "Well, that's nothing dangerous. I must run -along now, Peggy, child, but all the girls are to meet in the parlor at -half-past one for the matinée. We must leave promptly at that time." - -Katherine's trunk had not arrived yet, so she planned to go right to the -parlor after luncheon and wait there for the party to assemble, as she -had no other dress to wear than the blue serge she had on. But Peggy -left the table in a flurry of excitement and began to lay out all her -prettiest things. A dainty little brown velvet suit, with a chiffon -waist, and an adorable hat that came dark against her light curls -promised well. She manicured her nails, humming all the while, then she -steamed her face and dashed cold water on it till it was all glowing. -She did her hair twice and it didn't suit, so she took it all down and -experimented with it again. Her hair curled irregularly, and did not lie -sleek and smooth and flatly rippled like the hair of the girls who had -theirs marcelled. So she borrowed Katherine's electric iron and with a -few swift touches sought to make her own natural, pretty hair look -artificially waved. - -She used powder for the first time. After rubbing her cheeks with a -rough towel to keep the glow, she spread on the powder as thickly as she -dared. Her nose was alluringly chalk white when she had finished. It was -only talcum powder but enough of it had its effect. The girls of Andrews -were not allowed to wear jewelry, except in the evening, unless it were -a simple band bracelet or a tiny, inconspicuous gold chain and pendant. - -So Peggy closed her jewel case with a snap against the temptation of a -long gold snake bracelet with emerald eyes that would have made her feel -very much more dressed up. - -In the early stages of her dressing she thought she heard someone -calling up the stairs, she thought there was an unusual stir of girls -clattering down into the hall, but she was too engrossed in the process -of becoming beautiful really to sense what might be going on. Once she -even thought she heard her name, but she was just applying a precious -drop of concentrated violet to the lace at her throat, and though she -called out mechanically, "What," she received no answer, and decided she -had been mistaken. - -At length, complete, she surveyed herself happily. "I guess I look -almost as pretty as the actresses, now," she approved. "I'll go down to -the parlor--it must be nearly half-past one." - -She went down the stairs, with a curious sense of the silence of the -house. Why weren't there more girls trooping down with her? She felt a -chill of misgiving when she reached the parlor door. No laughter drifted -out, no sound of chattering came from within. With a quick fear she -opened the door and paused wonderingly on the threshold as a perfectly -empty room met her gaze. - -She was too late to start with them--perhaps she could catch up yet. She -would hurry to the theater and perhaps they had waited for her in the -lobby. Panting, she tore across the lawn and boarded the first -street-car. It seemed to go so slowly--as if they'd _never_ get there. -She found herself tearing the little lacey handkerchief she had taken -from her bag. - -There was the theater. She pressed the bell, and, getting off before the -car had come fully to a stop, breathless, she entered the building. No -group of girls, no Miss Carrol. She looked up wildly at the clock above -the ticket seller's window. Four o'clock, it said! Almost time for the -show to be over! Oh, how awful, how awful, where had the time gone? What -had happened to her? Fighting back the tears at the futility of -everything, she approached the ticket window. - -"Are--the--Andrews girls in there?" she faltered. - -That was a silly question and she knew it. Because, of course, they were -in there, this was where they had been coming--and she had, too, for -that matter if she could only have gotten here on time. But at the -minute she could think of nothing else to say and she was conscious of a -vague hope that the ticket-seller would help her, would suggest -something. She would gladly buy her own ticket and get in if only she -could get to their box afterward. But she didn't know which one it was, -and she didn't know how to manage it, anyway. - -"I don't know if they are," the ticket-seller was replying, casually. -"How should I know?" - -Peggy turned dejectedly away from the window. This was more than she -could stand. Never in her life had she felt so little and so helpless -and so--yes, so homesick. She couldn't go back to the school and have to -face possible questions. She would stay downtown somewhere until it was -time for the matinée to be over and then she would return about the same -time the others did. - -She drifted out into the waning sunlight of the street, and looked -hopelessly about her. Next the theater was the public library. This -looked like a refuge and she went in and walked despondently over to the -librarian's desk. - -"Please find me something to read--about--about girls having a party," -she choked. - - ---- - -When she was back at school, in her own room, clad once more in the -loved blue silk kimono, the ordeal of dinner and curious questions over, -Katherine, her room-mate, looked up from her algebra book and said -suddenly, - -"Oh, Peggy, we missed you so." - -"Did you?" cried Peggy wistfully. "Well, I've decided something. I don't -care a bit about being a belle. I'd rather get to places on time, and -feel like myself,--and be just Peggy Parsons, after all." - - - - -CHAPTER III--A BACON BAT - - -An eventful day for Peggy came after two weeks of school. In it began a -curious series of happenings that added flavor to her whole school life, -and gave her, finally, the power to be, as her room-mate laughingly -said, "sort of magic." - -And all this came about through so prosaic a thing as bacon. The -domestic science class, well under way with an excellent teacher, -decided to have a "bacon bat," after the custom of the Smith College -girls, all by themselves on some bit of rock that jutted into the river. - -Peggy had helped Katherine do the shopping for the treat,--Katherine had -been at Andrews for two years now, and knew just how it was done. Then -the seven girls of the class started off, each with a paper bag in her -hand, for the method of conveying the supplies to the picnic grounds was -always very informal for a bacon bat. There were no little woven picnic -baskets to hang picturesquely over their arms, there were no daintily -packed little shoe-boxes of sandwiches. There was just the jar of bacon -strips in a paper bag, the bottle of olives in another paper bag, and -the two dozen rolls, a generous supply, in the biggest paper bag of all. -These were the simple requisites for a bacon bat, and even the olives -were not necessary, Katherine termed them useless frills. There was a -tiny box of matches, too, that Peggy slipped into the pocket of her red -jacket. It has happened that a merry group of girls has gone on a bacon -bat with everything but the matches, and then unless they were Camp Fire -girls and knew how to coax fire out of two dry sticks they met a -terrible disappointment, when, their appetites all worked up for the -occasion, they found they couldn't cook the party after all. - -If you were on good terms with the grocer, he kept a box of matches--the -old fashioned kind--under the counter and offered you a dozen or so, -loose, when you bought your bacon. But Peggy had wanted to buy a little -box, insisting that if she had to start the fire a dozen might not be -enough. - -"Where are we going to have it?" Peggy thought to ask as they strolled, -laughing, along the road away from the school. - -"On the River Bank near Gloomy House," cried three girls at once, -"that's the ideal spot." - -"Near--what?" asked Peggy in concern. It didn't sound very picnicky to -her. - -"Right there, ahead," said Katherine, pointing, "right through those -grounds, and down to the water--because, of course, we can hardly have -our fire except on some sort of little stone island--with water enough -to put it out if it got rambunctious." - -The girls were turning now over the long, dank grass, and making their -way in the direction of a great empty-looking ramshackle old house with -sagging porches and dull windows. - -"Nobody lives there, do they?" Peggy asked. - -"Oh,--sh--yes!" - -The girls tiptoed over the grass, skirting the lawn in order to keep as -far away from Gloomy House as possible. Peggy was not yet familiar with -the traditions of the town in which Andrews was situated. It seemed -strange to her that after the girls had chosen this place with such -unanimous enthusiasm they should assume such an air of discomfort and -mystery now that they had come. She studied the old house, dignified -even in its decay, with its trailing, rasping vines blowing against the -pillars of the porch, and its sunken, uneven steps, and then quite -unaccountably she shivered and hurried past it as fast as the other -girls. - -"I don't want to come here for a picnic," she panted, "if it's all so -queer. Why didn't we choose some nice sunny place with a little stream -to drink out of, and one big tree for shade? It's so dark and overgrown, -as we get through here, that it seems more like an exploring expedition -than a regular picnic to me." - -"Oh," cried Florence Thomas, the best cook in the domestic science -class, "we can fry bacon down on those rocks in the river, and there is -a grape-vine swing on the bank that goes sailing way out over the water -with you. Why, there just isn't any other place so nice for a -picnic--here you always feel as if you might have adventures." - -"Adventures, at a picnic, usually mean cows or snakes," sighed Peggy, "I -hope we don't have any." - -The girls clambered down the steep slope to the water, and Florence and -Dorothy Trowbridge began at once to gather twigs and branches. - -"How are we going to cook this bacon?" asked Peggy suddenly, "when we -get our fire? Nobody brought a frying pan." - -"Frying pan!" echoed Florence over an armful of nice dry chips and -twigs. "We get sticks." - -Peggy saw that each girl was breaking a branch from a near-by tree, -testing it to see that it was not "too floppy," as Katherine put it, and -would be green enough not to catch fire easily. Peggy found a delightful -little branch, and began stripping the end, as she saw the others do. -The fire was by this time crackling and it was a temptation to begin -right away, for the walk had made them hungry--or, perhaps, they hadn't -needed the walk: healthy girls like healthy boys are always hungry. But -Florence reminded them that their bacon would simply be burned to a -crisp if they thrust it in the flames now, so they waited a few minutes, -reluctantly enough, until the red and blue sparks sputtered down to a -steady glow, hotter and hotter at the heart of the fire. Then the girls -each pierced a piece of bacon with their pointed stick and held it -gloatingly into the red glow. Peggy enthusiastically opened rolls, so -that the crisp hot slices might go sizzling into place as soon as they -were taken from the fire, and the roll might be clapped together upon -them. - -"Isn't this comfy?" asked Florence, munching her first fiery sandwich. -"If the rain and wind had never come, I suppose you could find the -ashes, on this flat rock, left by every class that ever went to Andrews. -Ouch!--Mercy!--Peggy, what did you let me bite that for, when the end -was still burning?" - -Peggy laughingly dipped up a cupful of water from the river and passed -it to poor Florence, who was trying to wink back the tears from her -eyes. - -"If you drink that now you'll smoke," she warned delightedly. "Girls, -girls,--fire!" - -"I--don't--care--" gulped Florence, waving the rest of her roll and -bacon through the air to cool it. "Hot as that was, I guess old Mr. -Huntington of Gloomy House, up there, would be glad to have it. If he -can smell the smoke of this little feast--with that lovely amber coffee -Dorothy is making--I guess he wishes he was a girl and could come down -and get some. Just think," she turned to Peggy, "in twenty years he's -never had any hot coffee--or more than enough to keep a bird alive." - -Peggy sat down on a stone and poised an olive half-way to her mouth. - -"What do you mean?" she asked. - -"He's very poor, you know," said Florence. - -"Too poor to buy coffee?--I should think somebody in the town--" - -"Oh, my dear," interrupted one of the other girls, "scared to death! -Nobody'd think of offering to do anything for him. He's the proudest man -in the world. He used to own most of this town, but everything has -drifted away from him. He never goes anywhere--nobody ever sees him. He -wouldn't want to see anyone. He telephones to the grocery for just a few -things once in a while, and that's how he gets along. Why, Peggy, you -look so funny." - -"While we're sitting here, having a party, do you mean to tell me the -man that lives in Gloomy House is starving?" asked Peggy in a hushed -voice. - -"Well, sort of hungry, but don't you worry about it, we can't do -anything about it, Peggy." Florence handed Peggy a fresh roll with a -crisp slice of bacon temptingly projecting from the ends. "He couldn't -have been starving for twenty years, you know--but it would be nearer -that than I'd like to experience for myself." - -Peggy's head drooped thoughtfully. The sunlight, glinting down here and -there through the dense green of the trees, shone in a little patch of -light on her brown-gold hair. She was a vivid little person, with -laughing black eyes and cheeks that flared red through their tan. Her -brown arms were clasped over her knees now, as she studied the moist, -pebbly sand at her feet. - -"_I'd_ have made him some coffee," she said at last, her crooked dimple -flickering into view for just an instant. - -"No, you wouldn't," denied Florence Thomas, "nobody has been in that -house to do anything as daring as that for years. There's a mystery -about it, I tell you--and, in spite of story books, nobody likes to -probe too deeply into mysteries. Some people even say that a relative of -Mr. Huntington's stole all his money from him and that's why he has to -live so poorly. Yes, there are lots of stories--" - -Peggy brushed the crumbs out of her lap serenely. - -"How silly," she said, "as if anybody's stealing from the poor old man -were reason enough why all the rest of the townspeople should stay away -from him and leave him poor," she said. "What has that to do with my -making him some coffee? Even if he'd been the one who stole--still I -don't see the application to this particular question," she concluded. - -"Well, there are other tales," insisted the crestfallen Florence, and, -their coffee cups in their hands, the girls gathered around to tell -Peggy many harrowing incidents connected with the great house back from -the river, and she heard them quietly, piercing slices of bacon with her -stick the while. - -"Let's go up and cook him a dinner," she cried, springing to her feet -when they had done. "We are a cooking class, aren't we, and that's the -best thing we do, isn't it? And here we go on just preparing all the -good things back at school for us to eat ourselves--it seems, well, -piggish. Wouldn't it be lovely to demonstrate our next lesson by -bringing all the materials up to Gloomy House and cooking up a big, -wonderful dinner, and having it with Mr. Huntington? We can't give him a -million dollars or anything like that, but we can make one day a lot -brighter--and, besides, I can't stand it to think of anyone -hungry--_will_ you, girls? What do you say?" - -She stood before them, lifting her slim hand for the vote, her eyes -shining with eagerness to put her plan at once into execution. - -The other girls gasped. Peggy, although she had been with them so short -a time, had won a large place in their admiration. - -"He wouldn't let us," reminded Florence, puckering her forehead -thoughtfully. "Didn't I tell you he'd bite anybody, fairly, that dreamed -of trying to offer him charity? Peggy, I believe you're partly right, -though, maybe we could do something, but it would never work that way." - -"Well," said Peggy promptly, sitting down to think it out, "how can it -be done?" - -For to Peggy life presented no unsolvable problems. She never thought of -cluttering her joyous way with impossibilities. Once a plan seemed good -to her it was only a question of How, and not of Whether. - -"We might invite a lot of people to the school," timidly suggested one -of the young cooks. - -"He'd never come," Florence shook her head. - -"Well, then," cried Peggy, "here we are! Let's give a series of -dinners--at the houses of the trustees, and the different girls in the -class, just to show what we can do, and we'll have the accounts put in -the town paper, so he'll see what we're doing, and _then_--" her eyes -shone and she could hardly talk fast enough to let the girls see the -glory of her new idea, "then we'll go to his house and ask permission to -give _him_ one, and it won't be charity or anything, and it will be fun -for everybody--oh, girls, isn't that gorgeous?" - -"OOoo--oo," shivered Florence at the thought of really committing -herself to such a daring decision. "Ye-es, I think we might do that. But -we'd never have the courage to go and invite him." - -"Peggy would," championed the timid one. "Let's appoint her a committee -of one." - -"Unanimously appointed a committee of one," shouted the other girls -gleefully. "Peggy, how soon will all this be?" - -Peggy laughingly flung aside her toasting stick, sprang erect, and tried -vainly to smooth back her flying gold-toned hair. "Right--NOW!" she -declared triumphantly, "we won't wait to give it to the trustees first." - -"Good-by, Peggy," murmured Florence demurely, and the others drew closer -together as Peggy actually turned her back on them and went up the slope -to Gloomy House. - -Surprised at her daring, overwhelmed by the boldness of the thing she -had undertaken, they watched Peggy disappear over the top of the river -bank. - - - - -CHAPTER IV--THE INSIDE OF GLOOMY HOUSE - - -Up the long walk to Gloomy House, her feet sinking in the wet leaves -that had fallen from the branches overhead, Peggy went slowly, her heart -pounding. - -She was doing what no one else in town would have dared to do, and as -she neared the old house, with its tumbled-down step, she began to -wonder if perhaps she was afraid. - -"Walk on, walk on," she whispered to herself, for she knew that if she -hesitated for an instant she would run. And how could she go back and -face the cooking class if, after all her planning, she was a coward now? - -So mechanically she walked on, and at last she found herself really -ascending the creaking steps. When she stood on the porch with its -leafless and ragged vines flapping in the wind a kind of chill unreality -seemed to shut her in. She hurried to ring the bell so that -someone--anyone--would come and she would not be alone. The bell was an -old fashioned one, and as she rang she heard it jangling emptily through -the house. It was certainly a very dismal way for callers to have to -announce themselves. - -When the unpleasant sound had ceased the house and everything about it -settled back to silence again. This lasted and lasted. Peggy clutched -nervously at her little red jacket. What if nobody would come at all? -There was no one TO come, except Mr. Huntington himself--and now he -evidently wasn't going to. She might have known. She was overwhelmed -with a sense of failure. Those lovely hot muffins she had dreamed of -preparing for him, that wonderful steak, smothered in onions, that -delicious-- Down the uncarpeted stairs inside she could hear the -reluctant thud, thud of footsteps! - -Oh, he _was_ coming. - -Gratingly, the door swung open and a man's head looked cautiously out. - -Peggy reflected that Mr. Huntington looked a great deal more scared than -she was, and the thought helped a little. - -"How do you do?" she asked faintly. - -Mr. Huntington looked down at the vivid little figure in the red coat, -and his eyes widened. - -"A--how do you do?" he said mildly. - -Well, he wasn't going to eat her, anyway, so she needn't be so -frightened, Peggy decided with a breath of relief. - -"Oh, Mr. Huntington," she said with a surprising increase of confidence, -"I came--I came--I--came--" but the confidence had evaporated before she -could find words to explain. - -"I see you did," replied the old man, still mildly--and could she -believe that twinkle in his eyes was a smile? Perhaps he didn't often -have much to smile about, so that this was the best he could do. - -"Won't you come in?" he invited, as an afterthought. - -And Peggy followed him into Gloomy House. - -The hall was stately, with its wide folding doors opening into the -library on one side and a dining-room on the other. In it were an old -tall clock and a black walnut hat-rack. - -"It's a little chilly in here for you, I'm afraid," said her host -politely. - -The day had been cool even out in the sunshine and they had been glad -when their crackling fire was made on the river bank. But in this damp, -big room there was a biting quality out of all proportion to the -temperature outside. - -"It's not--at--all--cold," stammered Peggy, through chattering teeth, -trying to make her tone of everyday courtesy like that Mr. Huntington -had used. - -"I just wanted to invite you to something," she plunged bravely into her -mission. "It's a special treat to be given by our cooking class of -Andrews school." - -"To invite--?" Mr. Huntington looked vaguely puzzled and alarmed. "My -dear young lady," he protested, "I haven't been invited to anything in -twenty years." Then an understanding look came over his face. "Oh, I -see," he murmured. "How much are the tickets?" - -"Oh," cried Peggy, hurt and chagrined, "oh, there are no tickets--oh, -_no_, that's not the way it is at all. You see the cooking class -is--awfully proud of itself and we can stand burned hands and horrid -blackened dishes that we couldn't at first. And we can get awfully good -dinners, too. So we thought that instead of just getting them up at -school and eating them ourselves, we'd give a series of parties around -at the homes of the girls and the trustees of the school and I--I -thought we'd come and give one at your house, too," she wound up -breathlessly. - -The old man looked as surprised as she could have hoped. - -"But there is no young girl here who goes to the school," he said -finally, "and I am not a trustee." - -And all of a sudden the explanation that Peggy had thought so complete -showed itself up at its true value, nothing at all. - -"N--no," she admitted, crestfallen, "that's so." - -The misery in her face made Mr. Huntington want to do something for her. - -"If the girls of the school simply want a place to give a party--is that -it?--somewhere away from the school itself, where they can be more -free,--I should be distinctly terrified at the presence of so many young -ladies after so long a time of solitude, but still I think I might go -through with it--why not let me give them a party, if they will be so -kind as to cook the things I furnish?" - -Peggy's round eyes studied Mr. Huntington's face thoughtfully. How -people hated to admit they were poor! Here he was offering to buy enough -food for a dozen hungry girls when he himself had barely enough to eke -out a scanty meal from one week's end to another, according to the -girls' stories. - -"Oh,--please," she hastened to put in. "That's part of our course, -knowing what to buy and all that, and we do so want to have a few real -chances to use all the knowledge that is being pounded into us. If I can -go back and tell those girls--" her breath caught in her throat for an -instant at the prospect of such a triumphant moment, "if I can go back -and tell those girls," she repeated, "that we can give a party in -Gloo--I mean here, why that will be the best time I've had this term!" - -The old man was looking at her quizzically. - -"For some reason you apparently want to very much," he mused. "Well, you -are the first person who has come to me in a number of years with the -idea of giving something rather than taking. If only for that reason I -should encourage you to have your way. For the last twenty years people -have been coming to me now and then--whenever a certain rumor starts up -afresh--wanting this, that and the other: subscriptions to charities, -money to put their children through school: capital to start them in -business. But I always tell them," he chuckled softly, "I always let -them know that I am very poor." - -Oh, then, he didn't mind having folks know, after all. Peggy winced at -the open way he spoke of it now, after all her efforts to conceal the -fact that she knew his poverty. - -"Oh," she said uncomfortably, "you're not _very_ poor. I'm poor, too. My -aunt sends me to school, but when I am graduated I'm going to earn my -own living!" She shot it out at him, all breathless to see the effect of -so astounding a piece of news. Something at once so tragic and so -thrilling. - -"You are?" queried the old man absently. "Well, I sometimes think those -are the happiest days of a person's life--the days of piling up their -fortune--" - -"Of--of--my goodness!" gasped Peggy. "_I'm_ not dreaming of piling up a -fortune. What could I do that would be worth very much? I'm going -to--I'm going--to--" - -"Yes?" asked the old man. - -"I might teach something--they say I'm good in English, or I might--why -I might _cook_. Wait until you've tried this dinner I want to get up for -you and then maybe you can recommend me for a position as cook -sometime--oh, now you see you _must_ let us have the dinner." - -"I see it now, of course," smiled Mr. Huntington. And then a look of -real eagerness came over his lonely face. "What day had you--thought of -for the festivities?" he asked. - -"Oh," began Peggy thoughtfully, "there are lots of good days for it--any -Sunday or--" - -Mr. Huntington murmured something, she wasn't quite sure what. She -paused inquiringly. She mustn't let him know she suggested Sunday, -because of its being a proverbially lonely day for people without family -or friends, and if he had a different choice-- - -"Thanksgiving," he was saying slowly to himself, so low that Peggy could -hardly hear him. "Thanksgiving always is a--hard day to get through." - -"Hard! Why, it's gorgeous! Oh, if we only can get our ice-box principal -to let us, I'm sure the girls would _love_ to give the dinner on -Thanksgiving. It will give us an opportunity to learn how to fix turkey -and cranberry and all those things. We will settle that, then, because -I'll tease my head off when I'm talking to Mrs. Forest--I'll even kiss -her if I have to, and in the end she'll say 'Bless you, my children, go -and give your party.'" - -"And I shall say bless you, too, I shouldn't wonder," murmured the old -man, with a hint of a smile in his eyes. "It's been eighteen years since -Thanksgiving meant anything in this house. My daughter was here then, -with her husband and baby son. But--" - -Peggy looked around the dark, gloom-filled interior of the Huntington -house and wondered where they were now, the rest of this family, that -had cherished Thanksgiving day. But she did not want to ask and hurt Mr. -Huntington's feelings. - -"Well," she assured him eagerly, "we'll just have a perfectly wonderful -party. And I'll bring my new chafing-dish and Katherine's percolator and -we'll make the fudge and the coffee ourselves." - -"Fudge is a necessary part of the affair?" the old man smiled -questioningly. - -"Of course," assented Peggy in surprise. "That was about the first thing -I learned to do at Andrews,--make the most wonderful nut fudge and plain -fudge and sea-foam." - -"And yet some people still cling to the idea that too much education for -girls is dangerous," murmured Mr. Huntington. "Now _I_ shall be heartily -in favor of it from this time forth." - -"I guess I'll go back and tell the girls everything," Peggy sighed -contentedly, "they'll want to begin planning the grinds right away. You -won't mind being ground, too, will you?" - -"Aren't you mistaking me for the coffee, young woman?" laughed her new -friend. "That would be rather a mean trick to play on an old man, seems -to me." - -Peggy's face was scarlet. She did not know whether he was entirely in -fun or not. The language of the school world was equipped with a strange -vocabulary to outside ears, and she felt very guilty for letting Mr. -Huntington fall into such a humiliating mistake. - -"Grinds are just--gists," she explained hastily, and went out of the -door as Mr. Huntington held it open for her, with a sense of having made -everything clear. - - - - -CHAPTER V--MANAGING MRS. FOREST - - -As Peggy started running back to the place she had left the girls, she -became aware that someone in a blue Peter Thompson had come up the hill -to wait for her, and was at the moment gazing intently toward Gloomy -House, while the wind