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diff --git a/5141.txt b/5141.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..dbeb5da --- /dev/null +++ b/5141.txt @@ -0,0 +1,6417 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of What Katy Did At School, by Susan Coolidge +#2 in our series by Susan Coolidge + +Copyright laws are changing all over the world. Be sure to check the +copyright laws for your country before downloading or redistributing +this or any other Project Gutenberg eBook. + +This header should be the first thing seen when viewing this Project +Gutenberg file. Please do not remove it. Do not change or edit the +header without written permission. + +Please read the "legal small print," and other information about the +eBook and Project Gutenberg at the bottom of this file. Included is +important information about your specific rights and restrictions in +how the file may be used. You can also find out about how to make a +donation to Project Gutenberg, and how to get involved. + + +**Welcome To The World of Free Plain Vanilla Electronic Texts** + +**eBooks Readable By Both Humans and By Computers, Since 1971** + +*****These eBooks Were Prepared By Thousands of Volunteers!***** + + +Title: What Katy Did At School + +Author: Susan Coolidge + +Release Date: February, 2004 [EBook #5141] +[Yes, we are more than one year ahead of schedule] +[This file was first posted on May 13, 2002] + +Edition: 10 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK WHAT KATY DID AT SCHOOL *** + + + + +This E-text was created by Doug Levy, _littera scripta manet_ + + + + + + + + +WHAT KATY DID AT SCHOOL + +by SUSAN COOLIDGE + + +CONTENTS. + + I. CONIC SECTION. + + II. A NEW YEAR AND A NEW PLAN. + + III. ON THE WAY. + + IV. THE NUNNERY. + + V. ROSES AND THORNS. + + VI. THE S. S. U. C. + + VII. INJUSTICE. + + VIII. CHANGES. + + IX. THE AUTUMN VACATION. + + X. A BUDGET OF LETTERS. + + XI. CHRISTMAS BOXES. + + XII. WAITING FOR SPRING. + + XIII. PARADISE REGAINED. + + + + +WHAT + KATY + DID + AT + SCHOOL. + + +CHAPTER I. CONIC SECTION. + +It was just after that happy visit of which I told at the end of "What +Katy Did," that Elsie and John made their famous excursion to Conic +Section; an excursion which neither of them ever forgot, and about +which the family teased them for a long time afterward. + +The summer had been cool; but, as often happens after cool summers, +the autumn proved unusually hot. It seemed as if the months had been +playing a game, and had "changed places" all round; and as if September +were determined to show that he knew how to make himself just as +disagreeable as August, if only he chose to do so. All the last half +of Cousin Helen's stay, the weather was excessively sultry. She felt +it very much, though the children did all they could to make her +comfortable, with shaded rooms, and iced water, and fans. Every +evening the boys would wheel her sofa out on the porch, in hopes of +coolness; but it was of no use: the evenings were as warm as the days, +and the yellow dust hanging in the air made the sunshine look thick +and hot. A few bright leaves appeared on the trees, but they were +wrinkled, and of an ugly color. Clover said she thought they had been +_boiled_ red like lobsters. Altogether, the month was a trying one, +and the coming of October made little difference: still the dust +continued, and the heat; and the wind, when it blew, had no refreshment +in it, but seemed to have passed over some great furnace which had +burned out of it all life and flavor. + +In spite of this, however it was wonderful to see how Katy gained and +improved. Every day added to her powers. First she came down to +dinner, then to breakfast. She sat on the porch in the afternoons; +she poured the tea. It was like a miracle to the others, in the +beginning, to watch her going about the house; but they got used +to it surprisingly soon,--one does to pleasant things. One person, +however, never got used to it, never took it as a matter of course; +and that was Katy herself. She could not run downstairs, or out into +the garden; she could not open the kitchen door to give an order, +without a sense of gladness and exultation which was beyond words. +The wider and more active life stimulated her in every way. Her +cheeks grew round and pink, her eyes bright. Cousin Helen and papa +watched this change with indescribable pleasure; and Mrs. Worrett, +who dropped in to lunch one day, fairly screamed with surprise at +the sight of it. + +"To think of it!" she cried, "why, the last time I was here you looked +as if you had took root in that chair of yours for the rest of your +days, and here you are stepping around as lively as I be. Well, well! +wonders will never cease. It does my eyes good to see you, Katherine. +I wish your poor aunt were here to-day; that I do. How pleased she'd +be?" + +It is doubtful whether Aunt Izzie would have been so pleased, for the +lived-in look of the best parlor would have horrified her extremely; +but Katy did not recollect that just then. She was touched at the +genuine kindness of Mrs. Worrett's voice, and took very willingly +her offered kiss. Clover brought lemonade and grapes, and they all +devoted themselves to making the poor lady comfortable. Just before +she went away she said, + +"How is it that I can't never get any of you to come out to the Conic +Section? I'm sure I've asked you often enough. There's Elsie, now, +and John, they're just the age to enjoy being in the country. Why +won't you send 'em out for a week? Johnnie can feed chickens, and +chase 'em, too, if she likes," she added, as Johnnie dashed just then +into view, pursuing one of Phil's bantams round the house. "Tell her +so, won't you, Katherine? There is lots of chickens on the farm. She +can chase 'em from morning to night, if she's a mind to." + +Katy thanked her, but she didn't think the children would care to go. +She gave Johnnie the message, and then the whole matter passed out of +her mind. The family were in low spirits that morning because of +Cousin Helen's having just gone away; and Elsie was lying on the sofa +fanning herself with a great palm-leaf fan. + +"Oh, dear!" she sighed. "Do you suppose it's every going to be cool +again? It does seem as if I couldn't bear it any longer." + +"Aren't you well, darling?" inquired Katy, anxiously. + +"Oh, yes! well enough," replied Elsie. "It's only this horrid heat, +and never going away to where it's cooler. I keep thinking about the +country, and wishing I were there feeling the wind blow. I wonder +if papa wouldn't let John and me go to Conic Section, and see Mrs. +Worrett. Do you think he would, if you asked him?" + +"But," said Katy, amazed, "Conic Section isn't exactly country, you +know. It is just out of the city,--only six miles from here. And +Mrs. Worrett's house is close to the road, papa said. Do you think +you'd like it, dear? It _can't_ be very much cooler than this." + +"Oh, yes! it can," rejoined Elsie, in a tone which was a little fretful. +"It's _always_ cooler on a farm. There's more room for the wind, and-- +oh, every thing's pleasanter! You can't think how tired I am of this +hot house. Last night I hardly slept at all; and, when I did, I +dreamed that I was a loaf of brown bread, and Debby was putting me +into the oven to bake. It was a horrid dream. I was so glad to wake +up. Won't you ask papa if we may go, Katy?" + +"Why, of course I will, if you wish it so much. Only"--Katy stopped +and did not finish her sentence. A vision of fat Mrs. Worrett had +risen before her, and she could not help doubting if Elsie would find +the farm as pleasant as she expected. But sometimes the truest +kindness is in giving people their own unwise way, and Elsie's eyes +looked so wistful that Katy had no heart to argue or refuse. + +Dr. Carr looked doubtful when the plan was proposed to him. + +"It's too hot," he said. "I don't believe the girls will like it." + +"Oh, yes! we will, papa; indeed we will," pleaded Elsie and John, who +had lingered near the door to learn the fate of their request. + +Dr. Carr smiled at the imploring faces, but he looked a little +quizzical. "Very well," he said, "you may go. Mr. Worrett is coming +into town to-morrow, on some bank business. I'll send word by him; +and in the afternoon, when it is cooler, Alexander can drive you out." + +"Goody! Goody!" cried John, jumping up and down, while Elsie put her +arms round papa's neck and gave him a hug. + +"And Thursday I'll send for you," he continued. + +"But, papa," expostulated Elsie, "That's only two days. Mrs. Worrett +said a week." + +"Yes, she said a week," chimed in John; "and she's got ever so many +chickens, and I'm to feed 'em, and chase 'em as much as I like. Only +it's too hot to run much," she added reflectively. + +"You won't really send for us on Thursday, will you, papa?" urged +Elsie, anxiously. "I'd like to stay ever and ever so long; but Mrs. +Worrett said a week." + +"I shall send on Thursday," repeated Dr. Carr, in a decided tone. +Then, seeing that Elsie's lip was trembling, and her eyes were full +of tears, he continued: "Don't look so woeful, Pussy. Alexander shall +drive out for you; but if you want to stay longer, you may send him +back with a note to say what day you would like to have him come +again. Will that do?" + +"Oh, yes!" said Elsie, wiping her eyes; "that will do beautifully, +papa. Only, it seems such a pity that Alexander should have to go +twice when it's so hot; for we're perfectly sure to want to stay +a week." + +Papa only laughed, as he kissed her. All being settled the children +began to get ready. It