flapped her skirts and fluttered her hair free of -its ribbon. - -"Katherine, Katherine," shouted Peggy, and the figure started to life at -once and came tearing toward Peggy until they were like a couple of -young express trains about to collide at full speed. - -"I'll save you, I'll save you," Katherine was crying breathlessly. "I'll -be there in a minute,--I'll save you, dear." - -And then the collision happened. - -"Oh, oh, oh," gasped Peggy as she and Katherine rolled over each other, -a whirling mélange of blue dress and red coat, down the steep slope of -the river bank right into the midst of the waiting group of bacon -batters. - -Around them as they sat up, still seeing stars, and aching from the -bumps newly raised on their foreheads to their scratched knees and -ankles, arose a hubbub of questionings, consolations and reproaches. - -"Oh, my--land!" moaned Peggy, winking the dust and bits of dried leaves -out of her eyes. "I hope you don't feel as badly as I do, Katherine. -What made you say--" she spoke now in a puzzled tone, for full -consciousness was coming back, "whatever made you say that you -would--_save_ me? Instead you nearly killed me, you know." - -"Why, I--ouch! my poor arm--I was going to save you from the ghosts and -things at Gloomy House, of course," answered Katherine indignantly. "You -were gone so long and we were all so worried, that I climbed the top of -the hill to see if I couldn't make out what had become of you--and then -there you were flying away from that awful place like mad, scared to -pieces at something. Naturally, I hollered that I'd save you. What kind -of a room-mate would I have been if I hadn't?" - -The tears suddenly started to Peggy's eyes. She felt just at the moment, -in spite of her bruises, all the beautiful thrill that is inspired by -the discovery of absolute loyalty and affection in a room-mate. The -autumn sunlight glinting down on Katherine's yellow hair suddenly seemed -to Peggy like a halo, and impulsively she reached toward her. - -"It was fine of you, Katherine," she said, "but I didn't need saving--I -was running because I was in a hurry to tell you people that the dinner -is on. And Mr. Huntington doesn't mind the grounds--I mean the grinds, -but I'm so wounded I can't talk straight,--and we're to have it on -Thanksgiving if Friend Forest will let us. Girls, he's perfectly -wonderful--" - -"_Oh_, dear," sighed Katherine, "and all that worry on my part for -nothing." - -"And all your injuries for nothing, too," sniggered Florence Thomas -heartlessly. "You infants with your terribly impromptu manner of -returning to our midst will be the death of me yet. Peggy, please draw a -long, calm breath and then let us in on what really happened in Gloomy -House." - -To an eager audience, then, Peggy told the whole outcome of her -adventure, interrupting herself now and then to suggest, with some -irrelevance certain dishes that would be particularly desirable as part -of the dinner. - -"Do you suppose Mrs. Forest will ever let us do such a novel sort of -thing?" asked Katherine as the girls, after stamping out the remains of -their little fire on the river rocks, gathered up their coats and -sweaters to go back to the school. - -"Not--for--a--minute." Florence Thomas dashed their hopes with tones as -firm as Mrs. Forest's own might have been in speaking of the matter. - -Peggy was rubbing her black and blue forehead thoughtfully. - -"Peggy!" cried Katherine, "Florence doesn't think Mrs. Forest will have -it." - -Peggy smiled, a long, slow smile, and her black eyes narrowed to mere -laughing slits. "She'll be crazy about it," she insisted. - -It wasn't until dinner time that the girls, in their dainty evening -frocks, already seated at the various little tables, with the candles -gleaming onto their flushed cheeks and powdered necks and arms through -the pink candle shades, learned what Peggy intended to do to Mrs. Forest -to make her prophecy come true. Some of the girls had declared she meant -to try hypnotism, others poison, and some said she was planning to have -the President of the United States wire that Mrs. Forest should yield to -her will. - -Peggy, herself, came in to dinner late. This in itself was an awful -offense. Every head, blonde, dark and red-gold had long since been -raised from the grace, and were bowed again, more enthusiastically, over -the soup. Oh, the tiny little chiffon "swish" that rustled out from -Peggy's lovely blue frock, and the gentle, ladylike tap, tap of her -pretty little blue slippers as she moved across the glazed floor of the -dining-room and bent for an instant at Mrs. Forest's place to whisper, -"Pardon me," rather as if she were conferring a favor by her notice than -apologizing for a heinous sin. Then she slipped into her chair, which -happened to be at Mrs. Forest's very table, and sat, sweet and erect, -with the soft candle light over her gold-glinting hair, in her radiant -black eyes, and deepening the wonderful, sweeping color of her face. Her -slender neck was delicate and proud as a princess'. The other girls' -fingers rested motionlessly on their soup spoons for an instant, during -which they looked at their Peggy, spellbound. There was an air of -graciousness, of regal beauty about her. There was no trace of the poor -little Peggy who had once tried so hard to be a belle and had failed so -miserably. This Peggy was lovely in some wonderful, heart-stopping -fashion that made them all marvel. - -Mrs. Forest's eyes traveled over that graceful figure and the sternness -gave way to something else. The little Miss Parsons was developing into -the very type of girl to make Andrews most proud, she reflected. - -Each year when June came she took the girls who had perfect records for -behavior to Annapolis for one of the hops. When Peggy had come in late -she was deciding Peggy should never hear the marine band under her -auspices or dance with any lads in uniform. But as she considered what -other girl in the school would do her so much honor as this wonderful, -angelic appearing little creature, or whose program would be more -eagerly filled by the good-looking young midshipmen who always crowded -with enthusiasm around the Andrews girls? - -"Mrs. Forest," began Peggy in a worldly, conversational tone, after a -few minutes, "isn't the old Huntington place beautiful? And did you ever -notice that large portrait in the hall--the Sargent?" - -Mrs. Forest gasped. "In the hall?" she asked sharply, "_IN_ the hall?" - -Peggy nodded. - -"Mr. Huntington belongs to one of our old aristocratic families, here, -Miss Parsons," the principal began pompously. "He is a very proud and -very retiring sort of person. Since he lost the vast fortune of the -Huntingtons he has never cared for society and no one is welcome in his -house. Although I am acquainted with the members of all the first -families here, I have not had occasion to meet Mr. Huntington--though we -all know him by sight. And I should prefer that my young ladies did not -demean themselves and me by _peering in at the hall windows_ and -ferreting out the Sargents on the wall." - -"O-oh," breathed Peggy, with the tiniest little society sigh. "Mr. -Huntington is a very good friend of mine and as I stopped in to talk a -moment with him to-day--" - -One of the girls choked and ignominiously thrust her napkin almost into -her month to keep back the strange chortlings and chucklings that were -trying to break forth. - -Mrs. Forest's eyes grew round, but her face had that set expression -maintained by a person who wants to show no surprise whatever, even in -the face of one of the greatest shocks of her life. - -"He is a friend of yours?--I didn't know," she murmured, all honey. - -"Yes, and he so approves of my being in this school," continued Peggy, -with a graceful little rushing eagerness. "He says he thinks we learn -just the right things. I told him about the cand--I mean I told him the -things we learn and he said he approved of higher education for girls. -He would like to meet you, Mrs. Forest." - -"So?" said Mrs. Forest in rather pleased surprise. "Well, I never -thought he cared about meeting anybody--did he say anything like that, -really?" - -"Say?--why, he wants us to go there for Thanksgiving dinner!" cried -Peggy rapturously. "You and me and the whole school!" - -The utter strangeness of any such desire on Mr. Huntington's part,--its -incredible suddenness--was already beginning to fade out in Mrs. -Forest's practical mind before the economic advantages such an -invitation offered. Times were hard that year, and while she liked the -girls to be wonderfully well satisfied with the holiday dinners at the -school, nevertheless turkey, cranberries, pies, almonds ran expenses up -greatly. In one stupendous jumble the necessary preparations had been -oppressing her mind now for several days, and all the scratch pads on -her desk were covered with scrawling figures indicating the amount of -money it would take to put so elaborate a dinner through. - -If anybody in the town was so markedly peculiar as to invite a whole -school to Thanksgiving dinner, she felt an immediate inclination to take -advantage of it. - -Around the table as Peggy had finished speaking, and while Mrs. Forest -toyed with her salad, went a barely audible chorus of groans from the -girls. How could Peggy do such a short-sighted thing as to include their -principal in the plan? She knew as well as anyone that her presence -would spoil everything. In their hearts they had known that some one of -the teachers would have to go along with them even if the impossible -came true and they were allowed to give the party. But they had hoped it -would be Miss Carrol, and that Mrs. Forest would be safely shaken off -with her blightingly rigid ideas of discipline for at least that one -day. Now Peggy had hopelessly gotten them into having her if they went -at all. Peggy pretended not to notice their unhappy glances in her -direction. - -"That's very kind of your friend," Mrs. Forest was saying in a sugary -voice. "I'm sure the school ought to feel honored at an invitation to -Huntington House--" - -"_Gloomy_ house," whispered Florence Thomas, who was sitting on the -other side of Peggy. - -Mrs. Forest frowned slightly. "To Huntington House," she repeated -mouthingly. "It used to be the center of all the social activities in -the town a long time ago. But after the fortune went--and the daughter -and her family went away--" - -"Yes, wasn't that too bad," murmured Peggy. "His grandson is older than -I am, now." - -"You know him, too?" asked Mrs. Forest quickly. - -"No," admitted Peggy. "I haven't met him--yet." - -"You think Mr. Huntington was perfectly--serious in his invitation? It -was a definite one?" Mrs. Forest asked thoughtfully. - -"Yes, very," Peggy assured her. "And we girls are going to cook the -dinner,--to show what clever people you are training up in this school, -you know." - -For Peggy had decided within herself that Mrs. Forest need not know that -the girls were going to purchase the supplies for the dinner, also. If -Mr. Huntington made a good impression on the principal just as things -were, then let well enough alone, was her idea. - -A curious, weighing look had crept into Mrs. Forest's eyes. Peggy -thought she was trying to decide whether or not to permit the girls to -accept, and to go herself. But the principal's next remark showed that -she had already come way beyond that phase of the question and was -actively considering even the remote advantages that might accrue as a -result of their joint appearance at Huntington House on Thanksgiving -day. - -"Perhaps," she said softly, "perhaps--Mr. Huntington's affairs are -turning out a bit better nowadays and he might be willing to donate -fifty dollars to the new gymnasium we need so badly." - -Peggy put her hand over her mouth to stop the sudden exclamation of -dismay that she must otherwise have uttered. The school did need a -decent gymnasium, everybody knew that. And Mrs. Forest besought every -rich girl who came to the school to interest her parents to the extent -of getting them to give contributions. For five thousand dollars they -could build a very nice one, large enough for their comparatively small -school, and well enough equipped to start. Once in a while a girl in the -spirit of generous affection for Andrews gave ten dollars or so out of -her allowance, but the fund was not coming along very fast. - -The idea of going to a party at Mr. Huntington's house and then dunning -that poor old man for a portion of the expense of building something in -which he could really have not the least particle of interest was -particularly repugnant to Peggy. - -"Graft, Mrs. Forest," she said daringly, shaking her finger and laughing -a little. "Regular graft, and no fair." - -As Mrs. Forest flushed and tried to smile Peggy recalled the curious -remark Mr. Huntington had made about people coming to him for money -every time "certain rumors" came up afresh. She pondered over this. - -"I will write a little note of acceptance," Mrs. Forest mused. - -And, after dinner, to the anguish of all the girls, she did. - -"That was the only way she'd let us go," Peggy told them all in -self-defense, and then in the delight of definite plans their joy in the -prospect returned. - - - - -CHAPTER VI--THE BEAN AUCTION - - -You wouldn't have recognized Gloomy House if you had seen it before the -Andrews girls' ministrations and then walked into it in company with -those gay young people on Thanksgiving noon. All spick and span and as -gloomless as a house should be on that wonderful day, it was made cheery -by leaping flames in the big fireplaces, and by gorgeous, flaunting -chrysanthemums in tall vases. Mr. Huntington was all dressed up for the -occasion and came forward to greet the guests, now in their best -clothes, just as if he had not said good-by to most of them an hour -earlier when they ran out the back door toward their school, clad in -checked aprons and equipped with scrubbing brushes and brooms and mops. - -Mrs. Forest, of course, had not been one of the broom brigade, nor of -the more aristocratically occupationed cooking contingent, either. She -swept magnificently into the room and gave Mr. Huntington a high -handshake that was meant to impress him very much, but didn't. - -"I think the dinner is nearly ready," called a gay little voice from the -kitchen, and Peggy's head was thrust through the doorway, all bright -with its crooked dimples much in evidence. Her fair hair was curling -moistly around her forehead and her face was all pink and hot from being -so near the stove for so long a time. - -"It's been a terrible ordeal if you want to know it," complained -Florence Thomas, her assistant, laughing as they brought the dinner to -the table. "I feel all sizzled up and roasted, and both my hands are cut -and burned beyond recognition. But if _anyone ever_ saw such a wonderful -dinner before, I envy them the experience, that's all." - -The long-unused table at Huntington House was one of the most gorgeous -sights that the hungry eyes of school-girls ever beheld. Mr. Huntington -himself looked as if he could hardly believe he was awake when he saw -its lavish magnificence. - -The girls in their enthusiasm had given the dinner many touches that -more experienced housewives would never have happened to think of. The -color scheme was golden orange and brown. The center-piece was a -triumphant pumpkin hollowed out and scalloped and laden with oranges, -grapes, and very red apples. The turkey smoked in the middle of the -table with the vegetable dishes clustered around it. And in most -beautiful script, worked out in nuts and stem raisins arranged on the -tablecloth, was the word "Thanksgiving." - -At each place was the "grind" with the person's name on it, and such -shrieks of laughter as filled the room while the girls, the principal -and the old man trouped around the table reading the funny legends, -examining the ridiculous souvenirs appended, all in a hurried and eager -endeavor to find their own places! Not nearly all of the girls could sit -at the table--there were sixty in the school,--but the grinds were -arranged near together and then each girl took her plate with a -plentiful helping of everything and sat down in one of the chairs by the -fireplace or against the wall of the great dining-room. - -Mr. Huntington was not "ground" so very badly, after all. He found at -his place a quaint little box painted to represent a house, with tiny -doors and windows marked on it. It bore the legend "Gloomy House," and -falling from the door were weird little pasteboard roly-poly objects -labeled "Glooms." These were flat but stood erect by virtue of wee -standards at the back pasted to the paper yard of the house. They were -in all attitudes of scurrying away with ridiculous faces expressing -grief. A slip of paper invited: "Lift the roof of Gloomy House and see -why the Glooms flee." - -Mr. Huntington laughed with the rest, but his hand slightly trembled as -he slowly lifted the roof of the little pasteboard house. Inside were -sixty fudge hearts and a further assurance, "Sixty hearts of sixty -girls." - -Could it be possible that there were tears in his eyes to make them -glisten suddenly like that? Peggy looked down at her grind to hide the -sudden swift seriousness that passed over her own face, when her eyes -met something so incredible that she burst into shrieks of laughter. She -had prepared most of the grinds with the others, but of course hers had -been kept a secret and she had not seen it until this minute. Hers and -Katherine's were in one, being nothing more nor less than two smashed -dolls somewhat jumbled up in appearance, one wearing a blue Peter -Thompson and the other a red coat. There were black and blue bumps -painted on their dented foreheads. Around the waist of the red-coated -doll went a ribbon on which was lettered frantically, - - "S.O.S., S.O.S." - -And around the blue-dressed one a ribbon declared, - - "I'll save you! I'll save you." - -The verse that accompanied it went as follows: - - "Humpty and Dumpty met on a hill. - Humpty and Dumpty had a great spill. - All the king's horses and all the king's men - Couldn't put Humpty or Dumpty together again." - -When full duty had been done to the main dinner the beautiful pumpkin -and mince pies that were Katherine Foster's own effort were brought in -with wild cheers to greet them, that not even the pokes and taps and -frowns of Mrs. Forest could do anything to check. - -"Miss Parsons--" began Mr. Huntington, rising in his place. - -"Peggy," she corrected from the other end of the room. - -"Peggy," he began again, "asked me to let her go through with this -experiment in order that some day I might conscientiously recommend her -for a cook. And I want to say--" he raised his voice, "that after the -spread I've had to-day I'm willing and anxious to recommend any one of -you sixty girls, domestic science class or otherwise, to anything in the -United States that you may want." - -The girls interrupted with joyous laughter. - -"And if there _is_ anything any of you can think of now that she'd -especially like to have, I'll do my best to get it for her," he -continued. - -The girls, of course, took it all as merely a polite speech and liked it -very much, but Mrs. Forest felt that here was an Opportunity, spelled -with a capital. She carefully brushed the crumbs from her lap and rose, -while to their horror the girls heard her say, "If your kind offer -includes all of us, Mr. Huntington, there is one thing we all want very -much and perhaps you would be willing to help us a little toward--" - -Peggy coughed at this minute so violently that she completely distracted -the attention of everyone from Mrs. Forest, and it was some three -minutes before the spasm was entirely over and other sounds could be -heard again. Peggy was exhausted from the wracking efforts of that cough -and she sat limply back hoping for the best. But Mrs. Forest was suavely -beginning again. - -"To go back to what I started to ask, Mr. Huntington, there is one thing -that Andrews has wanted for a long time and a little contribution--" - -Here, oddly enough, Katherine was seized with a fit of coughing that -rivaled Peggy's in violence and duration. - -"Somebody else will have to think up something better next time," she -whispered out of the corner of her mouth a few minutes later as her -gaspings ceased. "It isn't _natural_ to have any more of us affected -that way." - -"Poor girls," murmured Mrs. Forest, "they must have gotten overheated -getting the dinner and this room is cooler. Well, as I was about to -say--" - -At this point Florence Thomas quietly fainted dead away and toppled into -a little chiffon heap on the hearth rug. - -A slight titter of delight rippled through the room, incongruously -enough, and Mrs. Forest glared at the offenders. - -"Why, how heartless of you," she said, bending with difficulty and -lifting her pupil's limp head and patting her perfectly normally rosy -face. "Have you some whisky, Mr. Huntington? In an emergency of this -kind I think it is perhaps permissible to give it--" - -But before Mr. Huntington returned, Florence was beginning to sigh her -way back to consciousness and her eyes fluttered open and she shook her -head when the spoon with the whisky was offered. - -"Why--why--where am I--did I--faint or something?" she murmured -innocently, and dangerous as they knew their mirth to be, this was too -much for the girls and they shouted out their appreciation in laughter -that was beyond their efforts to control. - -Of course Mrs. Forest must have understood, but someway they didn't -care. She would have to be "sport enough to stand for it," in their own -way of putting it. And she seemed to be, for she did not pursue the -subject of the contribution further in their hearing, and how could they -know that she tagged Mr. Huntington into the library while they were all -clearing off the dishes and put the whole proposition to him there in -what Peggy would have called her graftiest way? - -When the girls themselves came into the library for the great game of -bean auction which was always one of the merriest features of an Andrews -spread, Mrs. Forest was looking quite unconscious of any rude intentions -and Mr. Huntington's expression was one of whole-hearted joy and -happiness, so they could not even guess what had transpired. - -On the library table was piled a fascinating collection of little -packages, wrapped in varicolored paper, some daintily tied with ribbon, -others knotted about by the coarsest twine. These were of all shapes and -some looked soft and others hard. "Nothing over ten beans," was the -inscription placarded above them. - -Each girl had brought one package which was to be auctioned off for -beans distributed in equal numbers among the bidders. - -"Only ten beans for each person," warned Peggy as she doled the smooth -little white objects into outstretched hands, "so don't bid recklessly." - -By careful hoarding it was sometimes possible to buy in several articles -for one's ten beans--in which case, of course, some bidder who waited -too long went without anything. - -Just as Katherine Foster took her place as auctioneer, Mr. Huntington -went out of the room and came back in a few minutes with a curious, -awkward looking bundle, very small and done up in brown wrapping paper, -which he laid among the other flaunting offerings. Few of the girls -noticed his action in the confusion of finding good floor space to sit -on, but Peggy saw his hand drop the queer little package and she -determined then and there to bid on it, so that he would think the girls -wanted his article as well as those they had brought for each other. - -Rows and rows of eager figures seated on the floor in spite of crisp -taffeta and pretty satin gowns, raised flushed faces toward the -auctioneer as she lifted the first package with maddening deliberation -and read its advertisement, - - "Whatever young girl looks at me - Something bright and fair will see." - -The wrapping was the gayest of red tissue paper and the spangled ribbon -that went around it made it seem the most desirable affair the girls had -ever looked at. - -"Two beans--" shouted Florence Thomas joyously. - -"Ladies and--and gentleman in the singular--" cried the auctioneer, "I -am insulted by the offer of two -beans--_two--insignificant--white--beans_--for this gorgeous and -inspiring package, with goodness knows what all inside. Now come, -friends, hasn't some young lady the wish to--" she consulted the -advertisement attached to the bundle again, "to see something bright and -fair?" - -"Five beans!" offered Daphne Damon from the back row of bidders. - -"Going--going--" began the auctioneer, when Mrs. Forest, who had chosen -a big armchair, from which to view the proceedings, rather than the -floor, woke up to sudden interest in disposing of her beans, and -ignoring the specification of the first part of the package's -announcement, called out condescendingly, "Ten beans!" - -Of course nobody could bid any higher than that and the prize was -knocked down to "that lady over there, with the black silk dress and the -diamond earrings." - -Amid a breathless silence Mrs. Forest unwrapped her purchase and -disclosed an attractive little vanity mirror,--but, oh, for the faith -that you can put in advertisements,--when she held it before her face -and looked at it she didn't see anything bright and fair at all! - -The auctioneer's voice was already announcing the next article. This was -an alluring thing in green tissue. - -"Somebody's heart and soul was in this," Katherine read out impressively -from its advertisement. - -Florence Thomas bid it in for seven beans and opened it to find the sole -of a worn out slipper and a heart-shaped candy box. - -The pile steadily dwindled but Katherine did not pick up Mr. -Huntington's package until near the end. It certainly did not look -inviting. Peggy's heart gave a bound as it was lifted high in the air -and the auctioneer began to praise it. She felt so sorry for Mr. -Huntington that he did not know how to make his offering as attractive -as theirs. She was sure nobody would bid their last few beans on that -when there were still several delectable looking bundles on the table. -And, to make it worse, the inscription that was supposed to extol its -virtues merely said, "This isn't worth as much as people think." Why, -mercy, no one in his right senses could think it worth _anything_ done -up so roughly as that! In a swift generous impulse Peggy bid "Ten -beans!" in a loud voice, and with a glance of surprise and pity, -Auctioneer Katherine handed her the prize in silence. - -Peggy rather hesitated to open the poor little thing there before them -all, but, glancing up, she saw Mr. Huntington's eyes upon her with a -curiously bright gaze. Something about the anticipation in his look -reassured her and she tore off the wrapping hastily at last. There was a -red cigarette box inside and she blushed furiously. - -"I guess this was meant for the one man of our party," Florence said, -peering over her shoulder and tapping it humorously. - -But Peggy was beginning to be certain that the box had only been used -because it was the right size and that there was something--possibly -even something interesting--inside. Gingerly she lifted the cover and -drew out two slips of paper folded, then unwrinkling them on her knee -she looked down and gasped, while a wave of brighter crimson swept over -her face. - -The first was a check for five thousand dollars! It was made out to -Andrews, with a ticket attached saying, "For the new gymnasium." The -other was a check for one hundred dollars made out to bearer, with a -note to explain, "for use in giving other people kind little parties as -you all have to-day given me!" - -What did it mean? Peggy stared across at her friend, and found him -smiling delightedly that she had been the one to bid it in. _Poor_ Mr. -Huntington! Never again could they call him that--why, why--Mr. -Huntington was _rich_, fabulously and wonderfully and _generously_ rich, -and they had never known. Through her mind flitted the memory of his -remark about the recurring rumors that caused people to come to him in -search of donations to various things. Again she thought of that odd -phrase of his, "When one is piling up one's fortune--" - -"Oh," she gasped, the deliciousness of their "charity" party sweeping -over her. "Oh, how strange everything is all of a sudden! I think, -perhaps, I'm asleep or something, this is just the crazy, impossible way -things go in dreams. Florence, please pinch me." - -But when Florence did, she yelled "Ouch" in a voice that was wide awake -enough, so she knew those uncanny checks in her hands were real. - -"The gymnasium is to be named Parson's Hall," smiled Mr. Huntington, -"that's the condition, and it's really to be Peggy's gift to the school. -The school would never have had it--that is from me--on any other score. -The small check is Peggy's own--and I waited