was quite an excitement packing the bags, and +deciding what to take and what not to take. Elsie grew bright and gay +with the bustle. Just to think of being in the country,--the cool +green country,--made her perfectly happy, she declared. The truth +was, she was a little feverish and not quite well, and didn't know +exactly how she felt or what she wanted. + +The drive out was pleasant, except that Alexander upset John's gravity, +and hurt Elsie's dignity very much, by inquiring, as they left the +gate, "Do the little misses know where it is that they want to go?" +Part of the way the road ran through woods. They were rather boggy +woods; but the dense shade kept off the sun, and there was a spicy +smell of evergreens and sweet fern. Elsie felt that the good time +had fairly begun and her spirits rose with every turn of the wheels. + +By and by they left the woods, and came out again into the sunshine. +The road was dusty, and so were the fields, and the ragged sheaves +of corn-stalks, which dotted them here and there, looked dusty too. +Piles of dusty red apples lay on the grass, under the orchard trees. +Some cows going down a lane toward their milking shed, mooed in a +dispirited and thirsty way, which made the children feel thirsty also. + +"I want a drink of water awfully," said John. "Do you suppose it's +much farther? How long will it be before we get to Mrs. Worrett's, +Alexander?" + +"'Most there, miss," replied Alexander, laconically. + +Elsie put her head out of the carriage, and looked eagerly round. +Where was the delightful farm? She saw a big, pumpkin-colored house +by the roadside, a little farther on; but surely that couldn't be +it. Yes: Alexander drew up at the gate, and jumped down to lift. +them out. It really was! The surprise quite took away her breath. + +She looked about. There were the woods, to be sure, but half a mile +away across the fields. Near the house, there were no trees at all; +only some lilac bushes at one side; there was no green grass either. +A gravel path took up the whole of the narrow front yard; and, what +with the blazing color of the paint and the wide-awake look of the +blindless windows, the house had somehow the air of standing on +tip-toe and staring hard at something,--the dust in the road, +perhaps; for there seemed to be nothing to stare at. + +Elsie's heart sank indescribably, as she and John got very slowly out +of the carryall, and Alexander, putting his arm over the fence, rapped +loudly at the front door. It was some minutes before the rap was +answered. Then a heavy step was heard creaking through the hall, and +somebody began fumbling at an obstinate bolt, which would not move. +Next, a voice which they recognized as Mrs. Worrett's called: +"Isaphiny, Isaphiny, come and see if you can open this door." + +"How funny!" whispered Johnnie, beginning to giggle. + +"Isaphiny" seemed to be upstairs; for presently they heard her running +down, after which a fresh rattle began at the obstinate bolt. But still +the door did not open, and at length Mrs. Worrett put her lips to the +keyhole, and asked,-- + +"Who is it?" + +The voice sounded so hollow and ghostly, that Elsie jumped, as she +answered: "It's I, Mrs. Worrett,--Elsie Carr. And Johnnie's here, +too." + +"Ts, ts, ts!" sounded from within, and then came a whispering; after +which Mrs. Worrett put her mouth again to the keyhole, and called out: +"Go round to the back, children. I can't make this door open anyway. +It's swelled up with the damp." + +"Damp!" whispered Johnnie; "why, it hasn't rained since the third week +in August; papa said so yesterday." + +"That's nothing, Miss Johnnie," put in Alexander, overhearing her. +"Folks hereaway don't open their front doors much,--only for weddings +and funerals and such like. Very likely this has stood shut these +five years. I know the last time I drove Miss Carr out, before she +died, it was just so; and she had to go round to the back, as you're +a-doing now." + +John's eyes grew wide with wonder; but there was no time to say any +thing, for they had turned the corner of the house, and there was +Mrs. Worrett waiting at the kitchen door to receive them. She looked +fatter than ever, Elsie thought; but she kissed them both, and said +she was real glad to see a Carr in her house at last. + +"It was too bad," she went on, "to keep you waiting so. But the fact +is I got asleep and when you knocked, I waked up all in a daze, and +for a minute it didn't come to me who it must be. Take the bags right +upstairs, Isaphiny; and put them in the keeping-room chamber. How's +your pa, Elsie,--and Katy? Not laid up again, I hope." + +"Oh, no; she seems to get better all the time." + +"That's right," responded Mrs. Worrett, heartily. "I didn't know but +what, with hot weather, and company in the house, and all,--there's a +chicken, Johnnie," she exclaimed, suddenly interrupting herself, as +a long-legged hen ran past the door. "Want to chase it right away? +You can, if you like. Or would you rather go upstairs first?" + +"Upstairs, please," replied John, while Elsie went to the door, and +watched Alexander driving away down the dusty road. She felt as if +their last friend had deserted them. Then she and Johnnie followed +Isaphiny upstairs. Mrs. Worrett never "mounted" in hot weather she +told them. + +The spare chamber was just under the roof. It was very hot, and smelt +as if the windows had never been opened since the house was built. As +soon as they were alone, Elsie ran across the room, and threw up the +sash; but the moment she let go, it fell again with a crash which shook +the floor and made the pitcher dance and rattle in the wash-bowl. The +children were dreadfully frightened, especially when they heard Mrs. +Worrett at the foot of the stairs calling to ask what was the matter. + +"It's only the window," explained Elsie, going into the hall. "I'm so +sorry; but it won't stay open. Something's the matter with it." + +"Did you stick the nail in?" inquired Mrs. Worrett. + +"The nail? No, ma'am." + +"Why, how on earth did you expect it do stay up then? You young folks +never see what's before your eyes. Look on the window-sill, and you'll +find it. It's put there a purpose." + +Elsie returned, much discomfited. She looked, and, sure enough, there +was a big nail, and there was a hole in the side of the window-frame +in which to stick it. This time she got the window open without +accident; but a long blue paper shade caused her much embarrassment. +It hung down, and kept the air from coming in. She saw no way of +fastening it. + +"Roll it up, and put in a pin," suggested John. + +"I'm afraid of tearing the paper. Dear, what a horrid thing it is!" +Replied Elsie in a disgusted tone. + +However, she stuck in a couple of pins and fastened the shade out of +the way. After that, they looked about the room. It was plainly +furnished, but very nice and neat. The bureau was covered with a +white towel, on which stood a pincushion, with "Remember Ruth" stuck +upon it in pins. John admired this very much, and felt that she could +never make up her mind to spoil the pattern by taking out a pin, +however great her need of one might be. + +"What a high bed!" she exclaimed. "Elsie, you'll have to climb on a +chair to get into it; and so shall I." + +Elsie felt of it. "Feathers!" she cried a tone of horror. "O John! +why did we come? What shall we do?" + +"I guess we shan't mind it much," replied John, who was perfectly well, +and considered these little variations on home habits rather as fun +than otherwise. But Elsie gave a groan. Two nights on a feather-bed! +How should she bear it! + +Tea was ready in the kitchen when they went downstairs. A small fire +had been lighted to boil the water. It was almost out, but the room +felt stiflingly warm, and the butter was so nearly melted that Mrs. +Worrett had to help it with a tea-spoon. Buzzing flies hovered above +the table, and gathered thick on the plate of cake. The bread was +excellent, and so were the cottage cheeses and the stewed quinces; but +Elsie could eat nothing. She was in a fever of heat. Mrs. Worrett +was distressed at this want of appetite; and so was Mr. Worrett, to +whom the children had just been introduced. He was a kindly-looking +old man, with a bald head, who came to supper in his shirt-sleeves, +and was a thin as his wife was fat. + +"I'm afraid the little girl don't like her supper, Lucinda," he said. +"You must see about getting her something different for to-morrow." + +"Oh! it isn't that. Every thing is very nice, only, I'm not hungry," +pleaded Elsie, feeling as if she should like to cry. She did cry a +little after tea, as they sat in the dusk; Mr. Worrett smoking his +pipe and slapping mosquitoes outside the door, and Mrs. Worrett +sleeping rather noisily in a big rocking-chair. But not even Johnnie +found out that she was crying; for Elsie felt that she was the +naughtiest child in the world to behave so badly when everybody was +so kind to her. She repeated this to herself many times, but it +didn't do much good. As often as the thought of home and Katy and +papa came, a wild longing to get back to them would rush over her, +and her eyes would fill again with sudden tears. + +The night was very uncomfortable. Not a breath of wind was stirring, +or none found its way to the stifling bed where the little sisters +lay. John slept pretty well, in spite of heat and mosquitoes, but +Elsie hardly closed her eyes. Once she got up and went to the window, +but the blue paper shade had become unfastened, and rattled down upon +her head with a sudden bump, which startled her very much. She