until I saw your eyes -watching me, child, before I laid the package on the table, for I hoped -you'd be the one to bid for it out of the kindness of your heart." - -Mrs. Forest had turned pale at the mention "gymnasium" and now she -jumped from her chair and made her way to Peggy's side with an almost -youthful alacrity. - -"How--wonderful, how delightful, how kind, how thoughtful, how perfectly -splendid," she cried, reading the check with dazzled eyes. "Mr. -Huntington, I thank--" - -"Thank Peggy," he said, somewhat shortly and walked over to the -fireplace. - -Peggy's heart was full of happiness. To be able to give something to -Andrews that would last always and would bear her name! - -How beautiful that was! This school that had already meant so much to -her in friendships and worth while knowledge not all out of books,--how -very glad she would be to come back to it some day and see the neat -little gymnasium, with her name on the building, full of romping girls -that loved each other as she and Katherine did, and had the same -glorious, care-free outlook on life that she had now! - -"I wish I could say--half of what I'm thinking," she murmured, looking -gratefully up at Mr. Huntington with moist eyes. - -He merely smiled. "Or I wish that _I_ myself could, after a day like -to-day," he answered after a time. - -A kind of quiet settled down on the girls and they talked in low pitched -voices, laughing only in a comfortable undertone while the sense of -homelikeness and good feeling grew and grew and struck deeply into each -heart, bringing those inner visions that belong to Thanksgiving day, but -need just the right atmosphere to make them perfect. - -Sixty separate groups of dear home people were being vividly pictured in -that one great room, sixty different houses were suddenly mentally -erected within that house. Ever and ever so many beloved voices were -imagined right in among the murmuring _real_ voices of the friends about -them. - -And, contradictory as it may seem, keeping pace with their happy -contentment in the moment went a big, aching, sweeping longing in each -girl's mind for just one minute in mother's arms, one instant of her -dear, real, understanding presence. And from under sixty pairs of lashes -bright tear drops were fought back, while each girl, wrapped up in her -own heart-ache, believed that she alone was experiencing anything like -this and that the others were all as free from such homeward thoughts as -they had been when screaming with laughter a few hours ago over the -grinds in the dining-room. - -Thus all our experiences we go through much more in common with the rest -of mankind than we suppose. But this is especially so in school and -college, where a great number of young people of the same age and of -more or less the same station in life are placed in exactly similar -environment. The same tears, the same laughter, the same desires and the -same satisfactions all girls who have gone away to school have felt in -varying degree. And now here sat this roomful of girls, each suffering -in the same new and unexpected way at the same time and each believing -her mental situation to be strangely different from anything ever -experienced in the world before. - -The spell had even affected Mrs. Forest, too, for when she rose to -gather up her flock she gave a great sigh and spoke with a curious -gentleness that the girls had never associated with her pompous tones. - -"I think, young ladies, it is time we went back to our school, now. And -I'm sure we'll join in thanking Mr. Huntington for the best time we have -had this season. And we are very grateful for his most kind gift to -Andrews. If he would care to come to our school musicales and -entertainments nobody would be a more welcome guest than he. Get your -wraps, young ladies, and we will take our departure." - -The girls scrambled up from the floor and went reluctantly to the hall, -where they slipped into great fur coats, and fastened rubbers on their -daintily shod feet. - -"Good-by, good-by," they called from the door, and troops and troops of -them went down the whitened walk, laughing back expressions of -appreciation. - -Peggy had whispered in Mrs. Forest's ear just as she was about to leave, -and Mrs. Forest had nodded her head graciously. So Peggy went to -Katherine and drew her back from the crowds of those preparing to go -home, and when the rest had gone the two girls went back to the fire and -sat down in great arm-chairs on either side of it, while Mr. Huntington -mused into the blue flames and began to see there a picture of something -that had happened long ago. - -"So you want to hear why I have to be alone on Thanksgiving day unless -outsiders take pity on me, do you?" he asked, for Peggy had begged him -at the door to tell her about his daughter and the grandson that would -be older than she. It was daring, but she felt very strongly that -someway Mr. Huntington wanted to talk, wanted to tell someone, and she -believed she and Katherine and he were good enough friends now to make -it possible for him to tell his story to them. - -"Well," hesitated the old man-- The girls settled themselves more -comfortably in the great chairs and leaned forward, their chins in their -hands, while the whimsical light of the fire played over them now in -rose-colored flickers of light, now in lavender brilliance. - -"I suppose I'd better begin at the beginning," said Mr. Huntington, and -in a quiet, halting, reminiscent voice began his strange story. - - - - -CHAPTER VII--MR. HUNTINGTON'S STORY - - -"Our family has always been rich,--I cannot remember when the -Huntingtons were not supposed to have everything they wanted. I myself -have not let the great estates of my ancestors slip through my fingers -as the people about here imagine. Instead,--it may surprise you--I am -richer far than any Huntington has ever been before." - -Peggy gave a delighted little gasp. - -"Yes, because the values of my holdings have gone right on increasing -and I have used practically nothing for myself, you see. People outside -think that no man would appear to be poor as I do, with none of the -luxuries of life, and really be rich, for the common rule is the other -way, isn't it? Even at the cost of mortgaging house and home most people -buy the outward shows of wealth in order to seem to be rich even though -they are poor. - -"My daughter was the most beautiful girl in the state when she was -young. Her mother died when she was eighteen and so just as she began to -want parties and entertainments I was obliged to do all the planning and -looking after her myself. Lovely as she was, and rich beyond the dreams -of neighborhood avarice, I naturally thought she would marry some kingly -young fellow with a position equal to her own. But she didn't--she -married--" - -He looked for a long time into the fire, and Peggy ventured to break the -silence, "but that wasn't a very democratic way of looking at things, -was it? Don't you believe a rich girl might like a very poor man, and -the other way round, too?" - -"She married, with my reluctant consent, a young fellow who immediately -tried to get me to sell off great portions of my property and turn the -money over to him for investment in some crazy oil well he had out west. -He tried in every way to get control of this or that piece, using -fraudulent means, it seemed to me. Finally he--borrowed a vast sum of -money from a man down state--it was easy for anyone so safely connected -with the Huntington family to borrow whatever he wanted--and this he -sank in the well, which never amounted to anything and gave him no means -of paying even the interest on his debt. With the interest greatly -overdue, and no prospects, howsoever dim, of getting back his money, the -rash investor from down state came to me and demanded that I reimburse -him for my son-in-law's rascality--though perhaps that is too strong a -word to use." - -"And you did--_didn't_ you?" begged Peggy, anxiously. - -"Of course," agreed her friend. "He knew I would, though he never -mentioned the transaction to me himself, but left the news for his -creditor to break. - -"They lived with me here five years and when my little grandson was two -years old, I planned how I could do the most for him, arranging his -education and travels in my mind so that all the bright future I had -hoped for my daughter might be realized in him. But when incidents like -the one I just told you of began to happen frequently and any -considerable sum of money I gave my daughter went also into the stupid -oil proposition that never yielded any profits or, indeed, paid back a -cent of the money that it ate, I determined to go on with the thing no -longer and talked to my daughter and my son-in-law so plainly that they -agreed to go away and not involve me in such transactions again." - -Katherine timidly interrupted, "I suppose they--didn't write much after -they'd gone?" She was still puzzling to account for the complete -loneliness the old man had endured for so many years--even the conduct -of his disappointing son-in-law did not, to her mind, wholly explain why -a man would be content to forego all manner of acquaintance and -friendship ever afterward. - -The fire crackled loudly and protestingly, as if it, too, shared her -thought and would like an explanation. Peggy never stirred nor moved her -eyes from the thoughtful and sympathetic contemplation of Mr. -Huntington's face. - -"No," the old man hesitatingly answered Katherine. "No--You see--, well, -I am afraid I spoke very harshly to the man and my daughter heard. He -made no kind of defense whatever and--even then I--I was ashamed, but I -knew right to be on my side and I felt very long-suffering as it was. My -daughter caught up my grandson and faced me. I shall never forget the -proud expression in her poor, hurt eyes." - -"'You shall be paid back every penny, father,' she said, 'if you have to -wait until this baby grows up and earns enough to cancel his father's -debts. It is not likely we could meet so great an obligation by our own -unaided efforts--and Jo is not a moneymaker, but my son shall be trained -to think of nothing but making money until the whole amount is ready to -return to you. We shan't send you little dribbles,--not one cent until -the entire amount is gotten together--oh, I know how much it is, I have -kept track. We shall scrimp and save and earn and plan until you are -paid. Nor will you ever hear of us again if I can help it until my son -stands some day in your doorway with his check in his hand to pay you -back.' And with that they went away--" - -"And they haven't ever paid you back? And that is why you were poor for -so long?" questioned Katherine, believing that at last she had the -solution. - -Mr. Huntington smiled at the absurdity of this. - -"They haven't paid me back, but the sum they owe me scarcely leaves a -perceptible hole in my fortune. No, but the year after they left I -happened to read the notice in a New York paper of my son-in-law's -death. No address was given, nothing but just the notice and that was -all. Knowing my daughter as I did, I was sure that, at whatever cost, -she would persevere in her determination to pay me back and would keep -to the letter of her declaration even to the point of going out into the -world and earning her own living. The thought of that beautiful, -carefully brought-up girl, with so harrowing a responsibility on her -shoulders was more than I could bear and I employed detective agents in -a vain endeavor to find her and her boy. I myself searched everywhere in -the east, but, will you believe me--never from the day she left my house -to this--have I found one trace of her or been encouraged, in any way to -hope that I should ever see her face again. Now do you begin to -understand? Now can you think it natural, perhaps, that I should want to -live as poorly as possible, and deny myself as I knew that poor girl was -doing? Could I continue in luxury when she was in want? Only by making -myself suffer under the most rigid economy, with the idea that every -penny I could save and add to my fortune I would bequeath to her boy, in -case he could ever be found, has made my life possible to endure. I have -felt bitterly toward almost everyone--I don't know why. And I never -expected to have in my life again the sunshine that you and the rest of -my sixty little friends, have brought to me to-day." - -Peggy drew a long breath. "Well, it's been a real Thanksgiving, then, -hasn't it? And I'm so glad, Mr. Huntington, I'm so glad you liked the -party--and I--I--I'm sorry about--" - -"Do you know," Katherine broke in, "I think it's all coming out right. I -never had such a funny feeling. But someway I seem to be sure that Mr. -Huntington will find his grandson right soon--I don't know why I should -feel this way, but I do." - -"Cassandra," murmured Peggy. "We're just having the Fall of Troy in -Greek class now, Mr. Huntington, and Katherine is carried away by the -idea of being a prophetess. It _would_ be nice if we could see the -future," she added wistfully, "but I always feel as if I had more -happiness in the present than I could really take care of,--and if I was -always looking ahead to more--" - -"You," said Mr. Huntington, "yes, _you_ would feel that way. Most people -would say that the gift of prophecy was withheld from us in order that -we might not see so much grief and hardship ahead of us that we would -lose the incentive to go on." - -But Peggy was so far out of sympathy with that point of view that she -laughed. - -The early darkness of the winter afternoon began to deepen in the room -and blur all the shadows together. The dancing firelight did its best to -fight off the dusk, leaping up with spurting little flames and glowing -fiercely red at its heart. But the purple and gray twilight deepened -steadily into black everywhere except in the one bright corner of the -room where the flames still kept guard. - -"Well," said Peggy, sighing, and untangling herself from the comfortable -chair in which she had been curled, "time for us to go home, I -suppose--oo--oo--out into all that cold after all this warmth! My -hundred dollars, Mr. Huntington--I don't know what I'll do with it--" -she puckered her brow thoughtfully, "I don't know anyone else to give a -party to so--" - -"Buy a big fur coat with it, like some of the other girls wore," advised -the old man, "then you'll never think about going out into the cold as -anything but a pleasure." - -"Oh,--a fur coat!" cried Peggy, "why, mine--mine has just the mangiest -bit of a fur collar, and I've been proud enough of that--wait, just -_wait_ till I get a wonderful young caracal!" - -With their hands linked closely together in Peggy's muff the two girls -made their way down the walk, and at the street they turned back and -waved cheerily to the silhouetted figure that still watched them against -the glowing doorway of what had once been Gloomy House. - - - - -CHAPTER VIII--CHRISTMAS HOLIDAYS - - -The days and weeks seemed to fly by after that, each one full of -interest to Peggy, who liked Andrews better and better and was -increasingly glad each hour that she had come. Through Mr. Huntington's -help she was able to do a great many delightful things for other people, -and she took happy advantage of his warm interest in her projects. - -December rushed along toward Christmas and Peggy began to feel just a -trifle sad because her aunt had written nothing about her coming home -for the holidays, while almost all the other girls were going. She -rather hated to think of the empty halls of Andrews in vacation time -with no company other than that of Mrs. Forest. But one day Katherine -had looked beamingly up from a letter and had then jumped up and thrown -her arms around Peggy's neck with the explanation that Peggy was invited -home with her by all of Katherine's folks. - -Oh, what an enthusiastic preparation began then, what long discussions -as to whether to take the blue crêpe de chine or the golden satin, what -oodles of postcards were dispatched to friends with the good news and -new temporary address on them! - -To be part of the great business of going away for vacation! Peggy's -heart thrilled every time an expressman tramped through the halls -bearing some girl's trunk on his broad shoulders. Any afternoon now they -might come for her trunk, hers and Katherine's, packed delightfully in -one, after many friendly quarrels as to which one should have the left -hand tray and which the right and who could lay her shoes in the lower -compartment and which should take her manicure set, since one would do -for both girls, and trunk room was precious. - -When, seated at last, breathless and full of anticipation, in a taxi -with their trunk up on top, the two girls waved through the window to -those who had not yet gone, Peggy was too happy to speak, and two bright -red spots burned in her dimpling cheeks and her eyes were as blue with -excitement as electric sparks. - -She had never ridden on a train--a Pullman--before with just girls as -company. Her aunt had always taken her the few places she had been. Yet -now she was actually buying her ticket herself and checking her trunk, -and then boarding a great, wonderful, cross-country de luxe train,--she -and Katherine, all by themselves, with as grown-up _sang-froid_ as if -they had "all the while been conductors or brakemen," Katherine -expressed it joyously. - -The porter put their suit-cases under their berths, and Peggy's little -gloved hand dropped a quarter nonchalantly into his palm while she tried -to twist her eager, excited mouth into a traveled expression. - -"Well," murmured Katherine, settling back comfortably on the plush seat, -"we're really on our way. Oh, Peggy, I'm so glad you're going with -me--oh, won't it be fun to introduce you to father and mother and -brother Jack and the canary bird!" - -They had taken an early afternoon train, and it was a long while to wait -for dinner. The wonder and glory of the dinner Peggy was already -picturing. - -"I'm hungry just thinking about it," she said, when the train was well -under way. - -"Let's have the porter get us something," suggested Katherine, "what -would you like--a lemonade?" - -"OO-ooo," breathed Peggy, rapturously, "can he get it for us?" - -"Why, you can order _anything_ on these good trains," declared Katherine -grandly. "A little later we'll get some cards and look up two girls to -play bridge--the train's full of our girls and people from the colleges. -Then we'll go back to the observation car and--" - -Peggy shivered blissfully. "My," she said, "isn't life full of -experiences, though?" - - ---- - -"Shall we wear our hats into the diner, Peggy?" asked Katherine, -importantly, when the windows of the train were squares of blackness -speckled by flying snow whirling past and the waiter had gone through -calling out, "Dinner is served in the dining car in the rear ... -first-call." - -"Is that the thing to do?" hesitated Peggy--"and must we wear our coats, -too? I'd rather put our hats into these paper hat bags the porter -brought a while ago, and leave our coats here, and--and just go back in -a real homelike appearance." - -"All right," said Katherine, smoothing back her pretty hair before the -tiny oblong mirror in their section, "and, oh, Peggy, how hungry I am!" - -With the excitement of a brand new experience shining in their eyes, -their youthful heads held erect as they walked, and their little serge -skirts swishing over their silk petticoats, the two girls went down the -aisle in growing and pleasant consciousness of being observed by many, -through car after car of the long train in their hungry search for the -diner. - -Each of the vestibules was snow-powdered and slippery and cold--oh, so -cold, and it seemed that always just as they came to one the train -lurched and shook so as to nearly knock them off their feet. - -And then, all of a sudden, there they were in the diner itself--but what -was this mob--this perfect horde of other people doing there standing -patiently lined up against the long narrow wall before they came to the -table part of the car? - -"Katherine!" cried Peggy in consternation, "they're waiting to get in. -We'll _starve_ before our turn comes!" - -And all the long patient row of people laughed, for nowhere else in -traveling is there a more open and friendly spirit than among those poor -patient and hungry sufferers lined up to wait their turn to be served at -dinner. Groups returning began to push by them after a while, their -faces as satisfied in expression as the others were anxious. - -"You see," Katherine thought it out, "we came at the first call, but our -car was so far away that by the time we could get back here, all the -people from the nearer cars had gotten ahead of us." - -But once seated facing each other at a little table, with the electric -candle shedding its radiant light on the white cloth before them, and -with the pale snow outside fluttering against the windows, and all so -warm and comfortable inside, the tedium of waiting was forgotten and all -things beyond the scope of the immediate attractive present were blotted -out from their contented spirits. - -They leaned their elbows on the table and looked across at each other -with blissful satisfaction. - -"Peggy," said Katherine, and "Katherine," began Peggy eagerly, and then -both in the same breath they demanded of each other the answer to the -momentous problem of the moment, "What are we going to eat?" - -Never had a menu seemed as full of wonderful possibilities as that one, -never had "Milk-fed chicken with Virginia ham" tasted finer when it was -brought, and never, _never_ had two more healthy young appetites been -brought into play than Katherine and Peggy manifested while the train -rocked along with them at breakneck speed taking them faster and faster -and faster right into the heart of Christmas vacation. - -After the edge of their hunger had been worn off and they had turned -their attention more delicately to ice cream and _demi-tasse_, their -thoughts drifted backward to events at Andrews, which seemed already -very much in the dim and distant past. - -"Katherine, when you said you felt as if Mr. Huntington would soon find -his grandson, did you have any reason for saying that, or was it just to -comfort him?" Peggy inquired reminiscently. - -"No, honestly, Peggy," insisted Katherine, "I could feel it in my mind -just like anything that it will happen. Did you notice I didn't say -anything about his daughter? That was because I had no such feeling -about her--so you see it wasn't just to make him feel better at all. -It's strange, isn't it, how thoughts about the future come to you -sometimes?" - -"Never do to me," laughed Peggy with a shake of her head. "Just think, -Katherine, I didn't ever even have an idea until I actually saw you that -I was going to room with anyone like you at Andrews. When I used to -wonder what my room-mate would be like, I always thought of -some--entirely different kind of a person--and I was afraid maybe she'd -want the window shut when I wanted it open, or she'd be a grind and I'd -bother her,--and when I saw you--" - -"Were you satisfied?" teased Katherine across the table. - -"Oh--" sighed Peggy in mock rapture, and then she smiled her sweet, -frank, confident, dark-eyed smile straight into her room-mate's eyes. "I -was just about as glad as they make 'em," she declared. - -Katherine was thinking. - -After a while she spoke. - -"I know what let's do," she said radiantly, "let's go to Madame Blakey -when we get to my house and ask her about the Huntington boy." - -"Who's Madame Blakey?" - -"Oh, I forgot you wouldn't know. She's a clairvoyant and reads the -future out of a little glass of water. Yes, and you needn't smile. -Sometimes it comes out just as she says. I've never been, but some of -the business men in our town believe in every word she says." - -"I--I'd be afraid," Peggy demurred. - -"She doesn't tell you the horrid things--just the ones worth while -knowing--don't you think it would be thrilling to go?" Katherine poised -her ice-cream spoon half way to her mouth while she waited for Peggy's -wild delight in the scheme which she felt sure must come. - -"I--I--don't know--" Peggy disappointingly murmured. "Does she have -curtains painted with red and gold Turkish half-moons and all that? And -does she fade off into a--" she shuddered, "a--trance? Because I don't -want to see anything like that, honest, I don't. Of course, I know the -trances are just make-believe, but I don't like them." - -"No," Katherine hastened to reassure her, "sometimes I think it would be -fun to go to one who did those things, but this one doesn't make much of -a show of it, I've heard, and if the folks would only let us go--" - -"Perhaps we owe it to Mr. Huntington," Peggy decided at last, "to find -out where his grandson is for him, even by clairvoyant means like that. -Perhaps we ought not to let an opportunity or possible chance slip by--" - -By this Katherine realized she had won her wish and that her little -friend was beginning to be as eager for the adventure as she was and was -merely trying to translate it into a favor to somebody else before -plunging into it heart and soul. - -By this time the girls had finished their delightful dinner and they -left a quarter on the waiter's little tray with all the dignity in the -world. My, how independent, how experienced, how completely adult it -made them feel to be deciding the amount of tips and then handing them -out with such sweet grandeur of manner. The waiter smiled and bowed as -he pulled out their chairs, but they themselves were so exactly the type -of traveler that any waiter would prefer to wait on, with their grave -consultation with him as to the choicest dishes and their evident -enjoyment of life in general, that perhaps he would have been nearly as -polite had they given him only ten cents--but, of course, it's -impossible to say for sure. Waiters are but waiters, and they have -certain expectations and have grown accustomed to seeing them realized. - -Back on the perilous journey through snow-coated vestibules the girls -took their swaying way, laughing light-heartedly at each swerve of the -train and trying to work out some Sherlock Holmes system by which they -might be sure of finding their own car. - -"I knew a girl once," said Katherine, "whose car was taken off at -Buffalo and hitched to another train while she was promenading on the -platform outside, and all the baggage she had in the world went off to -school, leaving her behind. It was a horrible experience--" - -"Must have been," sniggered Peggy, "but if you're trying to scare me -into thinking perhaps we won't find our car at all you'll have a hard -time of it, because we're in it now!" - -And so they were. There were the familiar fur coats over the arms of the -Pullman seats at last, there were the copies of the gayly covered -magazines that they had left behind them, and, indeed, there it all -was--home. Home as only a Pullman car can be home to young people who -adore traveling and have plenty of interesting experiences and company -to while away the journey. - -"Ah," they cried, sinking back into their seats, "this is nice, isn't -it, after all that walk? How smoothly the train runs when you're sitting -still, but how jogglety it goes when you walk through the cars." - -"Oh, well," said Peggy, with a mighty yawn and stretching her little -locked hands before her lazily, "I'm perfectly happy, and I feel so -contented I'm almost--sleepy." - -"Almost--" indignantly laughed Katherine, "I feel free to say that -you're the most perfect imitation of a sleepy head that I ever -saw--imitation, I said, Peggy, imitation--" she cried, ducking, for -Peggy had reached for her hair to pull it. - -"Let's imitate sleeping heads instead of only sleepy ones then," -suggested Peggy when all her attempts to wreak vengeance upon her -room-mate had proved unsuccessful. - -"Porter, will you make up our section next?" asked Katherine as that -white-coated individual went by. And Peggy stored it away in her mind -that when you wanted to address him you called him "Porter." It was -difficult to explain exactly why, but this impressed her as just the -highest mark of knowing the proper thing that she had seen yet. Now if -_she_ had been forced to ask him the same question she had a feeling -that she would have begun with "Say." - -"How shall we sleep--you in the upper, or me, or both of us in the lower -so that the upper needn't be let down at all and then we can have plenty -of room to dress in our berths in the morning without bumping our -heads." - -Peggy agreed to this last plan as the best, and a few minutes later the -two snuggled down into the cold sheets to be lulled almost instantly to -sleep by the rhythmic motion of the train and the even sound of its -metal click, click on the rails. - -"Good-night," murmured Peggy sleepily just before drifting off into the -great shining world of dreams with their marvelous adventures that do -not