could +find no pins in the dark, so she left it hanging; whereupon it rustled +and flapped through the rest of the night, and did its share toward +keeping her awake. About three o'clock she fell into a doze; and it +seemed only a minute after that before she waked up to find bright +sunshine in the room, and half a dozen roosters crowing and calling +under the windows. Her head ached violently. She longed to stay in +bed, but was afraid it would be thought impolite, so she dressed and +went down with Johnnie; but she looked so pale and ate so little +breakfast that Mrs. Worrett was quite troubled, and said she had +better not try to go out, but just lie on the lounge in the best +room, and amuse herself with a book. + +The lounge in the best room was covered with slippery purple chintz. +It was a high lounge and very narrow. There was nothing at the end +to hold the pillow in its place; so the pillow constantly tumbled off +and jerked Elsie's head suddenly backward, which was not at all +comfortable. Worse,--Elsie having dropped into a doze, she herself +tumbled to the floor, rolling from the glassy, smooth chintz as if +it had been a slope of ice. This adventure made her so nervous that +she dared not go to sleep again, though Johnnie fetched two chairs, +and placed them beside the sofa to hold her on. So she followed Mrs. +Worretts advice, and "amused herself with a book." There were not +many books in the best room. The one Elsie chose was a fat black +volume called "The Complete Works of Mrs. Hannah More." Part of it +was prose, and part was poetry. Elsie began with a chapter called +"Hints on the Formation of the Character of a Youthful Princess." +But there were a great many long words in it; so she turned to a +story named "Coelebs in Search of a Wife." It was about a young +gentleman who wanted to get married, but who didn't feel sure that +there were any young ladies nice enough for him; so he went about +making visits, first to one and then to another; and, when he had +stayed a few days at a house, he would always say, "No, she won't +do," and then he would go away. At last, he found a young lady who +seemed the very person, who visited the poor, and got up early in +the morning, and always wore white, and never forgot to wind up her +watch or do her duty; and Elsie almost thought that now the difficult +young gentleman must be satisfied, and say, "This is the very thing." +When, lo! her attention wandered a little, and the next thing she +knew she was rolling off the lounge for the second time, in company +with Mrs. Hannah More. They landed in the chairs, and Johnnie ran +and picked them both up. Altogether, lying on the best parlor sofa +was not very restful; and as the day went on, and the sun beating on +the blindless windows made the room hotter, Elsie grew continually +more and more feverish and homesick and disconsolate. + +Meanwhile Johnnie was kept in occupation by Mrs. Worrett, who had got +the idea firmly fixed in her mind, that the chief joy of a child's +life was to chase chickens. Whenever a hen fluttered past the kitchen +door, which was about once in three minutes, she would cry: "Here, +Johnnie, here's another chicken for you to chase;" and poor Johnnie +would feel obliged to dash out into the sun. Being a very polite +little girl, she did not like to say to Mrs. Worrett that running in +the heat was disagreeable: so by dinner-time she was thoroughly tired +out, and would have been cross if she had known how; but she didn't-- +Johnnie was never cross. After dinner it was even worse; for the sun +was hotter, and the chickens, who didn't mind sun, seemed to be +walking all the time. "Hurry, Johnnie, here's another," came so +constantly, that at last Elsie grew desperate, got up, and went to +the kitchen with a languid appeal: "Please, Mrs. Worrett, won't you +let Johnnie stay by me, because my head aches so hard?" After that, +Johnnie had a rest; for Mrs. Worrett was the kindest of women, and +had no idea that she was not amusing her little guest in the most +delightful manner. + +A little before six, Elsie's head felt better; and she and Johnnie +put on their hats, and went for a walk in the garden. There was not +much to see: beds of vegetables,--a few currant bushes,--that was all. +Elsie was leaning against a paling, and trying to make out why the +Worrett house had that queer tiptoe expression, when a sudden loud +grunt startled her, and something touched the top of her head. She +turned, and there was an enormous pig, standing on his hind legs, on +the other side of the paling. He was taller than Elsie, as he stood +thus, and it was his cold nose which had touched her head. Somehow, +appearing in this unexpected way, he seemed to the children like some +dreadful wild beast. They screamed with fright, and fled to the house, +from which Elsie never ventured to stir again during their visit. +John chased chickens at intervals, but it was a doubtful pleasure; +and all the time she kept a wary eye on the distant pig. + +That evening, while Mrs. Worrett slept and Mr. Worrett smoked outside +the door, Elsie felt so very miserable that she broke down altogether. +She put her head in Johnnie's lap, as they sat together in the darkest +corner of the room, and sobbed and cried, making as little noise as +she possibly could. Johnnie comforted her with soft pats and +strokings; but did not dare to say a word, for fear Mrs. Worrett +should wake up and find them out. + +When the morning came, Elsie's one thought was, would Alexander come +for them in the afternoon? All day she watched the clock and the +road with feverish anxiety. Oh! if papa had changed his mind,--had +decided to let them stay for a week at Conic Section,--what should +she do? It was just possible to worry through and keep alive till +afternoon, she thought; but if they were forced to spend another +night in that feather-bed, with those mosquitoes, hearing the blue +shad rattle and quiver hour after hour,--she should die, she was +sure she should die! + +But Elsie was not called upon to die, or even to discover how easy it +is to survive a little discomfort. About five, her anxious watch was +rewarded by the appearance of a cloud of dust, out of which presently +emerged old Whitey's ears and the top of the well-known carryall. +They stopped at the gate. There was Alexander, brisk and smiling, +very glad to see his "little misses" again, and to find them so glad +to go home. Mrs. Worrett, however, did not discover that they were +glad; no indeed! Elsie and John were much too polite for that. They +thanked the old lady, and said good-by so prettily that, after they +were gone, she told Mr. Worrett that it hadn't been a bit of trouble +having them there, and she hoped they would come again; they enjoyed +every thing so much; only it was a pity that Elsie looked so peaked. +And at that very moment Elsie was sitting on the floor of the carryall, +with her head in John's lap, crying and sobbing for joy that the visit +was over and that she was on the way home. "If only I live to get +there," she said, "I'll never, no, never, go into the country again!" +which was silly enough; but we must forgive her because she was half +sick. + +Ah, how charming home did look, with the family grouped in the shady +porch, Katy in her white wrapper, Clover with rose-buds in her belt, +and everybody ready to welcome and pet the little absentees! There +was much hugging and kissing, and much to tell of what had happened +in the two days: how a letter had come from Cousin Helen; how Daisy +White had four kittens as white as herself; how Dorry had finished +his water-wheel,--a wheel which turned in the bath-tub, and was +"really ingenious," papa said; and Phil had "swapped" one of his +bantam chicks for on of Eugene Slack's Bramapootras. It was not +till they were all seated round the tea-table that anybody demanded +an account of the visit. Elsie felt this a relief, and was just +thinking how delicious every thing was, from the sliced peaches to +the clinking ice in the milk-pitcher, when papa put the dreaded +question,-- + +"Well, Elsie, so you decided to come, after all. How was it? Why +didn't you stay your week out? You look pale, it seems to me. Have +you been enjoying yourself too much? Tell us all about it." + +Elsie looked at papa, and papa looked at Elsie. Dr. Carr's eyes +twinkled just a little, but otherwise he was perfectly grave. Elsie +began to speak, then to laugh, then to cry, and the explanation, when +it came, was given in a mingled burst of all three. + +"O papa, it was horrid! That is, Mrs. Worrett was just as kind as +could be, but so fat; and oh, such a pig! I never imagined such a +pig! And the calico on that horrid sofa was so slippery that I +rolled off five times, and once I hurt myself real badly. And we +had a feather-bed; and I was so homesick that I cried all the +evening." + +"That must have been gratifying to Mrs. Worrett," put in Dr. Carr. + +"Oh! she didn't know it, papa. She was asleep, and snoring so that +nobody could hear. And the flies!--such flies, Katy!--and the +mosquitoes, and our window wouldn't open till I put in a nail. I +am so glad to get home! I never want to go into the country again, +never, never! Oh, if Alexander hadn't come!--why, Clover, what are +you laughing for? And Dorry,--I think it's very unkind," and Elsie +ran to Katy, hid her face, and began to cry. + +"Never mind, darling, they didn't mean to be unkind. Papa, her hands +are quite hot; you must give her something." Katy's voice shook a +little; but she would not hurt Elsie's feeling by showing that she +was amused. Papa gave Elsie "something" before she went to bed,-- +a very mild dose I fancy; for doctors' little girls, as a general +rule, do not take medicine, and next day she was much better. As +the adventures of the Conic Section visit leaked out bit by bit, the +family laughed till it seemed as if they would never stop. Phil was +forever enacting the pig, standing on his triumphant hind legs, and +patting Elsie's head with his nose; and many and many a time, "It +will end like your visit to Mrs. Worrett," proved a useful check +when Elsie was in a self-willed mood and bent on some scheme which +for the moment struck her as delightful. For one of the good things +about our childish mistakes is, that each one teaches us something; +and so, blundering on, we grow wiser, till, when the time comes, we +are ready to take our places among the wonderful grown-up people who +never make mistakes. + + + + +CHAPTER II. + +A NEW YEAR AND A NEW PLAN. + + +When summer lingers on into October, it often seems as if winter, +anxious to catch a glimpse of her, hurries a little; and so people +are cheated out of their autumn. It was so that year. Almost as +soon as it ceased to be hot it began to be cold. The leaves, instead +of drifting away in soft, dying colors, like sunset clouds, turned +yellow all at once; and were whirled off the trees in a single gusty +night, leaving every thing bare and desolate. Thanksgiving came; and +before the smell of the turkey was fairly out of the house, it was +time to hang up stockings and dress the Christmas tree. They had a +tree that year in honor of Katy's being downstairs. Cecy, who had +gone away to boarding-school, came home; and it was all delightful, +except that the days flew too fast. Clover said it seemed to her +very queer that there was so much less time than usual in the world. +She couldn't imagine what had become of it: there used to be plenty. +And she was certain that Dorry must have been tinkering all the +clocks,--they struck so often. + +It was just after New Year that Dr. Carr walked in one day with a +letter in his hand, and remarked: "Mr. and Mrs. Page are coming to +stay with us." + +"Mr. and Mrs. Page," repeated Katy; "who are they, papa? Did I ever +see them?" + +"Once, when you were four years old, and Elsie a baby. Of chouse you +don't remember it." + +"But who are they, papa?" + +"Mrs. Page was your dear mother's second cousin; and at one time she +lived in your grandfather's family, and was like a sister to mamma and +Uncle Charles. It is a good many years since I have seen her. Mr. +Page is a railroad engineer. He is coming this way on business, and +they will stop for a few days with us. Your Cousin Olivia writes that +she is anxious to see all you children. Have every thing as nice as +you can, Katy." + +"Of course, I will. What day are the coming?" + +"Thursday,--no, Friday," replied Dr. Carr, consulting the letter, +"Friday evening, at half-past six. Order something substantial for +tea that night, Katy. They'll be hungry after traveling." + +Katy worked with a will for the next two days. Twenty times, at least, +she went into the blue room to make sure that nothing was forgotten; +repeating, as if it had been a lesson in geography: "Bath towels, face +towels, matches, soap, candles, cologne, extra blanket, ink." A nice +little fire was lighted in the bedroom on Friday afternoon, and a big, +beautiful one in the parlor, which looked very pleasant with the lamp +lit and Clover's geraniums and china roses in the window. The tea- +table was set with the best linen and the pink-and-white china. +Debby's muffins were very light. The crab-apple jelly came out of +its mould clear and whole, and the cold chicken looked appetizing, +with its green wreath of parsley. There was stewed potato, too, and, +of course, oysters. Everybody in Burnet had oysters for tea when +company was expected. They were counted a special treat; because +they were rather dear, and could not always be procured. Burnet +was a thousand miles from the sea, so the oysters were of the tin- +can variety. The cans gave the oysters a curious taste,--tinny, or +was it more like solder? At all events, Burnet people liked it, and +always insisted that it was a striking improvement on the flavor +which oysters have on their native shores. Every thing was as nice +as could be, when Katy stood in the dining-room to take a last look +at her arrangements; and she hoped papa would be pleased, and that +mamma's cousin would think her a good housekeeper. + +"I don't want to have on my other jacket," observed Phil, putting his +head in at the door. "Need I? This is nice." + +"Let me see," said Katy, gently turning him round. "Well, it does +pretty well; but I think I'd rather you should put on the other, if +you don't mind much. We want every thing as nice as possible, you +know; because this is papa's company, and he hardly ever has any." + +"Just one little sticky place isn't much," said Phil, rather gloomily, +wetting his finger a rubbing at a shiny place on his sleeve. "Do you +really thing I'd better? Well, then I will." + +"That's a dear,"--kissing him. "Be quick, Philly, for it's almost +time they were here. And please tell Dorry to make haste. It's +ever so long since he went upstairs." + +"Dorry's an awful prink," remarked Phil, confidentially. "He looks +in the glass, and makes faces if he can't get his parting straight. +I wouldn't care so much about my clothes for a good deal. It's like +a girl. Jim Slack says a boy who shines his hair up like that, +never'll get to be president, not if he lives a thousand years." + +"Well," said Katy, laughing: "it's something to be clean, even if you +can't be president." She was not at all alarmed by Dorry's recent +reaction in favor of personal adornment. He came down pretty soon, +very spick and span in his best suit, and asked her to fasten the +blue ribbon under his collar, which she did most obligingly; though +he was very particular as to the size of the bows and length of the +ends, and made her tie and retie more than once. She had just +arranged it to suit him when a carriage stopped. + +"There they are," she cried. "Run and open the door, Dorry." + +Dorry did so; and Katy, following, found papa ushering in a tall +gentleman, and a lady who was not tall, but whose Roman nose and +long neck, and general air of style and fashion, made her look so. +Katy bent quite over to be kissed; but for all that she felt small +and young and unformed, as the eyes of mamma's cousin looked her +over and over, and through and through, and Mrs. Page said,-- + +"Why, Philip! is it possible that this tall girl is one of yours? +Dear me! how time flies! I was thinking of the little creatures I +saw when I was here last. And this other great creature can't be +Elsie? That mite of a baby! Impossible! I cannot realize it. I +really cannot realize it in the least." + +"Won't you come to the fire, Mrs. Page?" said Katy, rather timidly. + +"Don't call me Mrs. Page, my dear. Call me Cousin Olivia." Then the +new-comer rustled into the parlor, where Johnnie and Phil were waiting +to be introduced; and again she remarked that she "couldn't realize +it." I don't know why Mrs. Page's not realizing it should have made +Katy uncomfortable; but it did. + +Supper went off well. The guests ate and praised; and Dr. Carr looked +pleased, and said: "We think Katy an excellent housekeeper for her age;" +at which Katy blushed and was delighted, till she caught Mrs. Page's +eyes fixed upon her, with a look of scrutiny and amusement, whereupon +she felt awkward and ill at ease. It was so all the evening. Mamma's +cousin was entertaining and bright, and told lively stories; but the +children felt that she was watching them, and passing judgment on +their ways. Children are very quick to suspect when older people +hold within themselves these little private courts of inquiry, and +they always resent it. + +Next morning Mrs. Page sat by while Katy washed the breakfast things, +fed the birds, and did various odd jobs about the room and house. "My +dear," she said at last, "what a solemn girl you are! I should think +from your face that you were at least five and thirty. Don't you ever +laugh or frolic, like other girls your age? Why, my Lilly, who is +four months older than you, is a perfect child still; impulsive as a +baby, bubbling over with fun from morning till night." + +"I've been shut up a good deal," said Katy, trying to defend herself; +"but I didn't know I was solemn." + +"My dear, that's the very thing I complain of: you don't know it! +You are altogether ahead of your age. It's very bad for you, in my +opinion. All this housekeeping and care, for young girls like you +and Clover, is wrong and unnatural. I don't like it; indeed I don't." + +"Oh! housekeeping doesn't hurt me a bit," protested Katy, trying to +smile. "We have lovely times; indeed we do, Cousin Olivia." + +Cousin Olivia only pursed up her mouth, and repeated: "It's wrong, my +dear. It's unnatural. It's not the thing for you. Depend upon it, +it's not the thing." + +This was unpleasant; but what was worse had Katy known it, Mrs. Page +attacked Dr. Carr upon the subject. He was quite troubled to learn +that she considered Katy grave and careworn, and unlike what girls +of her age should be. Katy caught him looking at her with a puzzled +expression. + +"What is it, dear papa? Do you want anything?" + +"No, child, nothing. What are you doing there? Mending the parlor +curtain, eh? Can't old Mary attend to that, and give you a chance +to frisk about with the other girls?" + +"Papa! As if I wanted to frisk! I declare you're