tire but rest and equip the dreamer afresh for the series of real -events crowding in with the new day. - -"Goo--ood--night--" answered Katherine in an even drawlier tone, but her -room-mate was already asleep and did not notice it. - - - - -CHAPTER IX--THE FORTUNE TELLER - - -Oh, the glory of waking up in the morning and then before you have time -to wonder where you are, seeing the telegraph poles flying by! On a -train, on a train, on a train, Peggy's joyous thought kept time to the -sound of the wheels on the rails. After looking interestedly out for a -few minutes on a barren sort of white crusted country, level as a -prairie and without house or building of any kind, Peggy turned and -shook Katherine heartily by the shoulder. - -"Poor child," she shouted into the other's reluctant ears, "I hate to -waken you, but open your eyes and tell me if you think we're nearly -there?" - -"Where?" murmured Katherine and sank back into the peace of slumber. - -"Why, there, THERE, at your home--will--you--wake--up?" Each of the last -words was accompanied by more vigorous shaking, "as--I--said--" shake, -shake, "I--hate--to--waken--you--" - -"Yes, you do," reproached Katherine in perfectly normal tones, turning -staring mockingly at her room-mate. "Yes, you hate it--I thought you -were a wreck, you shook me so hard." - -"I am a wreck after all that difficulty to make you wake up," declared -Peggy serenely. "Now, let's hurry and go to breakfast." - -"Do you know what your new name is going to be as soon as we get back to -school?" threatened Katherine. - -"No," indifferently. - -"Pig Peggy." - -"Oh," said Peggy, "well, I'll look you up one in the dictionary,--maybe -in the _Latin_ dictionary, and then you'll never know what it means and -can't pay me back for it." - -It is surprising how quickly two girls can be ready for breakfast when -they hear the waiter crying out "Last--call for breakfast--" through a -rocking train. - -Grape-fruit, coffee, and toast was what they ordered, and then they -laughed to find that every other girl in the diner was eating exactly -the same thing. For grape-fruit, coffee, and toast is the college and -school girl train-breakfast the country over. - -"I feel as if I'd been away a hundred years," said Katherine excitedly -as the train at last pulled into the station. "Oh, they'll all be down -at the train, I wired them to. And how proud I'll be to show them you, -Peggy, and tell them that you are the one they've heard so much about in -all my letters since the very first, which was full of your rose-tree -episode." - -The porter had already gone ahead with their bags, and they, peering -eagerly out of the windows as they made their way to the platform, -sought to catch a glimpse of Katherine's family. - -As they stepped off it seemed to Peggy that a veritable whirlpool -engulfed them. On every side were enthusiastic people kissing her and -Katherine indiscriminately. And she in her gladness to get there and her -happiness in meeting with such friendly acceptance kissed them back with -impartial enthusiasm, Katherine's mother and father, her younger sister, -an aunt, and three "kid brothers"--these were the reception committee -that were now hustling the girls to the big waiting automobile that -belonged to Katherine's father and overwhelming them with expressions of -pleasure and welcome. - -The house, when they came to it, was a great homey affair, with many -rich rugs and pictures that did not, however, dazzle by their -magnificence but seemed to fit into the general atmosphere of comfort. -Peggy, who had never visited in so wonderful a place before, danced from -attic to cellar, as light as thistledown, and sent the whole family into -roars of appreciative laughter at her naïve and hearty approval of it -all. - -"You're home, now, Peggy," Katherine said. - -And Peggy nodded happily. "Why, of course," was her comment. "It -certainly feels like it, and I _love_ every darling member of your -perfectly grand family, Katherine Foster." - -Two days after their arrival the Fosters had a Christmas party for them, -and for the first time in her life Peggy helped to trim a Christmas -tree, and wrap up such an enormous number of tiny tissue-covered bundles -that her fingers ached from tying string. - -There was the grand march around the tree, the gorgeous Christmas -supper, and afterward dancing and dancing and dancing until Peggy's head -whirled and her very heart beat time to music. - -On Christmas day there came for each of the girls a fascinating little -package bearing the Huntington address on the outside. Katherine's was a -woven gold chain with a delicate and beautiful pearl pendant attached, -and Peggy's was a watch with a good sized diamond sparkling in its -handwrought gold. - -"Oh--how _lovely_," breathed she in ecstatic surprise, and then suddenly -her face clouded. "We forgot to send him a thing," she reminded -contritely. - -"Never mind," comforted Katherine, "we'll go to the clairvoyant and help -get his grandson back for him and I guess that will mean more to him -than any little set of cuff links or knitted tie we might have given -him." - -"So we will," mused Peggy, "do you think we could go to-morrow?" - -Not the morrow, but the day before New Year's finally saw Katherine's -family persuaded to let the two girls go to Madame Blakey, who had -really a considerable reputation in the town for correctly reading -futures in her glass of water. Not that Katherine's father and mother -believed in that sort of thing, but they actually knew people who seemed -to, and they could see no harm in permitting the girls to go. But when -the two daring experimenters with things yet to come had been conveyed -by James, the chauffeur, in their big touring car to the residence of -Madame, they found all the blinds closed and no sign of life about the -place anywhere. A woman from next door told them that Madame Blakey had -gone away on her vacation to visit relatives. - -"Well," sighed Katherine in miserable disappointment, "I suppose other -people have to have vacations too. But it does seem heartbreaking that -all our plans should be spoiled and poor Mr. Huntington should never -find his grandson, after all." - -"Yes," agreed Peggy, brushing away the baffled tears, "isn't there -somebody else in town who--who sees things ahead?" - -"Oh," objected Katherine, "not that mother would let us go to--but -listen, we might go first and then explain all about it and she'd -understand our motive. Let's look in the personals of the newspaper. -Sometimes there is one advertised there." - -So they sent James for a paper and eagerly scanned its columns until -they found in inviting, bold type, "Madame La Mar, palmist and -clairvoyant. I read the future: I tell your past: consult me about your -business or your heart affairs." - -"Ah," cried Katherine, and she read the address to James, while she -squeezed Peggy's hand under the heavy robe. - -A few minutes later the machine had drawn up before a frowsy little -apartment building, very different from and far less prepossessing than -the neat, newly painted little house of Madame Blakey's. - -In spite of James' expression of mild surprise, the two girls got out -and entered the building, searching as they did so for some card or call -board by which they might locate Madame La Mar's rooms. There was no -lock system on the doors and no cards of residents. They went on into -the main hall and saw a row of uninviting doors, each with some name -scrawled on it in pencil. On one door alone was a soiled visiting card -bearing the proud name of Madame La Mar. - -"Do you dare knock?" asked Katherine. - -"Maybe I will in a--in a minute," hesitated Peggy. "Don't you think -perhaps we'd better have James in?" - -"No," said Katherine, "he's right out there, anyway, and could hear us -if we wanted him for anything, and this apartment must face the street, -so we could lean out and call him if it gets too trancified for us in -there." - -But they did not have to work up their courage to the point of forcing -themselves to knock on the door, for the great Madame La Mar herself, -hearing their whispering voices, now threw it open and stood before them -in all the magnificence of tight fitting black velvet embroidered with -occasional sequins that glittered here and there. - -She was a big woman with vivid black eyes and black hair turning in -places to gray. Her cheeks bloomed with an unnatural radiance, and her -eyebrows were the longest and the most arched and the most charcoal -dusky that Peggy had ever seen off the stage. - -"Ah," crooned a honeyed voice, "did you want to see me?" - -Katherine, speechless, nodded. - -"Was it about--did you want a reading?" There was a very professional -business-like quality now creeping into the voice in addition to its -first honeyed accents. - -"Yes," Peggy answered up. - -"Did you have an appointment or have you ever come to me before?" -temporized the woman. - -"No," said Peggy, "but we thought--we thought you might be willing to -see us anyway." - -"Yes, yes, indeed, come in," said the woman vaguely. "Come in and we -will have a little music." - -The girls were seated, full of bewilderment, in a sunny, rather vacant -room, while the seeress swished across the floor like an animated -mountain and, going over to a piano on which the dust shone, sat down -and began to play a simple exercise like those Peggy had practiced when -she was a child and had her fingers rapped if she made a mistake. - -In increasing wonderment the two watched the self-confident figure -picking out its little exercise and apparently completely oblivious of -their presence and as thrilled by the feeble tinkle, tinkle it was -accomplishing, as if the sound were a whole orchestra of beautiful -music. - -After a time she stopped, and turned to the girls with a small smile. "I -like music," she said. "Oh, so fond of music. I'm taking lessons." - -"She needs 'em," whispered Katherine. - -"Did you enjoy my little roundelay?" she inquired anxiously. - -"It was--it was very nice," Peggy tried to say politely. "But we thought -you were Madame La Mar, the fortune teller." - -"I _am_ Madame La Mar," responded the woman, as pleased as peaches. -"Yes, indeed, who else could be her, you know?" - -"Her grammar!" groaned Katherine in a tiny voice. - -"Now if you will come into the studio," the woman urged, "I will read -for you from the past, present or future or all three of them. Just -state your desires." - -"There was something special," Peggy told her, "we thought you might be -able to read ahead for us." - -"Of course," agreed the generous creature, "anything. But my charge is a -dollar a person." - -"That's all right." - -"Then come in. Now the young lady in the caracal coat sit on my left, -please, and you other on my right. I shall want you to keep very still -and not disturb the workings of the supernatural. Which would you rather -have me do, tell you by cards or by your palm or by the crystal?" - -"Will--will one be just as effective as the other?" asked Peggy -doubtfully. - -"Be as what?" - -"Be as effective, as good, you know, Madame La Mar." - -"Oh, yes," explained the seeress condescendingly. "I can tell it one way -as well as another and I never make a mistake. I'm not like some of -these people in this town--limited, you know, to a single style. You can -choose any sort whatever and it goes with me. I'm a woman of my word, I -am," her voice was rising, "and I challenge any other clarvoy'nt in this -town to tell as much for the money as I do, why--" - -"Yes, yes, I'm sure," pacified Peggy. "And now suppose you tell us -something. It's what we came for." - -"With the crystal," Katherine put in, "and maybe our palms too." - -"No, not our palms," cried Peggy in consternation, looking at the rather -dirty red hands of the husky fortune teller. "I think the crystal alone -is best." - -"Well, then." The red hands caught up a little crystal globe that was -lying on the table. "All look into this with me, just as hard as you -can," she urged, "and think with all your might about the question you -want me to solve for you, and pretty soon I'll see things come in here -and that will be the future." - -The room settled down to a curious, stifling, nerve-racking silence -while the prophetess gazed into her gleaming crystal. - -She was breathing hard, and after a time it seemed to the two girls that -a faint film or cloud went across the glassy brightness of the little -globe, and this filminess took vague shape and disappeared. - -Each girl thought as hard as she could. "How can we find Mr. -Huntington's grandson for him? Where is he now?" - -Finally, in a sepulchral voice, startlingly different from her own, the -woman began to speak: "I see a girl," she murmured. - -This beginning was so far from promising and so utterly different from -what they had someway expected that Katherine burst out into hysterical -laughter. "She could see two of 'em if she looked very hard," she -chortled too audibly in her friend's ear. - -"There, you've broken the spell," complained the woman peevishly. "How -can you expect me to find the future for a pack of laughing hyenas that -don't believe what I'm telling them, anyway?" - -"Oh, please," said Peggy, much ashamed of Katherine's rude outburst, "we -want to hear it, and we will perhaps believe it when we have heard -something. Indeed, Katherine wasn't doubting what you _did_ say, you -know--she only--" - -"Quiet," hissed the woman. - -Was it true that a cloud, filmy and light and vapory went drifting -across the clear crystal surface again? The girls felt no impulse to -laugh now. - -"I see a girl--I see snow--" - -Katherine thought that she couldn't help it if she looked out of the -window, but this time refrained from comment and held her breath while -she watched the mysterious smoky appearance of the crystal. - -"I see a loss of a long time ago--many years--relative torn from -relative--" - -Peggy and Katherine clutched at each other's knees. - -"Walking, walking, so tired," mumbled the woman, "a long white field. I -see an initial--let's see what the initial is. Is it A? no, it is not A. -Is it B--no, no, now I have it, it is H." - -Peggy gave a tiny scream and the voice continued: - -"Cold, very cold, far east of here and a little north. A college room, a -mandolin, a young man plays on the mandolin. Also I see--" the voice -rose excitedly, "a school lawn, a moon, this time it is warm, I do not -understand it, and a group of young men are picking up little--little -roses from the ground, and a girl leans from a window--" - -"Peggy," screamed Katherine, "she means the time the rose tree fell -out." - -Here the prophetess burst into tears and shoving the crystal away from -her declared that she would not read another thing for two such ill -mannered young ladies who dragged her in and out of her trances just as -if these were not the worst kind of nervous strain. She was through with -them, she was. Just as she was beginning to see something of interest -they shouted at her and spoiled it all. What kind of spirits would -remain in a room with two girls that acted like that? They could pay her -their dollar apiece, they could, and go, and she would go back to her -music and think herself well rid of them, she was sure. Thank them, and -_good-by_, and please don't ever come and bother her again with their -hoydenish ways. Could they find their way to the street? She, for her -part, was too unnerved to take them. - -With their heads still whirling from the queerness of it all the two -girls groped their way out through the dark hall and drew in great -breaths when they were once more safe in the sunlight of the street. -They stumbled forward toward the car, where the imperturbable James was -awaiting them. As they were about to clamber in Peggy clutched at her -room-mate's sleeve. - -"Look back, she's watching us," warned Peggy, and there sure enough in -the window of the room they had just quitted were the outlines of the -great figure of the black velvet prophetess, a curious brilliant -fixedness in her dark eyes. - -"I think she got her initial from the door of your car, -Katherine--look." - -Katherine's father's initials were H. B. F., Howard Baker Foster, and of -course the seeress could have seen them, looking down into the street as -she was now. - -"Maybe," demurred Katherine, "but, Peggy, someway I don't believe she -did. I think that H stood for Huntington just as all the rest of her -story seemed to have some truth in it, and if only my feelings hadn't -gotten away with me we'd be there yet, hearing all the things that are -ever going to happen to us, I'm perfectly convinced." - -"Well, evidently, Young Grandson is in college somewhere," interposed -Peggy flippantly. "You remember about the college room and the mandolin? -I'm glad that his poverty didn't prevent his getting a fine education, -anyway. Now we've got a clue, all we have to do to find him, friend -Watson, is to go to all the men's colleges and walk through all the -dorms until we come to a room from which the gentle tinkle of a mandolin -steals forth--and then, and then--we knock on the door. Young Grandson -answers it, and--there we are. We take him back to Mr. Huntington and -all goes well. And listen, Watson, my dear detective companion, I think -our search through those colleges is just going to be one of the -jolliest things that ever happened to two nice-looking girls." - -"You forget that we won't know Young Grandson when we see him." - -"Clues, my dear Watson, clues. No detective ever went far without -finding clues. First, we shall run across his picture in one of the -college annuals. And we shall say, 'Why, here, what a strong resemblance -this picture bears to Mr. Huntington, of Huntington House.' And that's -the first thing. We read under the picture and find that his name is -John James Smith, and then we go to the registrar--" - -By this time the car was rounding the Foster drive, and the two girls -alighted, in haste to tell all of Katherine's interested and somewhat -disapproving family about their adventures with the soothsayer. - -Each of the small brothers agreed with Katherine that it must be all -true, but that was the only support she found at home for her belief. - - ---- - -When it came time for the girls to start back to Andrews, they were torn -with conflicting emotions. They were glad they were going back, and yet -they could hardly bear to tear themselves away from the home that seemed -now to belong to Peggy, too. So when they and their suit-cases were at -last regretfully taken to the train by the entire family, the girls were -dissolved in a flood of tears as they settled themselves for the -journey, and the train had been under way some two hours before they -managed to say a single word to each other. - - - - -CHAPTER X--MISS ROBINSON CRUSOE - - -It was the snowiest part of the season that Katherine and Peggy rode -back into when they returned from their Christmas vacation in the Middle -West. - -The school grounds shone and blazed under a triumphant sun, and out -around them as far as they could see was a great white world. One of the -most important gifts of the Foster family to the two girls had been two -pairs of snow-shoes: not the poorly constructed, make-believe affairs -that are sometimes on sale in cities where there is never enough snow to -use them, but real Indian-made shoes for which Mrs. Foster had sent to -Canada. - -Naturally, they wanted more than anything else to try them. So the first -day that Mrs. Forest gave them permission they went out on the porch of -the Andrews dormitory, comfortably dressed in white sweaters and white -tam-o'-shanters, with moccasins on their feet and their beloved -snow-shoes ready to strap on in their hands. After some grunting and -much tugging the shoes were adjusted, and then the two expected to -fairly sail over the white world, away, away, like ice-boats, as fast as -the wind. But, oh, for the things that look so easy! There was a good -crust over the snow, but at the first step--well, Katherine seemed to be -trying to walk on her head instead of her feet, that was all. In trying -to pick her up Peggy herself fell headlong, and there they lay, -ignominiously waving their snow-shoes in the air, shrieking with -laughter and so limp from their merriment that they could not get up -again. - -It was only after many attempts that they stood erect once more, -powdered over and caked with snow where they had plunged through the -crust, and very red in the face and still shaking with laughter. - -"I put my toe down first," gasped Katherine between spasms, "just as I -would if I was walking ordinarily. I forgot that father said the foot -must come down flat. I've seen people snow-shoe, but I never--t-tried -it--oh, dear me, I'm almost exhausted to start out with." - -Then once again, with the utmost gravity, the two made the attempt, and -Peggy almost at once got the wonderful swinging motion of the far -northerners that makes snow-shoeing one of the most delightful and -exhilarating sports in the world. To be warm in the midst of cold, to -glow from forehead to feet with life and heat and happiness, all this -glorious new experience she was feeling for the first time. But -Katherine could not put her foot down correctly and failed to get into -the rhythm of the thing at all. And as sure as they came to a hillock -over she went helplessly, and remained deep in the snow until Peggy -pulled her out, with scant sympathy, but with much merry appreciation of -her snow-powdered face and its look of wondering appeal. - -Nevertheless, in spite of difficulties and delays, they had covered two -meadows and a large open field without more stress of adventure than -they found pleasant. All of a sudden Peggy pointed ahead. There, -gleaming on before them, straight ahead and over the crest of a bit of -rising ground, were the glistening snow-shoe marks of another explorer -who had recently gone that way before them. The sun shone into the -criss-cross pattern of the steps, which seemed to the girls to be both -invitation and challenge. - -Katherine adapted the quotation, laughing. "If I could leave behind me -any such even tracks as that it might be worth while going on, but when -you can't get the swing of it, Peggy, you can't keep warm, and while I -want to learn, sometime, I think it wasn't born in me as it was in you, -and it will need several practice attempts before I can be in your class -at all. So I'm going back--for now--do you want to come, or are you -going on--?" - -Peggy looked back toward the familiar roofs of Andrews, and then she -looked away out over the barren fields in their whiteness, new and -untouched save for the gleaming snow-shoe tracks that called and called -to her to be as adventurous as they. - -"I guess I'll go on," she said, a hint of abandon in her voice. - -"Well, good-by, hon," said Katherine, meekly taking her leave. "I will -get about as much more of this as I want going back, but I hope you have -a nice time--and--and end up at tea somewhere just as we were going to." - -"Tea by myself would be horrid," Peggy called after her. "I won't be -long, but I just must have some more, I love it so." - -Then she turned her face to the snow-shoe tracks, and with a little gay -song on her lips took up their trail. - -"I'm Robinson Crusoe," she told herself blithely, "and these tracks are -the good man Friday's. And we are the only two people that there are at -all, and both of us have been finding it so lonely by ourselves." - -Several of the Andrews girls had snow-shoes and Peggy wondered which one -the maker of these tracks might be. - -"I'll try to walk right in her steps," Peggy decided, "and then I'll get -just the right method--but, oh, my goodness, what a tall girl she must -be! These footprints are so far apart I can't possibly take such long -steps. She must be a wonderful snow-shoeist--maybe she won't want to -walk with me even when I do catch up to her, since she's apparently so -much more expert." - -With ludicrous attempts to fit her steps into those of Friday, she -pursued her way until at last she had climbed the hill where the tracks -had at first been lost, and there they were continuing, forever, it -seemed. - -Without hesitation Peggy followed. Lost to all but the exhilaration of a -brand new exercise, and the stimulus of the cold wind that yet never -chilled her glowing face, she kept on until Andrews was a thing of the -past, and she could not have found her way back except for the tracks -she was making now. And then all of a sudden she noticed something was -different. The footprints no longer gleamed in her eyes, and the -beautiful dazzle of the snow was blotted out. In an instant more a -whirling mass of moist snow flakes was falling about her, obscuring -everything but their own fantastic, falling selves. - -"Well," decided she promptly, "I guess I'll be getting back." - -But when she turned back the wind came rushing in her face and took her -breath and nearly blew her down. - -"Well," she changed her mind. "I guess I won't. Friday, where are -you--you must be somewhere out in this sudden storm, too. And if I could -only find you I wouldn't feel as lost and shaky as I do now. Misery -loves company--not that I'm miserable--but something"--she choked back a -sob, "something seems to be gloomy in my heart." - -Since she could not go back, and since the thought of coming up with -Friday was a very comforting one, she plodded on, winking the snow out -of her eyes and shaking it off of her cap and out of her hair. - -She could scarcely see the tracks ahead of her now, as the new snow was -fast obliterating them, and her own steps were made with increasing -difficulty. Anyone who has ever tried to snow-shoe over soft, new-fallen -snow knows the hardship of Peggy's predicament. - -All at once she discovered that she could not lift her left foot at all. -Try as she would, it would not rise and swing forward to its next -step.--Paralyzed! The horror of her situation, there all alone in the -cold and snow, out of sight of everybody, slowly being paralyzed with no -one to know or care, filled her with momentary hopelessness. - -"Oh, Friday," she thought, "I don't see how you could have snow-shoed so -far ahead of me as not to have been caught up with by now. Dear, dear, -if I could only find that girl, maybe she would try to drag me to some -farm house, or something. If she's one of the Andrews girls she wouldn't -want me to freeze to death out here all by myself. Maybe if I called -very loud she'd hear and come back--" - -"Hello!" she shouted forth into the snow-filled world. But there was no -answer and the sound of her own voice, so hollow and lonely, did -anything but cheer her up, so she did not try again. - -With one last great effort of will she tried to move the stubborn left -foot. It was useless,--stuck in the snow and helpless it remained. - -"Oh," she murmured, the tears beginning to run down her cheeks to mingle -with the wet snow flakes melting there. - -All of a sudden a dark form loomed up out of the blinding snow -immediately ahead. There was the jar of a collision. Peggy clutched her -hands together, not knowing whether to be glad or terrified. - -And then she saw that the figure was that of a very red-faced young man, -who was also wearing snow-shoes. - -"Friday!" Peggy cried out, realizing in one illuminating instant that -this was the track-maker she had been following as Crusoe. - -"No, it's Saturday," replied the young man, somewhat puzzled, "but I -don't see what that has to do with it. I'm awfully afraid I hurt you, -bumping into you like that, but I never dreamed there was anyone about -in a storm like this. Have you seen anything of a little dog? I lost him -a while back." - -"No," shivered Peggy. "I'm afraid there isn't much use looking for him -if he's very little. Here am I a perfectly strong girl and yet even I -can't go any farther. I--can't--go--another--step--" Sobs fought with -her words, and the young good-looking face grew redder than ever. - -"Tired?" he asked, "so tired that you can't walk? Well, then, I'm mighty -glad I came. Wait just a minute till I get a deep breath and I'll carry -you. The extra weight will make us sink in a lot in this soft snow, but -if you don't mind the joggly walking I can easily manage--" - -Peggy shook her head. "No, you'd better go on by yourself," she -insisted. "I think a person would be awfully hard to carry in -snow-shoes, they'd hang down and flop about so. And I'm sorry about your -poor little dog, but I think it isn't any use your waiting for him. -You'd much better save yourself," she advised. - -"Now,--come," said the other. - -"Listen, I'm paralyzed," Peggy confessed. "My left foot just -won't--won't work, you know, I can't get it to snow-shoe another step. -It just stays still. It's paralyzed--" - -What was that--could she believe her eyes? The young man had glanced -down sympathetically enough toward the paralyzed foot but was it any -subject for such wild fits of mirth as he immediately went into? Was it -right that he should laugh and laugh and point, speechless, and then -clap his hand over his mouth and go off again? - -"You are very cruel and perfectly horrid," cried Peggy sharply, "and I -hate, I _hate_ you!" - -"O--oh, pardon me, little Hot-Temper, but look back at your snow-shoe, -_please_," and the laugh distorted his face once more. - -Painfully and indignantly Peggy screwed her cold face over her left -shoulder and looked down. - -"Why--why," she gasped all out of breath, with astonishment, "how did it -get there?" - -For there, comfortably ensconced on the back of her snow-shoe, waiting -for a free ride, sat, as perky as you please a plump puppy, his head -cocked interestedly on one side, and his wide mouth open in an inquiring -fashion as if he would like to know what she was going to do about it -now that she had found him out. - -"The--the--smart little thing!" Peggy couldn't help exclaiming. "There -he was, being a parasite, while I was supposed to do the walking.--Only -it's a good joke on him, as I couldn't." - -"As soon as the soft snow fell, I suppose the little fellow sank in -pretty deep every step," the young man grinned, stooping and sweeping -the quivering, frisking body into his arms. "And the rascal was going to -take it easy as soon as he saw your snow-shoes coming along. Lucky I -missed him when I did,--and you're not paralyzed now, are you?" - -"No," laughed Peggy, "it seems I'm not. Oh, wasn't that funny? There I -was dying all by myself a minute ago of something that I didn't have at -all." - -"I say, what we ought to do, though--there is a tea house somewhere near -here where we can get something hot and then you'll feel a lot better -and I don't mind saying that I will too. Come on, I know the way, and -I'll walk on the windy side of you like this and--why, it's going fine, -we'll be there in no time." - -With courage and interest and even happiness surging back into her heart -now that this big handsome boy was striding along by her side and -cheering her with laughing remarks that ignored the wild storm about -them, Peggy found snow-shoeing exhilarating once more, and they made -good time, and were soon stamping in to the little tea house. - -In the neighborhood of Andrews were a number of tea rooms and dainty -restaurants, for it was a rich school, and a good share of the girls' -pocket-money went for good things to eat. Peggy was familiar with many -of them, but she had never happened to come here before. So she knew -that they must be a greater distance from the school than she had -supposed. Also, most of the people seated around the adorable little -tables were boys instead of girls, and they all looked up with interest -at the entrance of the snowy pair. - -"Why, hello, Jim," one of the boys called out to Peggy's companion. -"Playing Santa Claus?" - -Jim merely smiled and bowed, and guided Peggy to a table by a roaring -open fire. Then he took her sweater and cap and flung them across a -chair to dry. - -"Where do all these boys come from?" inquired Peggy. "It looks like a -perfect wilderness around here." - -"We are near Anderwood, the boys' prep school," explained her companion. -"I used to go there--just last year, in fact--and I was over visiting -some of my friends to-day. Most of the fellows are having exams right -now, you know, and there were two hours this afternoon when every fellow -I knew was booked for something, so I borrowed a pair of snow-shoes and -a dog and--took a stroll." - -"And you strolled right over to a girls' school," laughed Peggy. - -"As fast as I could go," the young man answered without embarrassment. -"I'll tell you just what I was going to do, too. I don't know a soul at -Andrews--or didn't until I almost ran over you in the storm. But I was -just going to look at a certain window. Now, I bet you'd hate to tell me -what you think of me." - -"A certain window," mused Peggy. "Are you a carpenter and did you want -to see how it was made?" - -Her mischievous taunt brought an explanation. - -"I'm an Amherst man," he began, and Peggy leaned her elbows on the -table, forgetful of the steaming soup that had just been set before her. -"And I had finished my exams, so I took a vacation to this part of the -country, where I used to go to school. The last time I was around here I -came up for the game, early in the fall. And--well, you know how it is -with glee club fellows, they sing their heads off when their team has -won, and I guess we serenaded every corner of the Andrews dorms until -midnight. Do you remember--did you happen to be awake and hear us?" - -"Oh, yes," breathed Peggy ecstatically, and then a furious flush went -over her face. Was her awful adventure of that evening to be recalled -now--would he guess that she--_she_, whom he had saved from the storm -was the very one who had toppled the terrible rose-tree in its heavy -jardinière down onto his head as if she were firing on him from a -Zeppelin? So he was one of the young men she had nearly killed! What a -mercy that he had not died, after all. With a crushing wave of memory, -the whole moonlit scene flashed back to her, and once more the ache of -uncertainty and remorse were poignant in her heart. She recalled -Katherine's joyous shout that they were unharmed, and then--and then her -own rush back to the window and the song they had sung just for her! - -"You heard?" he was asking in pleasant interest. "Which house are you -in?" - -"Oh," cried Peggy in consternation. "The other one." - -And then she realized by his puzzled expression and his mouth twitching -into a laugh that her reply didn't make sense. "I mean I didn't hear -it," she rushed headlong into the fib in her distress. "I didn't and my -rose-tree is still all safe in its jardinière in my room, -and--and--anyway you must realize that it was an accident!" she finished -desperately. - -The boy's hand went swiftly into an inner pocket and drew out of a small -envelope a tiny withered rose bud, quite browned and crumply. He held it -silently over to her across the table, his eyes shining with delight. - -She looked at it with an attempt at impersonal curiosity, and then the -corners of her mouth crinkled up, and that flickering dimple came into -play and she met his eyes with enjoyment as keen as his own. - -"And you all sang to me," she reminded, "and I never was so excited -before." - -"Every one of us kept one of the flowers," he told her. "We didn't know -who dropped them to us, we could only see just the fluff of your light -hair--but we carry them just for luck. They are sort of insignia of -adventure--" - -"I was so afraid I'd killed you," Peggy confessed, "and I thought the -only thing I could do to atone would be to go and be a Red Cross nurse, -and help those that other people tried to kill." - -The young man threw back his head and laughed until the boys at the -other tables looked over and grinned in sympathy. - -Peggy hastily turned her attention to her soup and ate in silence. - -When they had finished their hot chocolate, too, she glanced out at the -uninviting storm and sighed. - -"It must be miles back to Andrews," she said. "I suppose we'd better -start. The storm makes it awfully dark, doesn't it?" - -The lights had been turned on in the little tea house and in contrast to -their radiant cheer and that of the dancing flames in the fireplace, the -outside world with its deep gray swirl of snow flakes looked very black -and chill. - -"It's not so much the storm--or not that only,--it must be five o'clock, -anyway, you know." - -Peggy jumped. "Oh, no, how _could_ it be? We won't get home in time, -then." - -"In time?" - -"Yes, every girl has to be in her room at five-thirty so as to have -plenty of time to dress for dinner at six. And the rule is partly to -make it certain that we'll be in before it's very dark, too, I suppose." - -"Well, we'll make a dive for it," he said. He drew out his watch, and -then his face grew red with that same brilliant over-color that it had -worn when she first saw him out there in the whipping winds. This time -it was not the wind that had sent that flame over his forehead, chin and -cheeks,--it was shame that his sense of responsibility should not have -warned him of the passing time. - -"It's--half-past five _now_," he was obliged to tell her. - -Peggy looked into his poor, miserable face, full of self-accusation, and -with an effort of will she drew her own lips into their best smile. - -"Oh, well," she said, "we've had a gorgeous time, and a few short hours -ago I didn't expect ever to see another half-past five in all this -world. I guess having one's life saved will be sufficient cause for -delay to appease Mrs. Forest. I imagine even _she_ can get the -importance of that." - -But in her heart she knew just about how easy it was to explain things -to Mrs. Forest--about as easy as moving a mountain. Once the principal -decided in favor of punishment, not all the king's horses or all the -king's men could change her mind. And, oddly enough, it was the small -faults that she scored most heavily. Peggy sometimes felt that a girl -might steal something and yet not arouse Mrs. Forest's wrath as -thoroughly as one who was late to dinner. - -"You are to be trained in _manners_ in my school," she often said, and -it was true that with her these seemed to come before everything else. -She was not so strict in regard to chaperonage and all that as the New -York finishing schools; she had no need to be. The school was situated -in a small and desirable town, and among her pupils were none of the -vapid little Miss Foolishnesses sometimes sent away to school because -their parents or guardians can't manage them at home. All her students -were bright, eager, typical American girls like Peggy and Katherine and -Florence, most of whom had a definite idea and plan for their lives -after graduation, the majority trending collegeward. So, although Peggy -was the youngest girl who would receive a diploma next June, it would -not be on the score of lack of chaperonage in going to tea with a young -Amherst friend that she would meet with Mrs. Forest's objection, but -merely on the technical ground of not returning at the exactly appointed -time. - -Hastily he shook out her sweater and held it for her, then flung into -his own, and jammed his cap on his head, and catching up the puppy that -all this while had been lying comfortably before the fire he held the -door open for her. The storm blew in to meet them as they stood there, -and with a shiver of determination they strapped on their snow-shoes and -struck out. "We'll just go over to the next corner, where we can get a -street car--we're only a little way from Andrews by car line," the boy -told her. - -They were fortunate enough to catch a car at once, and all unconscious -of the friendly stares of the passengers they congratulated each other -on having left the tea room at exactly the right moment. - -The car stopped directly in front of the Andrews gate. Their cheeks were -aglow and their minds full of the afternoon's adventures rather than -with their consequences. On the wide porch Peggy turned to her friend -and said, "You must go, now, and be introduced to Mrs. Forest at some -other time. They're at dinner now, and she'd kill me with her own hands -if I call her away. So I'll let you go and just say, 'Thank you, and -I've had a nice time'--" - -She smiled up at him bravely, for presentiments of her meeting with the -Forest were already beginning to creep into her heart. - -"Good-by," he said, and in a moment more he was swinging down the walk -and Peggy softly opened the door and scurried upstairs to her room. As -always happens at a time like that, the gay roar of voices in the -dining-room died down as she came in, and to everyone and certainly to -Mrs. Forest the slight sound of her moccasined feet on the stairs was -plainly audible. - -When she came down a few minutes later, glowing in a pink evening dress, -Mrs. Forest's stare was like a cluster of icicles. - -"No supper for Miss Parsons," she sent word by the maid, and after -Peggy, mighty glad that she had just had plenty of hot soup and -chocolate, had gone back to her room amid the sympathetic glances of the -dining-room full of girls, the principal called that dread and clammily -unpleasant thing known to boarding schools as a "house-meeting." - -She herself presided, and the meeting was seldom called for any good, -you may believe. Its object was rather the punishment of someone with -all the sickening stages of a public investigation into her conduct -first. Mrs. Forest had a way of making the girls cry in a homesick -fashion at these affairs and perhaps it is hardly doing her an injustice -to say that she enjoyed it. At least the girls were all perfectly -convinced that it was her sport in life, and they resented particularly -that their idol, Peggy, should be the subject of this one. - -A deputation of girls went clattering up after the victim and brought -her down, showing no further marks of perturbation than a tiny little -line of uncertainty in her forehead. - -"Sit here, Miss Parsons," commanded Mrs. Forest as soon as all the girls -had gathered. - -Peggy sank gracefully into a chair and thrust out her pink satin -slippers daintily. Mrs. Forest could not know how those tired little -feet ached inside those bright slippers. - -"Young ladies, I have called this meeting in order that I may have it -understood that in my school the rules are to be obeyed. Now I want to -ask each one of you what you think the rules are for? Do you think they -were made with the idea of having them obeyed? Miss Thomas, will you -answer first?" - -Florence felt like the most complete traitor to Peggy that she should -even be questioned on such a subject when she knew the whole proceeding -was aimed at her friend. - -"I--don't--know--" she said miserably. - -"Don't know," Mrs. Forest smiled disagreeably, "I will ask Miss Parsons -what she thinks." - -Peggy looked up from her contemplation of the carpet and gave a little -gasp. - -"Oh, I'm not in a frame of mind to think they're very important one way -or another," she replied, with an entirely maddening smile of -deprecation. Her dimple flashed in and out of her cheek and she met Mrs. -Forest's gaze with an unperturbed calm. - -"Your penalty for feeling that way--and acting as you feel is that you -shall not be taken to Annapolis in the spring when all the other girls -are going!" Mrs. Forest exclaimed with heat. "Does that make a -difference in your attitude?" - -"No," said Peggy, "for most of this afternoon I never expected to go to -Annapolis anyway--or anywhere else in the world again." - -The girls caught the under note of earnestness in her voice and leaned -forward interestedly, excitement beginning to shine in their questioning -eyes. - -"I was paralyzed back there in the snow when the storm came up," she -went on, a bit of the weariness that was in every limb showing forth in -her voice, "I gave up expecting to come back. And then a man saved me. -Never mind about Annapolis. I'm more than satisfied just as it is." - -"Were you in danger from the storm, Peggy?" asked Katherine. "I was -scared to pieces when I saw it coming up, but I didn't want to start a -search party--and someway I thought you couldn't really get lost--we -know all the places around here so well." - -"But I couldn't see them," said Peggy, "and I got blown away every time -I tried to turn in a new direction. A man saved me and--got me some hot -chocolate, and--and I've been late to dinner before and all this fuss -wasn't made over it." - -"That's just the point," snapped Mrs. Forest, "you have been treated -with too great lenience. If you had thought more of getting home on time -you wouldn't have stopped for the hot chocolate. At least that part -wasn't necessary." - -"Oh, but it rather was," Peggy began, but looking at Mrs. Forest she -wondered how she could be expected to understand. Could she ever have -been a girl on snow-shoes, and have known the cold that gleamed in the -frosty air and the hunger that comes after great exertion? No, what was -the use of looking for understanding there? Peggy lightly tapped the -floor with her foot. - -"You may go," Mrs. Forest graciously permitted at this point, "I'm -sorry, Miss Parsons," she so far unbent as to say at parting, "that you -thought you were lost and had a fright, but discipline above all -things--discipline, my dear. Perhaps after this we shan't have to combat -your continual tardiness." - -In their own room a while later Peggy threw her arms around her -room-mate's neck and danced her this way and that, in a manner quite out -of keeping with the tiredness that she felt. - -"The greatest adventures, Katherinekins," she shouted. "Oh, listen, -listen, I can hardly wait to tell you." - -On releasing her friend, she proceeded to prepare for bed, saying she -was too exhausted to sit up another minute. But she talked as she -slipped on her kimono and folded back the couch cover from the cot bed -on her side of the room. - -"And, Katherine," she came to the wonderful part at last, "who do you -suppose he was? One of the people we tried to kill with our -rose-tree--yes, he had our rose--" - -"Rose-tree?" cried Katherine, and then her face, growing whiter and -whiter in its excitement, she clasped her hands together and screamed -out: "The fortune teller, the fortune teller! She spoke of that--quick, -Peggy, hurry, what's his name--is one of his initials H? Peggy, don't -keep me in suspense a minute longer--what is his name?" - -Peggy was sitting up in bed with a queer expression in her face. As -Katherine finished she looked across at her with a blank expression. - -"Why, I don't know his name!" she cried. - - - - -CHAPTER XI--THE INITIAL H - - -"Why, do you suppose I dreamed all night of mandolins?" questioned -Peggy, sitting up in bed with a blanket hugged around her shoulders next -morning. - -"Why, because," said Katharine, "the clairvoyant woman said that she saw -a young man in a college room playing a mandolin,--you remember? And he -answers all the rest of her requirements, the walking in the cold, the -meeting the girl--you, and the rose-tree incident. Now, Peg, did you -think to ask him if he played the mandolin?" - -"No," said Peggy contritely, gingerly testing the cold floor with her -bare feet, "no,--and how are we going to find out now?" - -"You're a fine Sherlock," cried Katherine, "but, then, it's always the -Watsons of this world that do the real work while the Sherlocks get the -credit." - -"I have just one clue," sighed Peggy humbly. - -"Well?" - -"The boys at the tea house called him Jim." - -"_Jim!_" repeated Katherine in keen disappointment and disgust. "Not an -H in it!" - -"No," Peggy agreed, "and there are so many Jims." - -"M.--Jim, Amherst--fine lot of information," murmured Katherine. - -There really didn't seem to be much that could be done, so the girls -went to recitations as on other days. But they could not help the -feeling that they had really stumbled upon the very person they had made -it the business of their year to find, and so their answers to the -professors' questions were often somewhat vague and wandering, and once -when the mathematics teacher asked Peggy to draw a right angle triangle, -she said she hadn't studied her mandolins to-day, and sat blushing -furiously throughout the rest of the lesson. - -It was late in the afternoon when one of the maids called Peggy to the -telephone. She ran down the stairs with a wild and unaccountable hope in -her heart--if she should only have the opportunity to find out -everything so that Katherine wouldn't have so much cause to be ashamed -of her--if she could only ask him if he _did_ have a mandolin-- - -"Hello," she was saying breathlessly into the mouth-piece. "Hello--?" - -"Miss Parsons--" a laughing voice came over the wire and Peggy instantly -framed her lips to her question. It should not get away from her this -time--all this news that she must have. - -"I called up Mrs. Forest and asked if the young lady I rescued from the -storm was all right after her chill. I told her I was the one who had -been fortunate enough to be there, and she said, quite politely, that -Miss Parsons wasn't hurt in the least by the experience. That's how I -got your name." - -But all this while Peggy was interpolating wildly: "Do you play the -mandolin? Do you play the mandolin?" - -And now that the voice was pausing for her answer, her words came clear -and distinct, "Do you play the mandolin?" - -"Do I _what_?" in astonishment. - -"Do you play the mandolin?" monotonously. - -"Why, why--how funny your first remarks always are. Yesterday in the -storm when I nearly ran you down you cried out 'Friday'--it didn't seem -to have a bit of sense to it,--and now right while I'm trying to tell -you something you ask me in a parlor conversational tone if I--if I----" - -"Well, _do_ you?" she insisted desperately. - -"Yes, but--" - -"Oh, goody, goody, then you're the one!" "What one?" mightily -puzzled--and a trifle impatient. - -"I can't tell you yet--I don't even know your name." - -"Why, of course, I want you to know my name, that was partly why I -called up," in an injured voice. "It's Jim Smith." - -"Only that?" her disappointment was keen. - -"James H. Smith, if you must have it all," somewhat surlily. - -"O--oh," there went singing across the wires the breath of Peggy's -rapture. "Isn't that lovely." - -"No one ever thought it was particularly so before," the young man -answered. "I'm glad you like it. Now, what is all of your name?" - -"Peggy is the part you don't already know," she confessed, "and I like -it better than the last part." - -"I do, too," he chimed in heartily, "I won't need to say the last part -at all any more, will I?" - -"N-no," Peggy laughed. "Considering who you are. Only of course you -don't know yet, do you?" - -"Don't know who I am? Well, now, I always had a faint suspicion every -time I looked in the glass that I was myself." - -"I've said everything wrong," apologized Peggy sadly. "But you'll -understand after I've seen you sometime again and told you about -everything." - -"Anything you say is all right with me, anyway," the voice answered -quickly. "I wouldn't have you think for a minute that it wasn't. After -the game way you almost went through death by paralysis--" - -Here they both laughed, until the wires sang again and again. - -"May I come over to-morrow afternoon and--meet the ogre and get her -approval of me, and all that?" the man's voice asked at length. - -"Yes, and you can meet somebody nicer than the ogre, too," generously -promised Peggy, "my dearest-in-the-world room-mate, Katherine Foster. -Oh, she is the splendidest girl! And the prettiest! And the smartest, -too." - -"To-morrow afternoon, then? Awfully glad that you're all recovered from -yesterday--good-by." - -Peggy murmured her good-by and flew back upstairs to tell the wonderful -news to Katherine--that he was, that he _was_, that he WAS! - -"I can hardly wait to tell Mr. Huntington," cried Katherine, "can you?" - -"Oh," said Peggy doubtfully, "I don't think we have quite enough to go -on yet to tell him about it, do you? _We_ think it is true but, after -all, we have only the word of that crazy black velvet fortune teller. -His middle name begins with H, but that doesn't tell us what it is, it -might not be--be--_that_, you know, after all." - -"Huntington," smiled Katherine. "You are afraid to say Huntington." - -"I'm not. Huntington, Huntington, Huntington!" - -And then as if it had been the magic signal for calling up the real Mr. -Huntington on the spot, one of the maids brought up his card at the -moment and said that he was awaiting the young ladies in the -drawing-room. - -"It will be hard not to tell him," sighed Peggy longingly. "I'd like to -have him know that there was just a gleam of hope, anyway, you know, of -finding--" - -"Let's be careful, because there'd just be somebody else disappointed -besides us if it didn't come out right. Peggy, sure as I am that we're -on the right--what do you call it--scent--nevertheless, we must remember -that almost every man in college plays a mandolin--at least half -do,--and H. stands for so many names: Hill, and Hough, and Hail, and, -oh, dozens and hundreds and for all I know thousands. No, it isn't a -clear case yet, so don't raise that poor old man's hopes." - -Down the stairs they went sedately, arm in arm. Mr. Huntington had -visited them at the school several times since their return from -Katherine's home. Sometimes he called upon as many of the entire sixty -girls as were about, but more often he asked simply for Peggy and -Katherine. - -"I'm awfully glad to see you, Mr. Huntington," Peggy cried, running -impulsively forward, "especially to-day." - -"Peggy," warned Katherine. - -"I mean after yesterday, you goosey," she frowned at her room-mate, and -then in a very audible aside, "did you think I would give it all away -like that?" She turned to their guest. "You see I was nearly lost in the -snow yesterday, and from thinking I'd never see any of my friends again -to--to seeing them, you know, is a very pleasant jump." - -"Well, I heard about it from one of the girls who was passing my house -and stopped in to tell me about your adventure and I hurried over to see -if you're surely feeling all right and how you'd like a little dinner -party at the Holland Hotel in celebration of your escape?--you and seven -or eight classmates?" - -"Oh, wouldn't we?" cried Peggy. "I was wondering how I was going to -stand dinner in this place to-night. You know they wouldn't let me have -any last night and if your gr--I mean if the young man that rescued me -hadn't given me some soup before that I'd have starved." - -Katherine's foot reached for Peggy's to administer rebuke for what she -had so nearly said. "It will be lovely for us to have the dinner party, -Mr. Huntington," she put in hastily to cover the mistake her room-mate -had made. "Sometimes, just eating here, we do get awfully hungry." - -"I never saw you girls when you _weren't_ hungry," laughed their friend. -"It was your continually thinking about something to eat that first led -to our acquaintance, wasn't it?" - -The dinner party that evening was a great success. The girls loved -nothing better than to dress up in state and go in a crowd to the hotel -for dinner, but it was an event that came seldom in their lives. They -talked so much about the wonderful lobster and the crisp French fried -potatoes and all the bewildering array of little extras that the great -subject in the minds of the two principal guests was forgotten for the -time, and whether H. stood for Holt or Hamilton became a matter of no -great moment. - -When, however, the card of Mr. James H. Smith was brought to the girls -the following afternoon interest quickly revived and they went -downstairs with their best detective manners. - -"This is the man whose dog I saved in the storm and who, to show his -appreciation, saved me," laughed Peggy by way of introduction. "And -this,"--presenting her room-mate, "is the nicest girl in the world--whom -I chance to room with." - -"My only claim to distinction is rooming with Peggy," smiled Katherine, -offering her hand. "We're glad to see you over here, Mr. Smith--and are -you going to show me the withered rose, too? Because the rose-tree was -mine as much as Peggy's--" - -Peggy left Katherine laughing over the brown petals with Jim, while she -went to ask Mrs. Forest to come in and meet their friend. "I think he's -a relative of Mr. Huntington's," Peggy whispered just as Mrs. Forest -rose to accompany her, in order to assure her friend of a hearty -welcome, "but I'm not sure." - -"Oh," said Mrs. Forest. "I shall be very glad indeed to make the -acquaintance of any relative of Mr. Huntington's--and you didn't tell me -that before, Peggy--" - -"I didn't think of it before," admitted truthful Peggy. - -Mrs. Forest sailed into the room, very impressive and rustling in her -afternoon silks, and greeted the young student with unusual cordiality. - -"I don't see anything so clammy about her," he thought to himself; she -almost seemed to retain his hand in extra friendliness, as if he were -some favorite nephew. - -"Well, well," she was saying, "there is a resemblance, too, now I look -at you. Yes, I think I should have known you anywhere. You have a -relative to be proud of in Mr. Huntington," she continued, "you are a -relative of his, I believe?" - -Peggy clapped her hand over her mouth to choke back the exclamation of -dismay that rose from her heart, and two slow tears of mortification -gathered in Katherine's gentle eyes and rolled brightly down her cheeks -at the awful precipitation of events Mrs. Forest had caused. - -But the boy was answering and the girls could hardly believe their ears -as they heard him say "Huntington? Why, no, I am afraid you have -confused me with someone else. I am not sure that I have ever heard the -name. I am not related to any one owning it, in any case." - -Oh, tumbling air castles! oh, crashing dreams of happy endings! oh, sick -and weak and trembling disappointment, and blank, meaningless future! - -Peggy clasped her hands in her lap and leaned forward and stared at the -boy with saddest reproach. He had certainly led them to believe he was -the missing Huntington heir; he had been on their campus when the -rose-tree fell, he had admitted playing the mandolin, he had an initial -H., all just as the fortune teller had said, and yet he was no more Mr. -Huntington's grandson than she was! - -The tears were falling so rapidly now on Katharine's cheeks that she -could no longer keep from being generally observed. She sprang up, and -with her handkerchief to her eyes groped her way from the room, and they -heard her a moment later stumbling up the stairs. - -Jim looked in bewilderment to the door through which she had gone and -then back to the stricken Peggy with an expression of "What have I -done?" for he thought surely the girls must have given some impression -of him to their principal for a reason of their own and now he had -ruthlessly destroyed the fabric of their tale. - -Mrs. Forest herself looked vague and uncomfortable, and after a few -banal remarks, excused herself on the ground that some of the teachers -were expected for tea and she must be in her room to receive them. After -she had swished out Peggy drew a long breath. - -"Then you aren't--?" she questioned heartbrokenly, "then you aren't, at -all?" - -"Let me into the secret," pleaded the miserable boy. "I always knew -girls were mysterious persons, and that they lived in all sorts of -unreal adventures. Am I scheduled to pass for an incognito villain of -some sort--or--or prince--or anything? Because I tell you frankly, I -ought to have been coached for my part beforehand if that's the case. I -can't be expected to know all these things by intuition. Now I've made -that pretty Katherine cry, and I angered you, and disgusted Mrs. Forest -and yet, cross my heart, and as I live, I've been behaving just as -nicely as I know how. Please, Peggy, clear up the mystery. I've been -working so hard at trig just before exams that I'm in no state to go on -solving problems." - -"You see," said Peggy, her mouth going into a smile, and the absurdity -of it all beginning to send a sparkle of fun to her eyes, "it isn't your -fault. We thought you were the missing grandson of our friend Mr. -Huntington, and we've been Sherlocking since last Thanksgiving day to -find him. So when you tallied up with what the fortune teller told us--" - -"Fortune teller--Oh, I see!" laughed the young man. - -"And then, when your middle initial proved to be H.