as bad as Cousin +Olivia. She's always telling me that I ought to bubble over with +mirth. I don't wish to bubble. I don't know how." + +"I'm afraid you don't," said Dr. Carr, with an odd sigh, which set +Katy to wondering. What should papa sigh for? Had she done any +thing wrong? She began to rack her brains and memory as to whether +it could be this or that; or, if not, what could it be? Such needless +self-examination does no good. Katy looked more "solemn" than ever +after it. + +Altogether, Mrs. Page was not a favorite in the family. She had every +intention of being kind to her cousin's children, "so dreadfully in +want of a mother, poor things!" but she could not hide the fact that +their ways puzzled and did not please her; and the children detected +this, as children always will. She and Mr. Page were very polite. +They praised the housekeeping, and the excellent order or every +thing, and said there never were better children in the world than +John and Dorry and Phil. But, through all, Katy perceived the hidden +disapproval; and she couldn't help feeling glad when the visit ended, +and they went away. + +With their departure, matters went back to their old train, and Katy +forgot her disagreeable feelings. Papa seemed a little grave and +preoccupied; but the doctors often are when they have bad cases to +think of, and nobody noticed it particularly, or remarked that several +letters came from Mrs. Page, and nothing was heard of their contents, +except that "Cousin Olivia sent her love." So it was a shock, when +one day papa called Katy into the study to tell of a new plan. She +knew at once that it was something important when she heard his voice: +it sounded so grave. Beside, he said "My daughter," he began, "I want +to talk to you about something which I have been thinking of. How +would you and Clover like going away to school together?" + +"To school? To Mrs. Knight's?" + +"No, not to Mrs. Knight's. To a boarding-school at the East, where +Lilly Page has been for two years. Didn't you hear Cousin Olivia +speak of it when she was here?" + +"I believe I did. But, papa, you won't really?" + +"Yes, I think so," said Dr. Carr, gently. "Listen, Katy, and don't +feel so badly, my dear child. I've thought the plan over carefully; +and it seems to me a good one, though I hate to part from you. It +is pretty much as your cousin says: these home-cares, which I can't +take from you while you are at home, are making you old before your +time. Heaven knows I don't want to turn you into a silly giggling +miss; but I should like you to enjoy your youth while you have it, +and not grow middle-aged before you are twenty." + +"What is the name of the school?" asked Katy. Her voice sound a good +deal like a sob. + +"The girls call it 'The Nunnery.' It is at Hillsover, on the +Connecticut River, pretty cold, I fancy; but the air is sure to be +good and bracing. That is one thing which has inclined me to the +plan. The climate is just what you need." + +"Hillsover? Isn't there a college there too?" + +"Yes: Arrowmouth College. I believe there is always a college where +there is a boarding-school; though why, I can't for the life of me +imagine. That's neither here nor there, however. I'm not afraid +of your getting into silly scrapes, as girls sometimes do." + +"College scrapes? Why, how could I. We don't have any thing to do +with the college, do we?" said Katy, opening her candid eyes with such +a wondering stare that Dr. Carr laughed and replied: "No, my dear, not +a thing." + +"The term opens the third week in April," he went on. "You must begin +to get ready at once. Mrs. Hall has just fitted out Cecy: so she can +tell you what you will need. You'd better consult her, to-morrow." + +"But, papa," cried Katy, beginning to realize it, "what are _you_ +going to do? Elsie's a darling, but she's so very little. I don't +see how you can possibly manage. I'm sure you'll miss us, and so +will the children." + +"I rather think we shall," said Dr. Carr, with a smile, which ended +in a sigh; "but we shall do very well, Katy; never fear. Miss Finch +will see to us." + +"Miss Finch? Do you mean Mrs. Knight's sister-in-law?" + +"Yes. Her mother died in the summer; so she has no particular home +now, and is glad to come for a year and keep house for us. Mrs. +Knight says she is a good manager; and I dare say she'll fill your +place sufficiently well, as far as that goes. We can't expect her +to be _you_, you know: that would be unreasonable." And Dr. Carr +put his arm round Katy, and kissed her so fondly that she was quite +overcome and clung to him, crying,-- + +"O papa! don't make us go. I'll frisk, and be as young as I can, and +not grow middle-aged or any thing disagreeable, if only you'll let us +stay. Never mind what Cousin Olivia says; she doesn't know. Cousin +Helen wouldn't say so, I'm sure." + +"On the contrary, Helen thinks well of the plan; only she wishes the +school were nearer," said Dr. Carr. "No, Katy, don't coax. My mind +is made up. It will do you and Clover both good, and once you are +settled at Hillsover, you'll be very happy, I hope." + +When papa spoke in this decided tone, it was never any use to urge +him. Katy knew this, and ceased her pleadings. She went to find +Clover and tell her the news, and the two girls had a hearty cry +together. A sort of "clearing-up shower" it turned out to be; for +when once they had wiped their eyes, every thing looked brighter, +and they began to see a pleasant side to the plan. + +"The travelling part of it will be very nice," pronounced Clover. +"We never went so far away from home before." + +Elsie, who was still looking very woeful, burst into tears afresh at +this remark. + +"Oh, don't darling!" said Katy. "Think how pleasant it will be to +send letters, and to get them from us. I shall write to you every +Saturday. Run for the big atlas,--there's a dear, and let us see +where we are going." + +Elsie brought the atlas; and the three heads bent eagerly over it, +as Clover traced the route of the journey with her forefinger. How +exciting it looked! There was the railroad, twisting and curving over +half-a-dozen States. The black dots which followed it were towns and +villages, all of which they should see. By and by the road made a +bend, and swept northward by the side of the Connecticut River and +toward the hills. They had heard how beautiful the Connecticut +valley is. + +"Only think! we shall be close to it," remarked Clover; "and we shall +see the hills. I suppose they are very high, a great deal higher than +the hill at Bolton." + +"I hope so," laughed Dr. Carr, who came into the room just then. The +hill at Bolton was one of his favorite jokes. When mamma first came +to Burnet, she had paid a visit to some friends at Bolton, and one +day, when they were all out walking, they asked her if she felt strong +enough to go to the top of the hill. Mamma was used to hills, so she +said yes, and walked on, very glad to find that there was a hill in +that flat country, but wondering a little why they did not see it. At +last she asked where it was, and, behold, they had just reached the +top! The slope had been so gradual that she had never found out that +they were going uphill at all. Dr. Carr had told this story to the +children, but had never been able to make them see the joke very +clearly. In fact, when Clover went to Bolton, she was quite struck +with the hill: it was so much higher than the sand-bank which bordered +the lake at Burnet. + +There was a great deal to do to make the girls ready for school by +the third week in April. Mrs. Hall was very kind, and her advice was +sensible; though, except for Dr. Carr, the girls would hardly have had +furs and flannels enough for so cold a place as Hillsover. Every +thing for winter as well as for summer had to be thought of; for it +had been arranged that the girls should not come home for the autumn +vacation, but should spend it with Mrs. Page. This was the hardest +thing about the plan. Katy begged very hard for Christmas; but when +she learned that it would take three days to come and three days to +go, and that the holidays lasted less than a week, she saw it was of +no use, and gave up the idea, while Elsie tried to comfort herself by +planning a Christmas-box. The preparations kept them so busy that +there was no time for any thing else. Mrs. Hall was always wanting +them to go with her to shops, or Miss Petingill demanding that they +should try on linings, and so the days flew by. At last all was +ready. The nice half-dozens of pretty underclothes came home from +the sewing-machine woman's, and were done up by Bridget, who dropped +many a tear into the bluing water, at the thought of the young ladies +going away. Mrs. Hall, who was a good packer, put the things into +the new trunks. Everybody gave the girls presents, as if they had +been brides starting on a wedding journey. + +Papa's was a watch for each. They were not new, but the girls thought +them beautiful. Katy's had belonged to her mother. It was large and +old-fashioned, with a finely wrought case. Clover's, which had been +her grandmother's, was larger still. It had a quaint ornament on the +back,--a sort of true-love knot, done in gold of different tints. The +girls were excessively pleased with these watches. They wore them with +guard-chains of black watered ribbon, and every other minute they +looked to see what the time was. + +Elsie had been in papa's confidence, so her presents were watch cases, +embroidered on perforated paper. Johnnie gave Katy a case of pencils, +and Clover a pen-knife with a pearl handle. Dorry and Phil clubbed to +buy a box of note-paper and envelopes, which the girls were requested +to divide between them. Miss Petingill contributed a bottle of ginger +balsam, and a box of opodeldoc salve, to be used in case of possible +chilblains. Old Mary's offering was a couple of needle-books, full of +bright sharp needles. + +"I wouldn't give you scissors," she said; "but you can't cut love--or, +for the matter of that, any thing else--with a needle." + +Miss Finch, the new housekeeper, arrived a few days before they +started: so Katy had time to take her over the house and explain all +the different things she wanted done and not done, to secure papa's +comfort and the children's. Miss Finch was meek and gentle. She +seemed glad of a comfortable home. And Katy felt that she would be +kind to the boys, and not fret Debby, and drive her into marrying +Alexander and going away,--an event which Aunt Izzie had been used to +predict. Now that all was settled, she and Clover found themselves +looking forward to the change with pleasure. There was something new +and interesting about it which excited their imaginations. + +The last evening was a melancholy one. Elsie had been too much +absorbed in the preparations to realize her loss; but, when it came +to locking the trunks, her courage gave way altogether. She was in +such a state of affliction that everybody else became afflicted too; +and there is no knowing what would have happened, had not a parcel +arrived by express and distracted their attention. The parcel was +from Cousin Helen, whose things, like herself, had a knack of coming +at the moment when most wanted. It contained two pretty silk +umbrellas--one brown, and one dark-green, with Katy's initials on +one handle and Clover's on the other. Opening these treasures, +and exclaiming over them, helped the family through the evening +wonderfully; and next morning there was such a bustle of getting +off that nobody had time to cry. + +After the last kisses had been given, and Philly, who had climbed on +the horse-block, was clamoring for "one more,--just one more," Dr. +Carr, looking at the sober faces, was struck by a bright idea, and, +calling Alexander, told him to hurry old Whitey into the carryall, +and drive the children down to Willett's Point, that they might wave +there handkerchiefs to the boat as she went by. This suggestion +worked like a charm on the spirits of the party. Phil began to caper, +and Elsie and John ran in to get their hats. Half an hour later, when +the boat rounded the point, there stood the little crew, radiant with +smiles, fluttering the handkerchiefs and kissing their hands as +cheerfully as possible. It was a pleasant last look to the two +who stood beside papa on the deck; and, as they waved back their +greetings to the little ones, and then looked forward across the +blue water to the unknown places they were going to see, Katy and +Clover felt that the new life opened well, and promised to be very +interesting indeed. + + + + +CHAPTER III. ON THE WAY. + + +The journey from Burnet to Hillsover was a very long one. It took the +greater part of three days, and as Dr. Carr was in a hurry to get back +to his patients, they travelled without stopping; spending the first +night on the boat, and the second on a railroad train. Papa found +this tiresome; but the girls, to whom every thing was new, thought it +delightful. They enjoyed their state-room, with its narrow shelves of +beds, as much as if it had been a baby house, and they two children +playing in it. To tuck themselves away for the night in a car-section +seemed the greatest fun in the world. When older people fretted, they +laughed. Every thing was interesting, from the telegraph poles by the +wayside to the faces of their fellow-passengers. It amused them to +watch people, and make up stories about them,--where they were going, +and what relation they could be to each other. The strange people, +in their turn, cast curious glances toward the bright, happy-faced +sisters; but Katy and Clover did not mind that, or, in fact, notice +it. They were too much absorbed to think of themselves, or the +impression they were making on others. + +It was early on the third morning that the train, puffing and shrieking, +ran into the Springfield depot. Other trains stood waiting; and there +was such a chorus of snorts and whistles, and such clouds of smoke, +that Katy was half frightened. Papa, who was half asleep, jumped up, +and told the girls to collect their bags and books; for they were to +breakfast here, and to meet Lilly Page, who was going on to Hillsover +with them. + +"Do you suppose she is here already?" asked Katy, tucking the railway +guide into the shawl-strap, and closing her bag with a snap. + +"Yes: we shall meet her at the Massasoit. She and her father were to +pass the night there." + +The Massasoit was close at hand, and in less then five minutes the +girls and papa were seated at a table in its pleasant dining-room. +They were ordering their breakfast, when Mr. Page came in, accompanied +by his daughter,--a pretty girl, with light hair, delicate, rather +sharp features, and her mother's stylish ease of manner. Her +travelling dress was simple, but had the finish which a French +dressmaker knows how to give to a simple thing; and all its +appointments--boots, hat, gloves, collar, neck ribbon--were so +perfect, each in its way, that Clover, glancing down at her own +gray alpaca, and then at Katy's, felt suddenly countrified and +shabby. + +"Well, Lilly, here they are: here are your cousins," said Mr. Page, +giving the girls a cordial greeting. Lilly only said, "How do you +do?" Clover saw her glancing at the gray alpacas, and was conscious +of a sudden flush. But perhaps Lilly looked at something inside +the alpaca; for after a minute her manner changed, and became more +friendly. + +"Did you order waffles?" she asked. + +"Waffles? no, I think not," replied Katy. + +"Oh! why not? Don't you know how celebrated they are for waffles at +this hotel? I thought everybody knew _that_." Then she tinkled her +fork against her glass, and, when the waiter came, said, "Waffles, +please," with an air which impressed Clover extremely. Lilly seemed +to her like a young lady in a story,--so elegant and self-possessed. +She wondered if all the girls at Hillsover were going to be like her? + +The waffles came, crisp and hot, with delicious maple syrup to eat on +them; and the party made a satisfactory breakfast. Lilly, in spite +of all her elegance, displayed a wonderful appetite. "You see," she +explained to Clover, "I don't expect to have another decent thing to +eat till next September,--not a thing; so I'm making the most of this." +Accordingly she disposed of nine waffles, in quick succession, before +she found time to utter any thing farther, except "Butter, please," +or, "May I trouble you for the molasses?" As she swallowed the last +morsel, Dr. Carr, looking at his watch, said that it was time to start +for the train; and they set off. As they crossed the street, Katy was +surprised to see that Lilly, who had seemed quite happy only a minute +before, had begun to cry. After they reached the car, her tears +increased to sobs: she grew almost hysterical. + +"Oh! don't make me go, papa," she implored, clinging to her father's +arm. "I shall be so homesick! It will kill me; I know it will. +Please let me stay. Please let me go home with you." + +"Now, my darling," protested Mr. Page, "this is foolish; you know it +is." + +"I can't help it," blubbered Lilly. "I ca--n't help it. Oh! don't +make me go. Don't, papa dear. I ca--n't bear it." + +Katy and Clover felt embarrassed during this scene. They had always +been used to considering tears as things to be rather ashamed of,-- +to be kept back, if possible; or, if not, shed in private corners, +in dark closets, or behind the bed in the nursery. To see the stylish +Lilly crying like a baby in the midst of a railway carriage, with +strangers looking on, quite shocked them. It did not last long, +however. The whistle sounded; the conductor shouted, "All aboard!" +and Mr. Page, giving Lilly a last kiss, disengaged her clinging arms, +put her into the seat beside Clover, and hurried out of the car. +Lilly sobbed loudly for a few seconds; then she dried her eyes, +lifted her head, adjusted her veil and the wrists of her three- +buttoned gloves, and remarked,-- + +"I always go on in this way. Ma says I am a real cry-baby; and I +suppose I am. I don't see how people can be calm and composed when +they're leaving home, do you? You'll be just as bad to-morrow, when +you come to say good-by to your papa." + +"Oh! I hope not," said Katy. "Because papa would feel so badly." + +Lilly stared. "I shall think you real cold-hearted if you don't," +she said, in an offended tone. + +Katy took no notice of the tone; and before long Lilly recovered from +her pettishness, and began to talk about the school. Katy and Clover +asked eager questions. They were eager to hear all that Lily could +tell. + +"You'll adore Mrs. Florence," she said. "All the girls do. She's the +most fascinating woman! She does just what she likes with everybody. +Why, even the students think her perfectly splendid, and yet she's +just as strict as she can be." + +"Strict with the students?" asked Clover, looking puzzled. + +"No; strict with us girls. She never lets any one call, unless it's +a brother or a first cousin; and then you have to have a letter from +you parents, asking permission. I wanted ma to write and say that +George Hickman might call on me. He isn't a first cousin exactly, +but his father married