--why, of _course_, -we thought that stood for Huntington, and I'm disappointed to death that -it doesn't. By the way, what _does_ it stand for?" she asked curiously, -pausing abruptly in her explanation. - -She could not have been prepared for the curious expression that came -into Jim's face at this point. His head drooped and three distinct -series of flushes and palings swept his good-looking countenance. - -"I don't--know," he said after a time, in a low voice. - -"Don't--know?" screamed Peggy with a rising inflection and returning -hope. "Why don't you know? Please forgive my awful rudeness, but if you -only should prove to be the right one, after all, you know, think what -it would mean to Mr. Huntington." - -"My mother died a long time ago," the young man said. "I was just a -small boy. I was to be brought up and educated for one purpose--that of -making a great deal of money to--to--well, I might as well tell you, -Peggy, I can trust your understanding,--to pay back a debt to my -mother's father--" - -He noticed that Peggy's look of reproach and pain and anxiety had all -faded away and in its place was beaming unmitigated delight. It was an -expression which seemed to him strangely out of accord with the story he -was telling, but, nevertheless, if he could give pleasure to this odd -little flyaway creature by the recital of his life's tragedies, he was -willing to do so. - -"When I should have amassed a great fortune I was to be told to whom to -take it, but until an amount she specified had been gotten together in -toto, I wasn't to know my grandfather's address for fear I'd want to -send him the money we owed bit by bit. And, indeed, I should have wanted -that, but for some reason she was unwilling to have anything but the -entire huge sum of the debt turned over to him. No part payments in her -plan. My father had borrowed the money for some oil ventures out west, -and after a good many years those lands have turned out as good as -father's wildest dreams, and I have the money to return to my -grandfather--every cent of it--but, listen, Peggy, even you sitting -there laughing, with your eyes shining, can understand the tragedy and -irony of this--my mother died without ever telling me my grandfather's -name!" - -"O--oh," said Peggy, the smile leaving her face as if it had been -suddenly washed away. "That must have bothered you many times." - -Then she looked straight ahead of her thoughtfully for a minute. "It's -strange that the oil wells turned out all right, after all," she -murmured absently. "I'm sure Mr. Huntington never dreamed they would." - -But the boy, swept back into the past by his own story, was raptly -gazing into the fireplace and paid no attention to her remark whatever. - -"I don't think it as romantic, your turning out to be rich," Peggy -continued, "as if you had turned out to be poor, the way I thought you -would, and then Mr. Huntington would have taken you right in and said -the debt was nothing, and he would see that you had everything you -wanted. Yes, that would have been the ideal way." - -The boy glanced up at her and smiled whimsically. - -"Always that Mr. Huntington," he said, "who is he?" - -"Why, your gr--I mean a friend of mine and Katherine's," finished she -lamely. - -"And some oil wells figured in his history, too?" the boy wanted to -know. "You seem to be in everybody's confidence, Peggy, though I must -say I don't myself see what there is about you to make people suppose -you'd sympathize with them--when you sit there and beam as happily -through their tragedies as if they were telling you about a picnic." - -"I'm sorry--" breathed Peggy, and a real hurt crept into her voice. - -Just at this minute Katherine came into the room again, her tears dried -and the lines of unhappiness smoothed out of her forehead. She sat down -gracefully and tried to appear at ease, as if nothing had happened. Both -Peggy and Jim wondered at the self-control she displayed in making a -reappearance after her grief-stricken exit, but they could not know that -Mrs. Forest had tiptoed up to her room and compelled the poor child to -come down again, saying that it was a terrible and foolish breach of -manners for her to have left in any such silly way, and that the only -way she could atone for it was to go down and think how much better it -would have been if she had behaved sensibly in the first place. - -So Katherine made a few polite remarks, all the time wondering what -Peggy's happy air meant, and thinking her very shallow indeed to be able -to recover so quickly from so bitter a disappointment as they had just -been through. - -"I wonder?" she heard Peggy say, to her increasing astonishment, "would -you think it very queer if I asked you to come right over to Mr. -Huntington's with us for a few minutes? Your story and his are certainly -an awfully unusual coincidence, if they aren't something more. By that I -mean, if they aren't one and the same story. And since you said your -middle initial didn't stand for anything that you were aware of, -mightn't it stand for Huntington?" - -"My mother gave my name in at school as James H. Smith, that's all I -know about that part. I usually sign it Holliday, because I like that -name. It might be Huntington. Of course I'll go and see this old man -with you, if that's the way you'd rather spend the afternoon." - - - - -CHAPTER XII--THE MEETING - - -They could see Mr. Huntington sitting in the library, reading, as they -came up the snowy walk. The room looked warm and peaceful and there was -a contented expression on his face as his white head bowed over the -book. - -The wind was howling around them and it slapped the tattered remnants of -vines against the porch as it had done on that first day Peggy worked -her daring heart into a state courageous enough to carry her to the very -door of Gloomy House. Inside, in contrast to the bluster without, the -library looked as cozy and homelike as a room could well be when only -one person lives in it. - -"Peggy," said Katherine, "we may be going to disturb his peace for -nothing." - -"Pshaw," said Peggy, the light of high adventure shining in her eyes, -"I'd rather have all sorts of surprises and disappointments and hurts -and aches and shocks in my life than just have it all a kind of dull -monotony, and I always give other people credit for feeling the same -way. I guess Mr. Huntington would rather have a _chance_ of everything's -coming out right than never know about it at all." - -"I agree with Peggy, whatever her wise little meaning is," laughed Jim. -"I think he would, too." - -They were on the porch by this time, and Peggy saw Mr. Huntington's head -lifted inquiringly as the sound of their footsteps reached his ears. -Then as the old bell jangled through the house he rose hastily and -laying his book face downward on the table came slowly to the door. - -For some seconds he fumbled with the lock and then threw back the door, -while a sudden look of glad surprise went across his face at the sight -of Peggy and Katherine. At first he did not notice their companion. The -three entered the hall and then Peggy said, "Mr. Huntington, this is Mr. -Smith, and I wanted you to meet him for a very special reason." - -"Yes?" the old man said, shaking the other's hand, "I'm very glad, I'm -sure. Come into the library, all of you, and tell me all about it. Now, -what can I do for the young man?" - -For Mr. Huntington had no thought in his head but that here was some -young football player who needed funds, or the representative of some -charitable organization that wanted a contribution. And, since Peggy -brought him, he should have it. - -"Oh," said Peggy, with a little pout. "You're always thinking that. And -I don't blame you, for I suppose lots of people do want things and come -and ask you for them. But Jim is awfully rich, and--and--" she broke off -helplessly and glanced beseechingly at Katherine for help as to how to -go on. - -For the last few minutes Mr. Huntington had been studying Jim with a -curious intentness, and a startled expression had even begun to creep -into his face. With a vague gesture, as of one who is trying to recall -some long gone memory, he drew his hand back and forth across his -forehead. There had been ghosts of a kind in Huntington House right up -to the time when Peggy and her fifty-nine little friends had driven them -out forever. But there had never been a visible one before, never more -than a haunting and accusing thought, not a red-cheeked, fresh-faced -young man that somehow did not make Mr. Huntington think of a young man -at all, as he sat watching him, but rather made him recall a woman, who -had defied him in a moment of pride and gone away from him and out of -his life, leaving no trace. - -There was something about the finely drawn young mouth. Something about -the blueness of the eyes--Mr. Huntington started and addressed the boy -in a sharp voice. - -"You remind me very much of--of a relative of mine," he said abruptly, -"you said your name was Smith?--or Peggy said so--Of course, there are a -thousand Smiths about here, but Peggy said she had brought you here for -a very special reason. I must beg you to tell me what it is at once. -This relative of mine married a man named Smith. I don't think I -mentioned his name to you, Peggy?" - -"No," said Peggy, shaking her golden head. "If you had I'd have found -him lots sooner!" - -The old man looked quickly from one to another of the little group, and -in a breathless rush of words Peggy told him all the similarities -between his history and that of the young man. - -"And if it doesn't all _match_," she cried, "then I'll eat my Greek -books!" - -Mr. Huntington walked over to his desk,--a big, ancient affair with a -dozen little curious drawers that pulled out by means of bright glass -knobs. From the smallest of these he drew forth tremblingly all that it -contained, a single photograph, and approaching the boy, held it out to -him. - -"Have you ever seen that face?" he asked tensely. - -With a troubled air the young man took it and gazed straight into its -pictured eyes, his face tightening as he did so. - -"It's--my mother," he said simply, after a pause. "And I have a picture -just like this one. Is it true, then, sir, all this romance these girls -have given me a part in--and are you indeed my grandfather?" - -There was a note of awe in his voice as he rose before the old man, -holding out his hand. - -The realization that a life-old dream, long since given up and buried in -his mind with the things that were not to be, was actually coming true, -that the very picture the library fire had conjured up for him evening -after evening as he sat alone and lonely, gazing into its depths,--this, -with its sudden rush of emotion, brought a kind of illumination to the -figure of the old man as he stood there, and seemed to shed for a moment -the passing glory of youth once more over his face. - -Swiftly and silently Peggy went to Katherine and took her hand and, with -their fingers on their lips, the two stole to the library door and -thence, unnoticed, from the room. A few minutes later they were running -down the frosty walk, their eyes happy and their cheeks aglow, and their -hearts kept time to their running feet. - -"If our mathematics only solved as nicely as that," Peggy murmured -longingly. And Katherine pressed her hand, and they danced along on the -sidewalk until the people passing turned wistfully to gaze after them, -wondering how it would seem to have such an overflow of spirits that one -must run and skip and laugh out loud to express them. - -"Let's have all the girls we can pack into the room in for a midnight -celebration," suggested Katherine as soon as they had flung off their -coats in their own room. - -"Good girl," chirruped Peggy. "About ten people--our most special own -crowd. Hurry up and be ready for dinner--and is there any butter out on -the window ledge?" - -Katherine craned her eager head out of the window into the cold. "Not a -bit," she said. "We have a can of condensed milk left, though." - -"Fine," cried Peggy, counting off on her fingers the butter, the sugar, -and the alcohol, the butter, the sugar, and the alcohol--"for I don't -suppose there is any alcohol, is there, friend infant?" - -"'Fraid not," sighed Katherine. - -From this an outsider might suppose that the girls were planning to -concoct some sort of intoxicating beverage for their innocent little -midnight party. But it was only the preliminary preparation for the -inevitable fudge. And the alcohol was to _run_ the chafing-dish, and not -to go _into_ it. - -Just before dinner, Peggy, asparkle in her golden satin, so nearly the -color of her lovely hair, went shouting through the corridor, "Alcohol! -Al--co--hol!" - -And behind the closed doors every girl knew that somewhere there was to -be a party and, recognizing the voice, ten of them guessed that they -would be invited. It was not until her second trip, however, that her -call brought results in the form of an opening door and a nice, full -bottle of denatured alcohol generously thrust into her hand by one of -the hopeful ten. - -"You know me, Peggy," hinted the owner of the contribution. "I'm fudge -hungry, too. What time is the happiness?" - -"When you're invited you'll find out," retorted Peggy, hurrying off with -the alcohol and humming a little tune. - -When the girls went in to dinner a mysterious whisper went round. It was -"Save your butter, and ask for two helps." - -The butter balls remained untouched on each of ten plates as a result, -and were finally gathered together very surreptitiously onto one plate -just before the dishes were cleared for dessert. Under the auspices of -Peggy this one dish was covered with a saucer and sneaked down into the -folds of her napkin. - -When the sauce that they invariably had for dinner on this night of the -week was set before them with a general dish of granulated sugar to make -it sweet enough, she pointed toward the sugar bowl and several of the -girls looked miserable, because sugar is an awfully hard thing to take -away unobserved. - -But tea was served, and three of the girls asked for just cups and -saucers because they liked to fix theirs up themselves, they would put -in the sugar and cream and would then pass them for the tea to be poured -in. But the empty cups safe in their possession, they each asked -earnestly for the sugar, and slowly and painstakingly, talking all the -time so as to divert attention, they shoveled in spoonful after spoonful -until the cup was full. Then with a sigh of relief at a difficult duty -well done, they sank limply back in their chairs, only being sure to -remember to be passing something when any of the waitresses approached, -so that their hands would cover the too-sweet tea-cups with nothing in -but sugar. - -"Won't you have some wafers?" Florence Thomas would ask Helen Remington -in a worried voice every now and then, lifting the plate and offering it -to her solicitously. Of course, the girls weren't sitting at Mrs. -Forest's table this week, or it never could have been managed and they -would not have thought of trying. But just by themselves it wasn't -impossible. When dinner was over and their principal and the teachers -had moved toward the drawing room, they, with wild sidelong looks and -terrified glances this way and that, sniggering conversation that didn't -mean anything, gathered up their trophies, hugging them as close as -might be, and covering them with folds of satin gown and little nervous -hands. Then, following, wherever possible, some girl who was going -uprightly forth with nothing that she shouldn't have, the little guilty -procession filed out and rushed for the stairs, stumbling and laughing -in their haste and leaving, all unnoticed by them, a tiny tell-tale -trail of sugar up the broad varnished stairs. - -All these savings were taken to the room where Peggy and Katherine -lived, and then the girls went their separate ways serenely, some to -study and some to bed, each knowing that she would be summoned at the -proper time to partake of the fruit of her spoils. - -"What shall we do, are we sleepy or do we want to sit up a while and -talk?" Peggy and Katherine, the hostesses-to-be, consulted each other. -It was characteristic that they used the plural, for it always happened -that they were either both sleepy or both wide awake. - -"Well," Katherine suggested, after a few moments of deliberation, "I say -that we tuck all up with nice soft quilts and talk. We can talk about -the Huntingtons and how mean Mrs. Forest is sometimes, and--and -everything, until it's time to start the chafing-dish and call the -girls." "Midnight" didn't mean the stroke of twelve to them at all. It -was any time in the late, late hours, along about half-past ten or -eleven, say. - -In their pink and blue quilts they talked and talked in the darkness, -for, of course, Mrs. Forest and the teachers mustn't see any light -gleaming under their doors after ten o'clock. Soon their eyes grew heavy -and the thoughts of fudge began to mix themselves up curiously with -dreams. - -They were two little tumbled over figures, fast asleep, Peggy on her -couch and Katherine on hers, when the indignant guests, wondering why -they had not been summoned to the party and deciding to come without -waiting for the formal bidding, strode in upon them, with much flutter -of silk and crepe kimono, and patter, patter of slippered feet. - -"Well, did you ever!" cried Florence Thomas. "Light the candles -somebody; Doris start the chafing-dish, and Helen measure out that -butter,--" - -"Is--it--time--to--get--up?" came in muffled accents from Katherine's -couch, and a moment later a candle gleam flickered into her drowsy eyes. -"Oh, my stars, girls!" she cried, sitting up at once and staring around -wildly, "do you think this is a nice way to come to a party?" - -Peggy was breathing evenly, and she turned fretfully to the wall when -Florence shook her. "Oh, very well, Miss Fudge Party," Florence -murmured, "we'll see if you won't wake up,--" and she went over to the -wash pitcher behind the screen and dipped a wash-cloth in its cold -contents. - -"Ha ha," she laughed, in imitation of a stage villain. Wringing out her -weapon she approached the couch of the unconscious sleeper, full of -delighted anticipation. - -Just as the terrible and efficient awakener was about to slap down on -its victim's placid face the victim opened her eyes and looked up at the -plotter reproachfully. - -"Oh, I heard your fiendish plot--I heard the water sousing around," she -said, "but I thought there was no use waking up till the last minute,--I -was in the middle of such a delicious dream." - -"Well," sighed Florence, much wounded, because, of course, you can't put -a wet wash-cloth on a waking person's face. "All that energy wasted. -Girls, do hurry up the fudge, so that I can comfort myself for having -been 'foiled again.'" - -The room, with the little whispering group of girls in it, some on the -couches and some on the floor, garbed in all the delicate shades of -boudoir attire, pale blue, pink, and rose, saffron yellow, lavender and -dainty green; with the tiny spurts of golden candle flame dotted here -and there on table and mantlepiece; with the hot, chocolate-smelling -fudge bubbling away in the chafing-dish, looked like some fairy meeting -place, with all the adorable fairies assembled. - -When the fudge was done they put the pan out of the window and hoped -that it wouldn't fall down and all be lost. It didn't, and, before it -had fairly cooled, they cut it and lifted the squares in their eager -fingers,--great, rich, soft, wonderful squares of delight,--and ate them -with greedy pleasure, down to the last, last crumb. - - - - -CHAPTER XIII--SPRING AND ANNAPOLIS - - -In the days that followed after the winter snow's melting it seemed to -Peggy that she was seeing the world by sunlight for the first time. The -wonderful new lights that fell on everything, making even a roof or a -clay bank a beautiful thing to behold, the subtle perfume that came -drifting out on the breeze over orchard and woodland, the pink blossoms -on the apple trees, all these things sent her about with her head in the -clouds and a happiness at her heart that was just the joy of living. - -The girls sauntered now on their way to classes, instead of hurrying and -scurrying to escape the cold. They sang on their way to chapel, they -lingered on the porch steps after luncheon, every Saturday they planned -some kind of tramp or picnic that was different, very, from the gay, -romping affairs of the fall. These parties, or "bats," as they always -called them, not knowing at all that that word was considered of rather -vulgar significance out in the world, were long, lazy, enjoyable -affairs, where groups went together with arms twined about each other's -shoulders, always singing, singing. They sang Yale songs and Harvard -songs and Princeton songs, then each group of girls sang the songs of -the college they themselves hoped to attend, and wound up with the -Andrews favorites. - -"People along here would think us German soldiers, the way we sing as we -go," said Peggy. "Oh, isn't it all heavenly, heavenly. Music with us -that we make ourselves, and apple blossom petals as sweet as roses -dropping down on us from the trees wherever we go, and all the -world--ours--" - -To her own surprise a sob choked her, and the other girls did not laugh, -but looked away with the tolerant dreaminess the spring had given them. - -The great topic of every spring at Andrews was Annapolis, and, as soon -as they had thoroughly exhausted the subject, Annapolis all over again. -Which girls were to go and which must stay at home? - -"Oh, girls, the marine band!" one group would remind another as they met -going to and from classes. - -"And, oh, that gymnasium floor--" the other group would sing out. - -Peggy dreamed of nothing but picturesque white buildings and uniformed -young middies drilling, and wonderful girls in wonderful gowns dancing, -dancing with wonderful representatives of the navy. - -Not for her--oh, not for her, this one desirable thing of all the world -that the others were to have! Of course, she had wickedly been saved -from a storm--but it seemed to her now very unjust that this should -stand in her way, now especially when the snow was all gone and there -was nothing left to remind her of how grateful she ought to be for that -past favor of fortune. Was getting saved and being served to hot -chocolate such a crime, then? Hadn't any other girl ever had the same -experience? Well, if she hadn't, Peggy pitied her rather than envied -her, she knew that. Oh, Mrs. Forest, what a narrow-minded woman she was. -Just as if she had been born a hundred years old as she was now and had -never known any girlhood, Peggy mused. Oh, Annapolis, Annapolis! Oh, -dear, oh, dear, oh, dear! - -Nothing would ever make up--nothing ever or _ever_! If she could only go -and look on, even, she would be satisfied. Must she see the others -fluffing up their ruffles and pinning on their sashes and starting off -with bobbing rose-buds at their waists while she remained behind, her -nose pressed flat to the window, to see them off and the tears coursing -sadly down her face? It was a heartbreaking picture and Peggy threw -herself on the bed and cried over it until the thought came to her that -if she kept this up she would go through the grief of it all many times -before it actually came to her to bear it, and perhaps for the occasion -itself there would be no tears left. - -She wiped her eyes and saw that they were not, after all, so very red, -and no permanent wrinkles had been made in her face from screwing it up -so hard. She decided that she'd just pretend she was going instead of -continually dwelling on the fact that she wasn't. She got out her lovely -little frock her aunt had recently sent her to be her best through the -spring term. It was a deep, sweet pink--Peggy called it her candy -dress--and tenderly she smoothed the dainty chiffon tunic over the crisp -taffeta slip. There is a balm just in the touch of pretty clothes to dry -the tears of any girl or woman unless her grief is very deep. Peggy felt -the color stealing back into her cheeks, and her eyes were a-shine with -admiration. The very way the dress fell, all fairy-like and light, from -her fingers when she lifted away her hand, the glow that the silk gave -back, the cool feeling of the silver bead fringe that went around the -sleeves,--Peggy would have had to be far less susceptible to the lure of -feminine finery than she was if she had not caught her breath with pure -joy in the possession of such a gown. - -There are pinks and pinks, some beautiful shades and others not so -lovely. But silk stockings will often take the loveliest pink of all, -and Peggy's were delicately tinted and gleamy and did justice to the -dress with which they were to be worn. Her little slippers had high -heels, and how she reveled in them! After the flat heels they were -obliged to wear every day at Andrews the dignified height and the -curving grace of these were a rest and a delight to the eye. They were -all of pink satin, just a shade deeper than the stockings, and were -decorated with tiny handwrought gold buckles that glinted and flashed in -the light like a cluster of yellow diamonds. - -"Oh, tra, la," sang Peggy, handling them, "oh, tra, la." - -And her pleasure in living rushed back full force, for, after all, these -things were hers and even if there was to be no Annapolis, she would -have the satisfaction of knowing how she _might_ have looked if she -could have gone. - -That night, when the girls discussed every detail of the trip, even to -the train they were to take and what they were to wear as traveling -suits, Peggy found that she was able to join in without tears and -without bitterness and help them make their plans perfect. The girls -were overwhelmed by the generosity of her attitude, and marveled at her -cheerful spirit. - -"There's one thing, Peggy," said Helen Remington across the table, "if -you were going there wouldn't be a chance for the rest of us. There'd -just be a general stampede in your direction and _we'd_ look on alone -and unnoticed." - -The other girls nodded. Peggy thought of the dear pink dress and those -wondrous slippers, and in the egotism of her youth she thought it might -be so, after all. - -It was one day off, at last. Even Mrs. Forest was practicing