pa's sister-in-law's sister. So it's just as +good. But ma was real mean about it. She says I'm too young to have +gentlemen coming to see me! I can't think why. Ever so many girls +have them, who are younger than I." + +"Which Row are you going to room in?" she went on. + +"I don't know. Nobody told us that there were any rows." + +"Oh, yes! Shaker Row and Quaker Row and Attic Row. Attic Row is the +nicest, because it's highest up, and furthest away from Mrs. Florence. +My room is in Attic Row. Annie Silsbie and I engaged it last term. +You'll be in Quaker Row, I guess. Most of the new girls are." + +"Is that a nice row?" asked Clover, greatly interested. + +"Pretty nice. It isn't so good as Attic, but it's ever so much better +than Shaker; Because there you're close to Mrs. Florence, and can't +have a bit of fun without her hearing you. I'd try to get the end +room, if I were you. Mary Andrews and I had it once. There is a +splendid view of Berry Searles's window." + +"Berry Searles?" + +"Yes; President Searles, you know; his youngest son. He's an elegant +fellow. All the girls are cracked about him,--perfectly cracked! The +president's house is next door to the Nunnery, you know; and Berry +rooms at the very end of the back building, just opposite Quaker Row. +It used to be such fun! He'd sit at his window, and we'd sit at ours, +in silent study hour, you know; and he'd pretend to read, and all the +time keep looking over the top of his book at us, and trying to make +us laugh. Once Mary did laugh right out; and Miss Jane heard her, and +came in. But Berry is just as quick as a flash, and he ducked down +under the window-sill; so she didn't see him. It was such fun!" + +"Who's Miss Jane?" asked Katy. + +"The horridest old thing. She's Mrs. Florence's niece, and engaged +to a missionary. Mrs. Florence keeps her on purpose to spy us girls, +and report when we break the rules. Oh, those rules! Just wait till +you come to read 'em over. They're nailed up on all the doors,-- +thirty-two of them, and you can't help breaking 'em if you try ever +so much." + +"What are they? what sort of rules?" cried Katy and Clover in a breath. + +"Oh! about being punctual to prayers, and turning you mattress, and +smoothing over the under-sheet before you leave your room, and never +speaking a word in the hall, or in private study hour, and hanging +your towel on your own nail in the wash-room, and all that." + +"Wash-room? what _do_ you mean?" said Katy, aghast. + +"At the head of Quaker Row, you know. All the girls wash there, +except on Saturdays when they go to the bath-house. You have your +own bowl and soap-dish, and a hook for you towel. Why, what's the +matter? How big your eyes are!" + +"I never heard any thing so horrid!" cried Katy, when she had recovered +her breath. "Do you really mean that girls don't have wash-stands in +their own rooms?" + +"You'll get used to it. All the girls do," responded Lilly. + +"I don't want to get used to it," said Katy, resolving to appeal to +papa; but papa had gone into the smoking-car, and she had to wait. +Meantime Lilly went on talking. + +"If you have that end room in Quaker Row, you'll see all the fun that +goes on at commencement time. Mrs. Searles always has a big party, +and you can look right in, and watch the people and the supper-table, +just as if you were there. Last summer, Berry and Alpheus Seccomb got +a lot of cakes and mottoes from the table and came out into the yard, +and threw them up one by one to Rose Red and her room-mate. They +didn't have the end room, though; but the one next to it." + +"What a funny name!--Rose Red," said Clover. + +"Oh! her real name is Rosamond Redding; but the girls call her Rose +Red. She's the greatest witch in the school; not exactly pretty, you +know, but sort of killing and fascinating. She's always getting into +the most awful scrapes. Mrs. Florence would had expelled her long +ago, if she hadn't been such a favorite; and Mr. Redding's daughter, +beside. He's a member of Congress, you know, and all that; and Mrs. +Florence is quite proud of having Rose in her school. + +"Berry Searles is so funny!" she continued. "His mother is a horrid +old thing, and always interfering with him. Sometimes when he has a +party of fellows in his room, and they're playing cards, we can see +her coming with her candle through the house; and when she gets to his +door, she tries it, and then she knocks, and calls out, 'Abernathy, my +son!' And the fellows whip the cards into their pockets, and stick +the bottles under the table, and get out their books and dictionaries +like a flash; and when Berry unlocks the door, there they sit, studying +away; and Mrs. Searles looks so disappointed! I thought I should die +one night, Mary Andrews and I laughed so." + +I verily believe that if Dr. Carr had been present at this conversation, +he would have stopped at the next station, and taken the girls back to +Burnet. But he did not return from the smoking-car till the anecdotes +about Berry were finished, and Lilly had begun again on Mrs. Florence. + +"She's a sort of queen, you know. Everybody minds her. She's tall, +and always dresses beautifully. Her eyes are lovely; but, when she +gets angry, they're perfectly awful. Rose Red says she'd rather face +a mad bull any day than Mrs. Florence in a fury; and Rose ought to +know, for she's had more reprimands than any girl in school." + +"How many girls are there?" inquired Dr. Carr. + +"There were forty-eight last term. I don't know how many there'll be +this, for they say Mrs. Florence is going to give up. It's she who +makes the school so popular." + +All this time the train was moving northward. With every mile the +country grew prettier. Spring had not fairly opened; but the grass +was green, and the buds on the tress gave a tender mist-like color +to the woods. The road followed the river, which here and there +turned upon itself in long links and windings. Ranges of blue hills +closed the distance. Now and then a nearer mountain rose, single and +alone, from the plain. The air was cool, and full of brilliant zest, +which the Western girls had never before tasted. Katy felt as if she +were drinking champagne. She and Clover flew from window to window, +exclaiming with such delight that Lilly was surprised. + +"I can't see what there is to make such a fuss about," she remarked. +"That's only Deerfield. It's quite a small place." + +"But how pretty it looks, nestled in among the hills! Hills are +lovely, Clover, aren't they?" + +"These hills are nothing. You should see the White Mountains," said +the experienced Lilly. "Ma and I spent three weeks at the Profile +House last vacation. It was perfectly elegant." + +In the course of the afternoon, Katy drew papa away to a distant seat, +and confided her distress about the wash-stands. + +"Don't you think it is horrid, papa? Aunt Izzie always said that it +isn't lady-like not to take a sponge-bath every morning; but how can +we, with forty-eight girls in the room? I don't see what we are going +to do." + +"I fancy we can arrange it; don't be distressed, my dear," replied Dr. +Carr. And Katy was satisfied; for when papa undertook to arrange +things, they were very apt to be done. + +It was almost evening when they reached their final stopping place. + +"Now, two miles in the stage, and then we're at the horrid old +Nunnery," said Lilly. "Ugh! look at that snow. It never melts here +till long after it's all gone at home. How I do hate this station! +I'm going to be awfully homesick: I know I am." + +But just then she caught sight of the stagecoach, which stood waiting; +and her mood changed, for the stage was full of girls who had come by +the other train. + +"Hurrah! there's Mary Edwards and Mary Silver," she exclaimed; "and I +declare, Rose Red! O you precious darling! how do you do?" Scrambling +up the steps, who plunged at a girl with waving hair, and a rosy, +mischievous face; and began kissing her with effusion. + +Rose Red did not seem equally enchanted. + +"Well, Lilly, how are you?" she said, and then went on talking to a +girl who sat by her side, and whose hand she held; while Lilly rushed +up and down the line, embracing and being embraced. She did not +introduce Katy and Clover; and, as papa was outside, on the driver's +box, they felt a little lonely, and strange. All the rest were +chattering merrily, and were evidently well acquainted: they were +the only ones left out. + +Clover watched Rose Red, to whose face she had taken a fancy. It made +her think of a pink carnation, or of a twinkling wild rose, with saucy +whiskers of brown calyx. Whatever she said or did seemed full of a +flavor especially her own. Here eyes, which were blue, and not very +large, sparkled with fun and mischief. Her cheeks were round and +soft, like a baby's; when she laughed, two dimples broke their pink, +and, and made you want to laugh too. A cunning white throat supported +this pretty head, as a stem supports a flower; and, altogether, she +was like a flower, except that flowers don't talk, and she talked all +the time. What she said seemed droll, for the girls about here were +in fits of laughter; but Clover only caught a word now and then, the +stage made such a noise. + +Suddenly Rose Red leaned forward, and touched Clover's hand. + +"What's your name?" she said. "You've got eyes like my sister's. Are +you coming to the Nunnery?" + +"Yes," replied Clover, smiling back. "My name is Clover,--Clover Carr." + +"What a dear little name! It sounds just as you look!" + +"So does your name,--Rose Red," said Clover, shyly. + +"It's a ridiculous name," protested Rose