a -peaches-and-cream, prunes-and-prisms, butter-wouldn't-melt-in-her-mouth -manner for the occasion. She was very kind to all the girls, and was -careful not to hurt the feelings of the few culprits who had to stay at -home, by references in their presence to the good times the others -expected. - -"If I _were_ going, I'd wear this brown taffeta suit down there on the -train," mused Peggy, "and these bronze shoes. My, I think it would be -fine going down there on the train--oh, dear, oh dear, I'm afraid I'm -going to cry again over it, and it isn't time yet. Time enough when I -hear the taxis whirring off with them inside. How can Katherine be so -happy in going when I have to stay behind? I'd never go a step if she -were in my place. Never in the whole world! Oh,--de--ar!" - -If Katherine had been taking pleasure in the contemplation of a good -time that did not include Peggy it would have been very unlike her -indeed. But, while Peggy had been sentimentally weeping before the pink -gown in their room at Andrews, she had been as busy as might be with -plans to make everything come out all right. And it was perfectly true -that if she had been unable to bring about the desired result, she would -not have gone herself, but would have developed a headache at the last -minute that would have compelled her to remain at home with her injured -room-mate. - -Several times she had run in lonely haste up the walk of Huntington -House to hold conference with the owner and his grandson. For, as she -put it, nobody could hope to do anything with Forest unless they had a -"pull," and Mr. Huntington was the only person she knew who had one and -might be expected to exercise it in a case like this. - -"Threaten her with the gymnasium," begged Katherine. "Tell her Peggy has -changed her mind about giving up the money for a gymnasium for such a -mean horrid school as she is making of our dear old Andrews. Tell her -that you'll write to the boys at Annapolis and tell them that Forest -keeps her prettiest girls at home and thinks just the ordinary ones are -good enough for them. And then let her see how quickly the yearly -invitation to bring down some of the girls will be renewed. Why, they'll -never consent to hear Andrews mentioned in their presence again." She -was becoming vindictive in the extreme, and Mr. Huntington sat back and -laughed at her. - -But, laughing or not, he promised to try his hand at appeasing Mrs. -Forest, and this was just what Katherine had wanted, so she forgave him -his mirth at her expense. - -Mr. Huntington was seen to come up on the porch at Andrews a few hours -later, and the girls wondered how many of them he would ask for. Imagine -their surprise, therefore, when he did not even send up word to -Katherine and Peggy, but remained in solitary consultation with their -principal, and finally walked off without a backward and upward glance -at the window full of friendly figures waiting to wave at him. - -He left Mrs. Forest in a sad state of mind. But there was only one way -out of it--and that was to trudge up the broad staircase and fill -Peggy's heart with wild delight by the remission of her sentence. - -This she did with what grace she could muster, and it must be admitted -there was a guilty feeling of not deserving it when Peggy, impelled by -the sudden rise in her emotional temperature, flung herself upon her -quondam enemy and kissed her on the lips. - -"There, there, child," murmured the much-softened principal. "I'm sure -you'll be a credit to the school, and now I want you to forget -everything but the good time. What dress shall you wear, dear? What, -that? Oh, it is beautiful. Your aunt is a very charming woman, my dear, -and possesses excellent taste. I hope it will be very becoming to you." - -"Hope!" cried Peggy to Katherine as soon as she had gone, "she hopes. -Why, Katherine, any living person with eyes in their head could see that -it _will_ be!" - -So it happened that when the rest of the girls were packing their -suit-cases with joyous exclamations over everything they put in, Peggy, -too, was packing hers. And when the happy party stepped into its several -cabs, she was at, last triumphantly wearing the very brown taffeta that -she thought ideal for the train, and her face was as beaming as the -spring morning. What chattering went on inside those jolting cabs, what -hopes, what surmises, what anticipations filled those youthful hearts! - -When they stepped out at the station, a breathless boy from the -florist's ran up to the group panting out, "Miss Parsons, where is Miss -Parsons, please? I ran over to the school but I got there just too -late." - -And when Peggy, her face flushing with surprise and pleasure, admitted -that she was the one sought, he eagerly handed her, not one box, but -two, and amid the excitement of the crowding girls, Peggy unwrapped them -then and there. One was fragrant with the most generous bunch of violets -she had ever seen, tied with the daintiest lavender ribbon and thrust -through with a violet pin so that she might transfer the glowing beauty -of them from the box and tissue wrappings to her coat at once. The other -box was white with lilies of the valley, and Peggy buried her bright -face in their sweetness ecstatically. Then she bethought her to look for -cards. - -"Because, of course, magical as it seems, getting here like this just as -I am about to start, and not knowing a single person I'd dream would -send me any flowers, still, I suppose somebody _did_ like me enough to -do it. So I'll--just--see--" - -Her inquiring fingers slid inside the envelope that came with the lilies -of the valley. - -"Mr. Huntington," she read. Then with increasing excitement she opened -the other little envelope and her eyes danced as she read that card. - -"James Huntington Smith." - -"Oh, how lovely of them, how lovely," she cried. And then and there with -hasty fingers, she mingled the lilies of the valley in with the violets, -and gleefully pinned on the whole gorgeous if somewhat too conspicuous -bunch. In stories, the girls who receive flowers divide them up among -their friends. But in life, how seldom, how seldom! With a finer -appreciation of the intentions of those who sent them, they are quite -delightedly selfish with them, and almost any real live girl would have -combined two bunches, if they were flowers that went well together, as -Peggy did, and would have worn them that way, and been proud to do it, -too. - -There is something about the wearing of flowers sent by a really -interesting person that just tips the whole day with a kind of satisfied -glory. Peggy's manner instantly took on a lovely graciousness and -sweetness, for she was wearing the evidence that two people liked her -and wanted her to have a good time, and it behooved her to live up to -the added beauty the flowers lent her. - -It was a very long ride down to their destination, and Peggy had time to -conjure up in her mind all the pictures she had ever seen of men in the -navy, and battleships, and cannons, and such warlike objects. She -thrilled to the thought of such a life, with its roving over the whole -world after school was done, in those great gray floating forts of -cruisers with their long sinister guns always ready for whatever might -deserve their cruel attention. Even when women vote, she thought, there -would be no such glory of open sea for them. There would still be -heights on which men would dwell where women could never expect to -climb. Well, came the comforting thought, but the women could go and -dance with these wonders that were afraid of nothing! They could be -waited on by them, too, and served to ices! My, my! Well, it wasn't so -bad after all. Peggy began to feel that everything in the world was -pretty well balanced after all. And she was glad that she lived in so -fine a place, and that she was young and nice looking, and that she had -a pink dress in her suit-case. - -When they came to Annapolis at last and the party descended, all -excitement, Peggy could hardly wait to appear at the scene of the coming -festivities. But they were taken first to their rooms at the inn and -there they left their baggage and powdered their noses, and fluffed -their hair and then sallied forth once more, this time to go through the -archway right into the Annapolis grounds, with the white buildings just -as Peggy had dreamed, and the midshipmen and girls strolling and -laughing together along the walks. They went to the reception room while -Mrs. Forest sent up their cards. It had been arranged that certain of -the young men were to come down and take charge of the party for the -afternoon and evening. And while they were waiting Peggy looked at the -other occupants of the reception room. Did the hearts of any go bounding -along as much as those of the Andrews girls? Peggy, seeing no one but -several middle-aged women, thought it was not likely. But perhaps she -was wrong, for these were mothers, and they had not seen their sons -since the beginning of the term. Would they be changed? Would they be -glad to see them there for the games, and pilot them around as loyally -as if they had been slight, laughing, dimpled young girls like that -charming group yonder? Perhaps there was even more excitement in it for -them than for the Andrews girls, but Peggy couldn't know. - -When at last the group arrived who were to pilot the girls about for the -afternoon, Peggy was conscious of being introduced to one pleasant-faced -young man after another, each in uniform, and each with a certain -indescribable quality of self-possession and the ability to do just the -right thing that characterizes the boys who are trained in our naval -Academy. Would the girls rather go out on the water and see the boat -races, or would they go over to the baseball game? It was a sort of a -three-ringed circus day at the Academy. - -Some girls wanted to go out in the launches, others thought the glare of -sun on the baseball field would not burn their noses so badly. Peggy -just couldn't make up her mind to give up either of them. - -"Oh, couldn't I, _couldn't_ I see a little bit of both?" she cried -pleadingly to the boy who had consulted her. "It's just one day out of -the whole world you know, and I want to get everything I can in it!" - -Whatever slight restraint there might have been in first meeting fell -away at her frank eagerness, and the boy's expression assumed at once an -alert interest in giving her as good a time as could be crammed into the -hours before them. Out in the little rocking boat they went dancing over -the water with the full blazing glare of the afternoon sun across it and -in their eyes. She saw the race and cheered with the rest, though, -unless she had been told every little while, she would not have known -which boat was which. Every few minutes she turned to laugh her supreme -delight into the equally radiant face of her companion, and the two were -as good friends at once as if they had known each other for years. - -Long before the sport on the water was over, however, Harold Wilbering, -her new friend, insisted that they must leave if they really wanted to -see anything of the game. She said reluctantly that she still wanted to, -so they went bounding and leaping back over the waves and hurriedly made -their laughing way toward the ball grounds. As they passed one of the -buildings, Peggy heard a strange tick-ticking sound that was someway -very interesting and compelling. She felt that it meant something, and -was vaguely troubled by its persistence. - -"What is that sound?" she found courage to ask at last. - -"Oh, the wireless," her companion answered indifferently. - -The wireless! Right down that curious looking instrument, the thing -sputtered and ticked! Oh, how queer it was to be where all the mysteries -of the great sea were everyday commonplaces, as the wireless evidently -was to the midshipmen. Perhaps some great ship was calling its distress, -or signaling. Perhaps those very little sputters were the messages of a -British war ship on its way to battle with the German cruisers! It did -not take long for Peggy to picture herself as listening at the moment to -one of the most stirring sea-messages of history--more important than -the famous, "We have met the enemy and they are ours," that she had once -learned about in school, back in her grammar days. She forgot to talk to -her young companion for fully five minutes under the stimulus of this -beautiful idea! - -When they came to the ball grounds and climbed into the bleacher seats, -which were the only kind there were, the sun pouring generously down on -them all the while, Peggy thought more of the crowd than of the game. -She looked along the rows of backs ahead of them, and envied some of the -girls for their very self-possessed, experienced appearance, and was -glad she was not others with their too fancy clothes and their excess of -furbelows, of tulle bows, and earrings and coat chains. - -Some of the Andrews girls, with Mrs. Forest and Miss Carrol, were -sitting near, and Peggy noticed that they all leaned forward to look at -her with a strangely intent expression in spite of their interest in the -game. Something was wrong? Or was it that she looked so nice? Peggy -hoped devoutly that this was the cause of their unanimous attention. - -So she went right ahead and had as good a time here watching the game as -she had just enjoyed on the water. Her face was in the sunlight most of -the time, for her hat did not shade it as most of the girls' hats did -theirs. But Peggy had never minded sunlight and she didn't see why she -should begin now, so she leaned out confidently while the hot blaze came -full on cheek and nose. The dazzle from the water had already had the -best of it, however, and her face was really beyond a much deeper dye of -red than it had already assumed. - -She discovered this later, when the girls, after a light supper, were -all in their rooms at the Inn, excitedly pulling out their pretty -dresses for the evening and wiping their faces with all manner of soft -creams and lotions after they had scrubbed them to a healthy glow. Poor -Peggy gave one look in the glass and sank helplessly down on the bed and -buried her small burned face in the pillow. - -"It's no use, it's no use," she sighed. "Katherine and Florence, did you -ever hear of such a tragedy? And my dress is pink! Oh, dear, oh, me, oh, -my!" - -But the drifting pictures of the afternoon's happiness were going -through her mind, and she was sure nobody would like her when there were -so many girls who had remembered that they would need their complexions -for the evening! Still, here she was, and she had wanted to come at any -cost, and it was probably going to be one of the spectacles of her young -life. She would go and have as good a time as she could, and not mind -too much that she was a different kind of spectacle all by herself, a -sort of little geranium-face in the midst of lilies. - -She bathed her face and applied a bit of every kind of lotion, for each -of her friends generously thrust theirs upon her in a well-meaning -endeavor to discount the too marked effect of the sun. - -"I'll be just sticky when I'm through," she sighed, complying humbly -with all their well-meant suggestions. Her face shone a triumphant -crimson through the results of all their ministrations, however, and she -realized that not even powder would do much to mitigate a color as -flamboyant as that. To make it worse, it was beginning to peel in funny -little rough wrinkles, as a sensitive skin will after such an exposure -to sun as she had given hers. So the powder just looked crumbly when it -was applied and she turned her eyes away from the mirror with a cowardly -determination not to glance that way again. But how can one do one's -hair in a brand new style and twine a tiny wreath therein without -looking, not once, but many times at one's reflection? But each time the -sight that met her disillusioned eyes was a reproach. - -She was doing her beautiful gold-tinted hair into a twist instead of -leaving it as she usually wore it in curls. Most of the Andrews girls -had done their hair after this new fashion throughout the winter and -early spring, but Peggy was younger than most of them and she had worn -hers down her back until to-night. - -"Of course," she mused aloud, "there isn't so very much use my taking -any pains with it at all, since I'm to imitate a scarecrow throughout -the evening. But then, I had decided to do my hair this way before I -knew the awful destiny that was in store for me, and I have already paid -two good dollars for the little wreath to go in it, so I guess I'd -better fight it out on this line if it takes all summer. Florence, will -you please stick a hair pin in here for me? I seem to need three hands -right now and I have only two clumsy ones. Do you think I'll do? Oh, I -know my face isn't possible, but otherwise I'm all right, am I?" - -And she burst out laughing at the idea of a girl who was all right but -her face thinking of going to a party at all and having a good time. - -"But I must remember," she told herself, "that I had a good time getting -that sunburn, and it isn't as if I hadn't already been paid by happiness -for its awfulness." - -The pink dress didn't look as pretty as it had when she had tried it on -before her mirror at Andrews, because pink never did go so very well -with that odd shade of flaming red that Peggy's face showed. There was a -bright and distinct line, too, around her neck, all red above the line -and all white below, where her collar had protected the skin. She tied a -strip of black velvet around this tell-tale mark, humming the while, for -it seemed that she might as well be cheerful over this, one of the worst -disasters that had ever happened to her. - -"They'll see this black ribbon and just think I've tied it too tight," -she explained to her friends hopefully, "and that it's choking me, -making my face so red." - -Katherine and Florence failed to see the advantage of having them think -this, but they kind-heartedly refrained from saying so, and let Peggy -take what comfort she could out of so plausible a belief. - -In her heart of hearts, perhaps, Peggy was remembering the occasion when -she had dressed so carefully for the matinée that she didn't get to the -matinée at all, and was deciding that being on hand was really more -important than making a good appearance. - -She went to the hop, her spirits as light as her dancing feet, and when -Harold Wilbering came eagerly over to her, she and he laughed at what -had happened to her face, but he discovered what Peggy had not the least -idea of for herself, that the sunburn effect was really rather becoming. -It made her so vivid and so alive. It looked merely as if she were -blushing all the time, and Harold liked it. And who could help enjoying -himself in talking to Peggy that evening, as she became more and more -forgetful of her tragedy, and more and more able to give her whole -attention to just having a good time? It was rare that so appreciative a -young lady came to one of their early hops. The boys were quite -accustomed to girls who had been to a great many more dances than they -had, and who sometimes made them feel just a little young. But Peggy so -doted on it all, was so carried away by the Marine band, so ready to -laugh at their simplest and most time-worn jokes, so wonderingly -surprised and naïvely gratified at their own open admiration of her, -that she took like wildfire, and half the academy was talking about that -little Parsons girl for a week thereafter. - -Peggy went back with the girls to their rooms, her laughter just -bubbling at her lips and her sense of satisfaction perfect. - -She took down her hair chattering all the time, and when at last the -three turned out the light and crept into bed,--for Katherine and she -and Florence shared one room, Florence sleeping on the couch and Peggy -and Katherine in the big bed, she whispered blissfully into the -darkness, "Oh, hasn't this been a most _dazzling_ day! I don't know when -I've had such a lovely, lovely time. I don't someway think it's just -little Peggy Parsons with a red face that went through all that -beautifulness, but instead I feel as if I'd been a fairy princess--the -change that Cinderella experienced and all that--and, oh, how I do hate -to wake up in the morning and realize that my coach and four has turned -into pumpkin!" - -"You looked nice in spite of your face, Peggy," said Florence. "And, -someway, everybody did seem to take an awful shine to you." - -And then Florence's talk drifted off to the partners she had had, and -what each one had looked like and what they said. And whenever she -paused for breath Katherine interrupted with the story of her adventures -and in the midst of their dialogue the fairy princess and Cinderella and -little tired red-faced Peggy Parsons, all rolled into one, went off to -sleep and dreamed the enchanted dreams of youth. - - - - -CHAPTER XIV--WATER-SPRITES - - -There is something about the first days of spring that stirs that most -primitive instinct in every human being--the desire to move on, the -nomadic impulse, the explorer sense. - -Even the girls at Andrews, with heads full of friendships, coming -examinations and summer plans, felt this world-old impulse. School was -too small. The roads and fields that they knew so well, sweet with apple -blossoms as they were, were all too tame and familiar to satisfy this -longing that had made itself apparent by the time the engrossing subject -of Annapolis was out of the way. - -The girls yawned rudely in classes, no matter what sharp words were -spoken to correct them. They even stretched their young arms out -side-ways and rested them on the next chairs. They turned wistful eyes -away from their books out toward the sunlight-sprinkled world and -wondered what was in it beyond those immediate roofs and trees that they -could see. - -Finally Peggy could stand it no longer. "Well, girls," she announced one -bright Saturday afternoon when there was no more school work to consider -for the day, "we're all going hunting for the source of something--we're -going exploring. Anybody know a nice, twisty river that we can take for -the work? One without too many crabs in it, because, of course, we may -want to wade." - -The girls were full of enthusiasm at once. Their first thought, as -usual, was what they were to take to eat. Several voted for fudge, but -Peggy scornfully reminded them that this was an unheard of diet for -explorers, and besides she expected to be ravenous by the time they'd -walked a few miles. So a more comprehensive luncheon was planned, -without the bacon this time, for they did not want to build fires, and a -small, bright, quickly-running stream was decided upon for the object of -their exploration. To reach this it was necessary that they take a -suburban car and ride quite a distance into unfamiliar country, which -was just what they had wished. Not those same old roads that they had -walked to powder, not those same old rivers on the side of which every -class had made its fires since the opening of the school, but a brand -new part of the country where foot of Andrews girl had never trod -before, to their knowledge,--this was ideal, and it added considerably -to their delight that Mrs. Forest had given permission for their class -to go without taking a teacher along. - -They all wore white shirtwaists, white skirts, white shoes, and white -linen tennis hats. They looked rather like a party of sunny angels as -they boarded their car. They realized that they made a good appearance, -but they were not prepared for the effect they had upon a certain -motherly-looking woman who watched them file in and take their seats. -She gazed at them very hard and her mouth curved into the most wistful -smile the girls had ever seen, and tears came suddenly to her eyes as -she glanced hastily away. The other people in the car breathed deep in -sympathy. But the girls could no more have understood the vivid -impression of youth and loveliness they had given than they could have -deciphered the Rosetta stone. In their hearts were only the most prosaic -thoughts of dainty little sandwiches and stuffed olives, with an -undernote of healthy happiness and rampageous good spirits. - -"What can be more beautiful than a group of young girls?" a woman was -saying to her neighbor. "Aren't they just ideal, all in white that -way--those pretty girlish dresses and those white shoes and stockings--" - -If she had known the girls' most eager thought in connection with those -white shoes and stockings was to throw them as far away as possible onto -a rock in the river they had set out to explore, and in regard to those -white dresses, their dearest wish was to fasten them up about their -knees while, with all manner of joyous shouts and yells they should go -wading below a waterfall. - -As they approached the suburban stop where they had been advised to get -off, as being near the river they were going to, they gathered up their -boxes of luncheon and crowded to the door of the car, humming very -softly one of their favorite school songs. - -And when the car stopped and let them off in a beautiful strip of -country woodland, their voices came out louder and they went swinging -along in the direction of the stream whose cool rippling music they were -so eager to hear. They had to climb several fences, but they had been -told that these woods were always open to school and college girls, for -there was a larger college nearer than Andrews, and the girls haunted -the place. There was nobody in sight to-day, however, and they scrambled -to the top of gateways and then jumped down into each other's arms, -knocking each other down and laughing and shouting until the woods -echoed with their noise. - -The stream was broad and rather shallow and was rushing along over its -little shining stones at a great rate. Now and then there was the silver -flash of minnows or the sluggish shadow of swimming tadpoles. But, look -as they would, they could not see the dreaded green-brown menace of a -crab, so their happiness was complete. - -There were smooth gleaming rocks rising high out of the water -everywhere. Once this stream had been a powerful river and it had -perhaps tumbled these rocks here and then worn them down to the -delightful shininess they showed now. Fascinatingly enough they could -walk out on them, stepping with care from one to another until they were -in the middle of the stream, and then they could pursue their way -upstream in the same exciting way for quite a distance. The girls were -in all attitudes, wildly trying to keep their balance and make this -fascinating journey at the same time, when there was a splash, a shout, -and then a dripping figure emerged between two large rocks and held up -its wet hands pitifully for help. - -Under her wet hair and through the water streaming down her face, the -girls recognized Peggy, much more slimpsy in her white dress than she -had been a minute ago. - -"First one in!" they greeted her catastrophe uproariously, and in -delighted unanimity they sat down on the rocks wherever they happened to -be and pulled off their shoes and stockings and turned up their skirts, -and then sliding gracefully down, wriggled their contented toes in the -water and shrieked as it encroached coldly on their ankles. - -In a minute more they were all in, splashing and stamping, the stones -smooth under their eager feet as they took each step. - -They went on together up the stream farther and farther, following its -twisted way until they came to a place they could not hope to -climb--where the stream made a sheer leap downwards for a distance that -was much greater than their height, and came plashing down toward them -in a thousand rainbow lights by means of a spreading waterfall. - -"I might as well stand under that," chortled Peggy, "I am as shipwrecked -as I can be already. I fell flat when I tumbled off the rock back -there." - -"OH--O-OH," she cried as she sidled up to the water and finally made her -plunge into it. Pounding down and stinging like a hundred little sharp -needles of cold, she had never felt such breathlessness nor such -elation. Over her, and shrouding her in a gleaming mist, the water came, -and the girls stood speechless watching her as she stood there like some -Indian princess observing the rites of the waterfall. - -This was the tableau she made when there came another group of shouts -and laughing voices from over the bank of the river, and there all of a -sudden looking down were a crowd of older girls, carrying luncheon boxes -too, and at the moment opening their mouths and eyes wide in -astonishment. At first the rest of the Andrews girls were so far back -toward the bank that the newcomers did not see them, and all their gaze -focused on Peggy and from their faces it was apparent that they scarcely -thought her real. Her arms were upstretched toward the descending water -and her face, mist-covered, was lifted. Her slim bare feet shone in the -sunlight and sparkled through the water like the feet of some very young -Diana, resting from the hunt. - -Her dress had lost its starchy lines long since and now resembled a -Greek costume as much as anything--at least it would be hard to decide -that it wasn't. - -"I _never_ in my life--" murmured one of the girls, and her voice broke -the spell and the others began to descend the steep bank, becoming aware -of the rest of Peggy's party as they did so. Peggy herself was still -oblivious. The noise of the waterfall obscured all else, and her efforts -to breathe in spite of the water that filled her eyes and nostrils and -mouth took all her attention. - -"That's the dandiest looking girl I ever saw," said the tallest of the -newcomers, heartily. "I wonder if she could be at Hampton and I not have -seen her. If she's not there she ought to be, and I'm going to try to -get her to change her college and come to us." - -"Are you Hampton girls?" Katherine came forward and asked, with the -frank and friendly directness that is permissible between girls all of -an age and all in school. "Because I'm going to Hampton next year. We -are Andrews girls now." - -She thought she noticed a stir among the Hampton people as she said -this, and their gaze traveled eagerly over the entire group from the -prep school. For these girls would be among the most important entering -Hampton next fall--the Andrews girls always coming in for a large share -of the freshman honors, carrying off the class offices and writing the -class songs and shining in all the more pleasant and social branches of -college life. Then the tall girl looked back toward Peggy. Peggy at the -same minute saw her audience and came forth, shame-facedly, like a -little drowned rat, Katherine said, while she smoothed the pasty wet -folds of her skirt and tried to shake some of the water from her curly -hair. - -"Is _she_ going?" the tall girl demanded with interest, pointing to this -dripping apparition. - -"I--don't--think she's planning to go to college at all," said Katherine -hesitatingly. "I never heard her say that she was going. I'm her -room-mate, and she's the nicest girl in all the world, and Hampton will -never know what it loses by not getting her." - -"She's just the kind we want," sighed the tall girl. "Well, glad we met -you--" Her party started off downstream, but she turned and called back -over her shoulder, "When you come up next fall come over and see -me,--I'm Ditto Armandale--in Macefield House." - -"Thanks, I'm Katharine Foster," Peggy's room-mate called after her. -"Good-bye--and I'm really coming." - -With a friendly wave the college girls disappeared around the first bend -in the little river, and Katherine turned to the perturbed Peggy, -expecting her to make some remark about the ridiculous way the others -had found her. - -But her eyes had a faraway expression in spite of their slightly worried -look, and the remark Peggy made was, "Oh, Katherine, Katherine, I wish I -were going to Hampton." - -Katherine started to speak, but could not, and turned her head hastily -away because the thought of four years without Peggy, even four years -among hundreds of attractive girls like Ditto Armandale, seemed to her -at the minute but a bleak expanse unlit by a single gleam of comfort. - -"Peggy, won't you write to your aunt and tell her you _must_ come?" she -begged suddenly. "Don't you think she'd let you if she knew that -Florence and I and most of the girls are going?" - -Peggy rubbed her moist forehead thoughtfully. "Don't think so," she -said, "but I might write and--_hint_ that I want to go." - -Their momentary depression passed, though, when they sat down to eat the -good things they had brought in their boxes. Peggy kept in the sun as -much as possible, hoping to dry off before it was time to go home. This -phase came to her more poignantly later, however, when the other girls -had put on their shoes and stockings again and were making ready to go -home. - -"But mine are all wet and they won't go on," mourned Peggy, "and my -dress is a disgrace and my hair isn't very dry yet either, and when I -put my hat on little rivulets run down my face like so many horrid young -Niagaras. Oh, there _that_ shoe is on, but I can't say there's any -special advantage in it. Just hear the water sloshing about when I walk! -It's a wonder I won't take cold out of this, but I won't--I never do -when I've had a good time. Girls, keep close to me because I'm the most -awful object that ever got on a street car and I'd much rather walk only -I wouldn't get home for two or three days, I guess, and these wet shoes -would have dissolved like paper long before that." - -They climbed the fences with less agility than they had displayed in -getting over them in the first place, and they were a tired lot of girls -when they reached the car track and threw themselves on the grass beside -it. - -"I hear a singing on the rails," sighed Peggy, "but I'm too stiff to get -up. Somebody wave to the car. Mercy, here it is already coming around -the corner. There, keep close to me, somebody on each side,--oh, what -will the people on there think of Andrews?" - -When they clambered into the car and the whole bedraggled crowd of -recent water-sprites sank into their seats, a motherly woman from across -the aisle looked up and stared at them in a kind of fascinated horror. -Her appraising glance missed nothing from their mud bordered skirts and -soppy shoes to their flying, tangled hair. - -She turned in some disgust to a woman who sat beside her. "Isn't it -terrible how hoydenish some girls are?" she asked audibly. "Now those -poor little spectacles across the aisle--somebody ought to keep watch of -them. I wish you might have seen the lovely group of girls that rode on -my car a few hours ago when I was coming out this way. Quite different -from this messy little party. They were all in white, as sweet as dolls -and so adorably radiant and clean and spiritual looking. They made me -think of angels. Dear, dear, I shall never forget the picture they made! -You would not know that those little tomboys opposite belonged to the -same species even!" - -And the motherly looking woman wondered why the tomboys all burst into a -fit of uncontrollable giggling. - - - - -CHAPTER XV--PARSONS COURT - - -"Peggy, hurry up and come to bed, the light just shines in my eyes, and -_shines_ in my eyes," complained Katherine that night from her side of -the room, "and it's so unlike you to study so late--or aren't you -studying?" - -"Nope," answered Peggy laconically, and the hint of tears in her voice -brought Katherine to a sitting posture, a wealth of surprised sympathy -in her face. "What's the matter, honey?" she asked coaxingly, "have I -unknowingly used one of your themes for scrap paper? Or has Forest been -mean again?" - -Peggy looked across at her and folded a sheet of paper as she did so. -"It isn't anything," she insisted. - -But Katherine guessed. "You are writing to your aunt!" she exclaimed. - -Slowly Peggy nodded. "I want everything," she said. "Oh, Katherine, I -don't know how it is that when a person has so much, they can just go on -wanting and wanting and not be content without it _all_. I know I've had -this lovely year with all of you and ever so many girls can't go away to -school at all, but, Katherine, I'm--I'm such a pig--I--I--want college, -too!" - -And then the tears that would not be restrained any longer coursed down -her cheeks and fell unheeded on her blue kimono, while she clasped her -hands and rocked them in self-accusation and despair. - -"I wish you were going--I don't know what it will be worth without you," -moaned Katherine, in sympathy. "But, listen, Peggy, dear, there are lots -of girls who have good times staying at home or traveling or--even doing -something that's lots of fun to earn money. Peggy, you aren't a girl who -can be unhappy long, by nature. Honestly, after you've once gotten over -this you--you won't care--" - -But Katherine's voice failed her along with her attempts at comfort. - -"I can't seem to--face it," wept Peggy. "I don't know what's the matter -with me that all of a sudden I want, want, _want_ this and nothing else -in the world has any effect to comfort me. Oh, Katherine, Katherine, -since I was a little girl I've kind of thought way back in my mind that -I'd get to go to college. And all this wonderful year has drifted away -just like perfume, or something nice like that,--I don't mean to be -poetical--and here it's gone and I haven't any plans. It's terrible to -grow up, Katherine, and to have to work out something definite for -yourself to do. I don't want to be grown up, Katherine, I want to be a -girl for four years more. I know I'm a pig, honey, and if there were -bigger things left to want I suppose I'd want them, too. And even when I -graduated from college, if I did go, I guess I'd not be content, but I'd -want to be an actress and star in something, so as to seem to be having -it all. I wish you'd been asleep instead of questioning me, because I'll -feel awfully in the morning to think I've told you all this. I--I feel -badly enough right now." - -And the goldy head went down on the folded paper and the writing on it -was soon blotted and blurred with tears. Katherine slipped out of bed -and, running over to her room-mate, threw her arms around her neck. - -"It isn't anything unusual to want everything that way, honey," she -said, "I won't have you think that it is. Everybody in the whole world -wants it all, dear. Only _all_ to some people means different things -from what it does to us. You aren't piggish, either, I've known you a -whole year and you and I have never quarreled over anything in all that -time, and that's a record for room-mates even at Andrews. And my folks -never flattered me by thinking me unselfish, so it isn't my fault things -ran so smoothly--it was your generous, happy spirit, ready to share -everything, wanting to help everybody, eager for good times, and able to -take all the other girls into them with you. Oh, Peggy, dear, it's the -most natural thing in the world to want things--and I think there's a -cog loose somewhere in the way things are run if you don't get your -wish, that's all. You are the very one that ought to have college. -Please don't cry. You look so different from my Peggy when you cry. I'm -so much more used to you laughing." - -Putting aside the friendly arms of her room-mate, Peggy wiped her eyes -and snapped out the light. With a final little gasp of a sob she crept -into bed and covered her forlorn young face with the bed clothes. She -expected that she would be awake all night, thinking heartbrokenly of -her troubles, but instead she had no more than gotten snuggled down into -the couch's warmth than she was sound asleep and not in any of her -dreams did any trouble whatsoever make its appearance. - -Katherine, on the other hand, lay awake nearly ten minutes and told -Peggy in the morning, believing it was true, of course, that she had not -slept one wink. - -In due time a letter came to Peggy from her aunt in answer to the one -she had written with so many tears that night. - - "Dear Peggy, Your letter made me think matters over very - carefully, little girl, and I have gone over our resources with - the disheartening result that I must tell you I do not see how I - am to let you go to college this year. Now, Peggy, you are young - and even after several years outside of school, it will not be - too late for you to go to college if financial affairs turn out - better. But just at this time, when everything is so uncertain, - and prices are so high and so few stocks are paying dividends, I - do not see how I can possibly spare enough for you to go to - Hampton. There are a great many nice girls here, Peggy, about - your age, who are not going to school any more, and never even - thought of such a thing. I'm sure you can make quite a little - social set with them, and I shall take you around to call on all - of my friends, and finally give you a small coming out party, - for every well-bred girl ought to care for society and desire to - please by what she has already learned. I think that after a - year of what quiet but agreeable society life you can have here - at home, you will not want to go to college. And to tell the - truth, Peggy, I have never thought much of college for girls. It - seems to me woman's place is in the home and in her own little - social sphere. I know this letter will be a disappointment to - you, but you are a sweet, brave girl, if a bit inclined to be - rompish, and I'm sure you'll agree with me in time when you've - had a chance to think things over. Regretting that I cannot let - you have your wish, though, whether I approve or not, I am, - - Very lovingly yours, - - ---- _Aunt Mattie_." - -Peggy's mouth twitched into her characteristic smile, dimple and all, -and she gazed somewhat ruefully back over the closely written sheet. - -"Fancy me a society lady," she said to herself. "Oh, I never imagined -even in my wildest dreams that I should get to be that--nor ever wanted -it, either, if I tell the truth. I love parties and I adore people and -hope always to have lots of them around me, men and women and children -and everybody. But just to make a sort of career out of visiting and -dancing--oh, I want college." - -All the indefinite longing that the spring brings with it took the shape -in Peggy's mind of this one paramount desire. If she could go to college -she would be happy. If she could not, she must be miserable. Ashamed of -herself for her attitude she might be, but crush the wish she could not. -Katherine had had her application in at Hampton for three years now and -had so been assigned a room on campus with another girl named Gloria -Hazeltine. Peggy felt that already she was dropping out of her -room-mate's life. The other girls were all planning their next year, at -table, outside the class-rooms, on their way to Vespers on Sundays. But -she had nothing to plan. And the idea began to form in her mind that if -she had some definite idea it would be better--even if the idea involved -something hard and unheard of like earning her own living. At least -there would be excitement in the contemplation of actually doing it. - -So one day when all the rest were talking Hampton, Hampton, and nothing -but Hampton, and when Daphne Damon turned abruptly to Peggy and said: -"Peg, infant, what are you going to do next year?" she answered quickly, -"Clerk in a store, I think." And their expressions were mingled -astonishment and--yes, she caught it, envy. - -"My goodness, Peggy, wouldn't that be lovely," gasped Florence Thomas. -"Who would ever think of anything so daring but you? You'll certainly -have more to write about in your letters than we will, but will you -promise to keep up a correspondence with us, nevertheless, so we can -hear how the famous experiment is going?" - -Peggy only laughed. - -A while later, in their room, Katherine excitedly handed Peggy a letter -she had just been reading. - -"From your substitute, Peggy," she said, "or, in other words, my -room-mate-to-be. The registrar gave her my address, just as she had -given me hers, and she was sweet enough to write me a -let's-get-acquainted letter. I never thought of doing it. She has a nice -name, hasn't she--Gloria Hazeltine." - -Mechanically Peggy took the note and read it slowly: - -"My dear Miss Foster Who is to be My Room-mate": it began, "Or hadn't I -better begin right away by saying Katherine, and then we won't feel so -strange when we talk to each other really for the first time--" - -Peggy looked wistfully up from the letter to her room-mate's glowing -face. - -"I won't tell you any of my faults," she read on, "because you'll have a -year to find those out, and I think for those things, a year is long -enough. The main purpose of this letter is to so mislead you that you -will think I haven't any faults and then, when you finally see me, it -will take such a long time for readjustment that, before you've really -found me out, I shall have made you like me a little for good and keeps. -I've never had a room-mate myself, and I hope you haven't, so that it -will be equally new to both of us to have to consider someone else's -taste and wishes at every turn. What color do you like best? I am -beginning to plan my things, and we might as well get together on a -color scheme so that our couch covers won't be too jarringly different, -and my flamboyant cushions won't be shamed by some mouse-like ones of -yours, and vice-versa. - -"I am looking forward to rooming with you because I have you all planned -out in my mind. I sit and think slowly 'Katherine Foster' just like -that, and then _you_ rise before me. Only perhaps it isn't you at all. -But I promise not to be disappointed in you whatever you are like, and -won't you write back and make me the same promise? - -"Good-bye, from your much excited Next-Year's Room-mate, - -"_Gloria Hazeltine_." - -Peggy dropped the letter back on the desk and sat down on her couch, her -hands clasped over her knees disconsolately, and her eyes unhappily -looking into the future. Finally she rose with a mighty sigh and, -turning her back on her room-mate, she began to dress for the afternoon -with infinite care. - -"Where are you going, Peggy?" Katherine asked, "and may I come along?" - -"You could," said Peggy after a reluctant pause, "if you wanted to and -if I didn't have a date all arranged with somebody who told me to come -just by myself." - -She realized that her reply sounded ungracious, but the letter from -Katherine's next year's room-mate was vivid in her mind, and she felt -that after all she wasn't going to be missed. It meant so much to her -not to go to college and yet nothing to anyone else. It is human nature -to want to be missed, and Peggy couldn't help her twinge of -disappointment in the fact that her absence was going to mean so little. - -Mr. Huntington had asked her to spend the afternoon in a walk with him, -as he had said he wanted to get her opinion on something he was -planning, and as he often did nice things for the townspeople now, Peggy -felt sure this was another such venture and that he merely wanted the -shining-eyed approval she was always certain to give. - -He had said, "Nobody but you, this time, Peggy," and yet, when she went -down to the gate to meet him, there stood his grandson also, smiling as -broadly as the old man, and both of them seemed to be in some delightful -secret that she didn't know about at all. Mr. Huntington directed their -walk toward a new part of town that was just being built up. - -"It's not generally known that I own all this," he told Peggy, "but I -do, and it's I who am building it up. Now look down this tiny -street--look hard and tell me what you think of it!" - -"Oh!" cried Peggy, staring down the dear little new street with great -interest,--great enough to make her forget the thing she couldn't have, -for the moment--for there was a double row of adorable little bungalows, -just newly painted, as neat and trim and attractive as any houses ever -were in the world, and the street itself seemed to be just a miniature -affair, with only six houses on each side and then ending in a vine -covered wall. "Oh, it's darling!" cried the irrepressible Peggy, "I just -love it! Who could have imagined any such dear, doll-like little street, -with twelve such lovely bungalows on it! This street ought to have a -wonderful name, Mr. Huntington--don't you think so, Jim? Please, please, -Mr. Huntington, if it's not already named, let Jim and me pick out what -to call it. I just know that we could find a name that would satisfy -everybody who ever took one of those cute houses to live in as long as -they stand." - -She looked up into the old man's face, the sunlight streaming down into -hers, and she clasped her hands in her eagerness, and it was hard to see -how he could have had the heart to refuse her. But he did. - -"The name is chosen already," he said with a kind of chuckle. And Jim -only grinned at the sight of Peggy's helplessly falling hands, and her -evident disappointment. - -"We--ell," she sighed, "so many things to stand to-day--what is it? I -know it isn't as nice as I had in mind, is it, Jim?" - -"Nicer," said that traitor Jim. - -"Well, what, then?" - -"Parsons Court," said the old man, smiling down on her curiously, and -then laughing toward his grandson who laughed back appreciatively. - -"Parsons--?" her breath came in a little astonished gasp. - -"That's it," Mr. Huntington repeated, "and do you know why?" - -But Peggy must have been a daring young guesser indeed had she been able -to guess correctly why, as the old man's next remark showed. - -"It's _yours!_" he told her, pressing a legal looking paper into her -hand, "the whole street was built and planned and named for you, and you -shall have the rent of these little houses, or you can sell them when -you wish. I thought if you just rented them, while you are in college, -they'd bring you in a larger income than most of the girls know how to -spend." - -Peggy threw herself right down on the ground and began sobbing. It was -too wonderful--it was simply the wildest magic! Oh, how beautiful it was -to have somebody like her so well and want her to be happy! Then as -abruptly as she had cast herself down, she sprang up, and laughing and -crying at once, she seized Mr. Huntington's hand, and pumped it up and -down, and clung to it and tried to talk and could not. - -Jim turned his head away before her great joy and smiled quietly all by -himself. She was such a flyaway sort of Peggy, tears one minute and -laughter the next, and all the past and all the future were as nothing -beside the present moment. - -He was recalling all that he himself and the old man beside him owed to -this same warm-hearted girl, and he felt that the debt was not nearly -canceled by Parsons Court. - -"Oh, Jim," she was turning to him now, "a few minutes ago I was wicked -enough to be almost sorry you saved me from that storm so long ago. But -now, oh, Jim, I thank you now all over again for having saved me, so -that I can be here now and have this lovely, lovely thing happen to me. -How good people are to me! Oh, I must remember to be a regular _angel_ -to everybody I meet just to pay up for everybody's always being so -wonderful to me. Mr. Huntington, I _love_ Parsons Court, and every house -in it, and I'm so stingy I hate to rent any of them, but just want to -come and live in them all myself, one after the other. But renting them -means college, so please, Mr. Huntington, get me some tenants just as -fast as you can,--and I never was so happy in my life, or didn't ever -expect to be!" - -The old man's face glowed with pleasure, and it was easy to see that he -was as happy as Peggy. - -If anyone ever walked on clouds that person was Peggy as she and her two -friends made their way back toward Andrews. How brightly the sun shone! -She knew it had never looked like that before. How beautiful everybody -was--how everybody's face was beaming as she passed, school children, -old women, the men on the delivery wagons--all, all lit for her by a -subtle glory that was spreading and spreading over the whole world. Her -friends just laughed at her raptures, but it was an understanding laugh, -and Peggy liked them for it. Was there anything at this minute, or -anybody, that she _didn't_ like? Her heart was so full of happiness that -she wished she might share it and _share_ it until it was a little less -full, so that it wouldn't bubble over so uncontrollably. - -She was only able to look up into Mr. Huntington's face and smile for -good-bye when they reached the Andrews gateway, and her glance then -swept on to Jim, while the sunlight just poured itself down over the -little group as they stood there together. - -Then she turned and ran into the house as fast as she could go, running -up the stairs to Katherine in the unladylike fashion of two at a time, -and if it were possible to slide up banisters as well as down them Peggy -would have slid up in order to get there quicker. - -"Katherine! Katherine!" she cried, bursting in at the door, "I'm going, -I'm going--it's all magic, but it's true and I'm going to Hampton!" - -Katherine threw aside her schoolbooks and plunged across the room into -her room-mate's arms. "Oh, I'm so glad--Peggy!" she exclaimed joyfully. - -And the two girls sat down and planned for another year together as -happy as this one at Andrews had been, and all the time through Peggy's -mind went rhythmically the refrain of "College, College, College." - -Peggy's first year at Hampton will be told about in "Peggy Parsons, a -Hampton Freshman." - - - END - - - ---- - - - BOY SCOUT SERIES - - - - By - G. HARVEY RALPHSON - - - -Just the type of books that delight and fascinate the wide awake boys of -to-day. Clean, wholesome and interesting; full of mystery and adventure. -Each title is complete and unabridged. Printed on a good quality of -paper from large, clear type and bound in cloth. Each book is wrapped in -a special multi-colored jacket. - - 1. Boy Scouts in Mexico; or, On Guard with Uncle Sam - 2. Boy Scouts in the Canal Zone; or, the Plot against Uncle Sam - 3. Boy Scouts in the Philippines; or, the Key to the Treaty Box - 4. Boy Scouts in the Northwest; or, Fighting Forest Fires - 5. Boy Scouts in a Motor Boat; or Adventures on Columbia River - 6. Boy Scouts in an Airship; or, the Warning from the Sky - 7. Boy Scouts in a Submarine; or, Searching an Ocean Floor - 8. Boy Scouts on Motorcycles; or, With the Flying Squadron - 9. Boy Scouts beyond the Arctic Circle; or, the Lost Expedition - 10. Boy Scout Camera Club; or, the Confessions of a Photograph - 11. Boy Scout Electricians; or, the Hidden Dynamo - 12. Boy Scouts in California; or, the Flag on the Cliff - 13. Boy Scouts on Hudson Bay; or, the Disappearing Fleet - 14. Boy Scouts in Death Valley; or, the City in the Sky - 15. Boy Scouts on Open Plains; or, the Roundup not Ordered - 16. Boy Scouts in Southern Waters; or the Spanish Treasure Chest - 17. Boy Scouts in Belgium; or, Imperiled in a Trap - 18. Boy Scouts in the North Sea; or, the Mystery of a Sub - 19. Boy Scouts Mysterious Signal or Perils of the Black Bear - Patrol - 20. Boy Scouts with the Cossacks; or, a Guilty Secret - - -_For Sale by all Book-sellers, or sent postpaid on receipt of 60 cents_ - - - - M. A. DONOHUE & COMPANY - 701-733 S. DEARBORN STREET :: CHICAGO - - - - ---- - - - GIRLS PRIZE LIBRARY - - -A desirable assortment of girls books. Printed on a good quality of -paper from large, clear type. Beautifully bound in cloth. Each book is -wrapped in a multi-colored jacket. - - 1. Daddy's Girl -- _Meade_ - 2. Ethel Hollister's First Summer as a Campfire Girl -- _Benson_ - 3. Ethel Hollister's Second Summer as a Campfire Girl -- - _Benson_ - 4. Faith Gartney's Girlhood -- _Whitney_ - 5. Four Little Mischiefs -- _Mulholland_ - 6. Girls and I -- _Molesworth_ - 7. Girls of Silver Spur Ranch -- _Cooke-McQueen_ - 8. Modern Cinderella -- _Douglas_ - 9. Peggy Parsons Hampton Freshman -- _Sharp_ - 10. Peggy Parsons at Prep School -- _Sharp_ - 11. Polly -- _Meade_ - 12. World of Girls -- _Meade_ - - -_For sale by all book-sellers, or sent postpaid on receipt of 40 cents._ - - - - M. A. DONOHUE & COMPANY - 701-733 S. DEARBORN STREET :: CHICAGO - - - - ---- - - - Your Fortune Told Under Your Lucky Star - - - - A GREAT BOOK--WORTH MONEY TO YOU - - - - _Beautifully bound in Cloth_ - - -Explaining characteristics, tendencies, possibilities, choice of -partners and employees, suggestions on marriage and government of -children, by Charlotte Abell Walker, the world's greatest horoscopist. -You might pay a seer twenty-five to one hundred dollars and not benefit -yourself as much as you could by owning this book. Your money back if -you are not more than satisfied. Sent to any address upon receipt of -$1.50. - - - Ten Thousand Dreams Interpreted; - or, "What's in a Dream" - - - - - A WONDERFUL BOOK YOU NEED - - -Six hundred and seventeen pages of alphabetically arranged dreams, -showing their significance and meaning. "Most complete and most easily -understood."--_Brooklyn Daily Eagle._ "The choicest and most complete -work on this subject for public use."--_Philadelphia Item._ Money back -if you are not more than satisfied with this book, sent to your address -upon receipt of $1.50. - - - M. A. DONOHUE & COMPANY - 701-733 S. DEARBORN STREET :: CHICAGO - - - - - - - -*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK PEGGY PARSONS AT PREP SCHOOL *** - - - - -A Word from Project Gutenberg - - -We will update this book if we find any errors. - -This book can be found under: http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/35730 - -Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no one -owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation (and -you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without permission -and without paying copyright royalties. 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