Red, trying to pout. Just +then the stage stopped. + +"Why? Who's going to the hotel?" cried the school-girls, in a chorus. + +"I am," said Dr. Carr, putting his head in at the door, with a smile +which captivated every girl there. "Come, Katy; come, Clover. I've +decided that you sha'n't begin school till to-morrow." + +"Oh, my! Don't I wish he was my pa!" cried Rose Red. Then the stage +moved on. + +"Who are they? What's their name?" asked the girls. "They look nice." + +"They're sort of cousins of mine, and they come from the West," replied +Lilly, not unwilling to own the relationship, now that she perceived +that Dr. Carr had made a favorable impression. + +"Why on earth didn't you introduce them, then? I declare that was +just like you, Lilly Page," put in Rose Red, indignantly. "They +looked so lonesome that I wanted to pat and stroke both of 'em. That +little one has the sweetest eyes!" + +Meantime Katy and Clover entered the hotel, very glad of the reprieve, +and of one more quiet evening alone with papa. They needed to get +their ideas straightened out and put to rights, after the confusions +of the day and Lilly's extraordinary talk. It was very evident that +the Nunnery was to be quite different from their expectations; but +another thing was equally evident,--it would not be dull! Rose Red +by herself, and without any one to help her, would be enough to +prevent that! + + + + +CHAPTER IV. THE NUNNERY. + + +The night seemed short; for the girls, tired by their journey, slept +like dormice. About seven o'clock, Katy was roused by the click of a +blind, and, opening her eyes, saw Clover standing in the window, and +peeping out through the half-opened shutters. When she heard Katy +move, she cried out,-- + +"Oh, do come! It's so interesting! I can see the colleges and the +church, and, I guess, the Nunnery; only I am not quite sure, because +the houses are all so much alike." + +Katy jumped up and hurried to the window. The hotel stood on one side +of a green common, planted with trees. The common had a lead-colored +fence, and gravel paths, which ran across it from corner to corner. +Opposite the hotel was a long row of red buildings, broken by one or +two brown ones, with cupolas. These were evidently the colleges, and +a large gray building with a spire was as evidently the church; but +which one of the many white, green-blinded house which filled the +other sides of the common, was the Nunnery, the girls could not tell. +Clover thought it was one with a garden at the side; but Katy thought +not, because Lilly had said nothing of a garden. They discussed the +point so long that the breakfast bell took them by surprise, and they +were forced to rush through their dressing as fast as possible, so as +not to keep papa waiting. + +When breakfast was over, Dr. Carr told them to put on their hats, and +get ready to walk with him to the school. Clover took one arm, and +Katy the other, and the three passed between some lead-colored posts, +and took one of the diagonal paths which led across the common. + +"That's the house," said Dr. Carr, pointing. + +"It isn't the one you picked out, Clover," said Katy. + +"No," replied Clover, a little disappointed. The house papa indicated +was by no means so pleasant as the one she had chosen. + +It was a tall, narrow building, with dormer windows in the roof, and a +square porch supported by whitewashed pillars. A pile of trunks stood +in the porch. From above came sounds of voices. Girls' heads were +popped out of upper widows at the swinging of the gate, and, as the +door opened, more heads appeared looking over the balusters from the +hall above. + +The parlor into which they were taken was full of heavy, old-fashioned +furniture, stiffly arranged. The sofa and chairs were covered with +black haircloth, and stood closely against the wall. Some books lay +upon the table, arranged two by two; each upper book being exactly at +a right angle with each lower book. A bunch of dried grasses stood +in the fire-place. There were no pictures, except one portrait in +oils, of a forbidding old gentleman in a wig and glasses, sitting with +his finger majestically inserted in a half-open Bible. Altogether, it +was not a cheerful room, nor one calculated to raise the spirits of +new-comers; and Katy, whose long seclusion had made her sensitive on +the subject of rooms, shrank instinctively nearer papa as they went in. + +Two ladies rose to receive them. One, a tall dignified person, was +Mrs. Florence. The other she introduced as "my assistant principal, +Mrs. Nipson." Mrs. Nipson was not tall. She had a round face, +pinched lips, and half-shut gray eyes. + +"This lady is fully associated with me in the management of the school," +explained Mrs. Florence. "When I go, she will assume entire control." + +"Is that likely to be soon?" inquired Dr. Carr, surprised, and not +well pleased that the teacher of whom he had heard, and with whom he +had proposed to leave his children, was planning to yield her place +to a stranger. + +"The time is not yet determined," replied Mrs. Florence. Then she +changed the subject, gracefully, but so decidedly that Dr. Carr had +no chance for further question. She spoke of classes, and discussed +what Katy and Clover were to study. Finally, she proposed to take +them upstairs to see their room. Papa might come too, she said. + +"I dare say that Lilly Page, who tells me that she is a cousin of +yours, has described the arrangements of the house," she remarked +to Katy. "The room I have assigned to you is in the back building. +'Quaker Row,' the girls call it." She smiled as she spoke; and Katy, +meeting her eyes for the fist time, felt that there was something in +what Lilly had said. Mrs. Florence _was_ a sort of queen. + +They went upstairs. Some girls who were peeping over the baluster +hurried away at their approach. Mrs. Florence shook her head at them. + +"The first day is always one of license," she said, leading the way +along an uncarpeted entry to a door at the end, from which, by a +couple of steps, they went down into a square room; round three sides +of which, ran a shelf, on which stood rows of wash-bowls and pitchers. +Above were hooks for towels. Katy perceived that this was the much- +dreaded wash-room. + +"Our lavatory," remarked Mrs. Florence blandly. + +Opening from the wash-room was a very long hall, lighted at each end +by a window. The doors on either side were numbered "one, two, three," +and so on. Some of them were half open; as they went by, Katy and +Clover caught glimpses of girls and trunks, and beds strewed with +things. At No. 6 Mrs. Florence paused. + +"Here is the room which I propose to give you," she said. + +Katy and Clover looked eagerly about. It was a small room, but the +sun shone in cheerfully at the window. There was a maple bedstead +and table, a couple of chairs, and a row of hooks; that was all, +except that in the wall was set a case of black-handled drawers, +with cupboard-doors above them. + +"These take the place of a bureau, and hold your clothes," explained +Mrs. Florence, pulling out one of the drawers. "I hope, when once +you are settled, you will find yourselves comfortable. The rooms +are small; but young people do not require so much space as older +ones. Though, indeed, your elder daughter, Dr. Carr, looks more +advanced and grown-up that I was prepared to find her. What did +you say was her age?" + +"She is past sixteen; but she has been so long confined to her room by +the illness of which I wrote, that you may probably find her behind +in some respects, which reminds me" (this was very adroit of papa!) +"I am anxious that she should keep up the system to which she has +been accustomed at home,--among other things, sponge-baths of cold +water every morning; and, as I see that the bedrooms are not furnished +with wash-stands, I will ask your permission to provide one for the +use of my little girls. Perhaps you will kindly tell me where I would +look for it?" + +Mrs. Florence was not pleased, but she could not object; so she +mentioned a shop. Katy's heart gave a bound of relief. She thought +No. 6, with a wash-stand, might be very comfortable. Its bareness +and simplicity had the charm of novelty. Then there was something +very interesting to her in the idea of a whole house full of girls. + +They did not stay long, after seeing the room, but went off on a +shopping excursion. Shops were few and far between at Hillsover; but +they found a neat little maple wash-stand and rocking-chair, and papa +also bought a comfortable low chair, with a slatted back and a cushion. +This was for Katy. + +"Never study till your back aches," he told her: "when you are tired, +lie flat on the bed for half an hour, and tell Mrs. Florence that it +was by my direction." + +"Or Mrs. Nipson," said Katy, laughing rather ruefully. She had taken +no fancy to Mrs. Nipson, and did not enjoy the idea of a divided +authority. + +A hurried lunch at the hotel followed, and then it was time for Dr. +Carr to go away. They all walked to the school together, and said +good-by upon the steps. The girls would not cry, but they clung very +tightly to papa, and put as much feeling into their last kisses as +would have furnished forth half a dozen fits of tears. Lilly might +have thought them cold-hearted, but papa did not; he knew better. + +"That's my brave girls!" he said. Then he kissed them once more, and +hurried away. Perhaps he did not wish them to see that his eyes too +were a little misty. + +As the door closed behind them, Katy and Clover realized that they +were alone among strangers. The sensation was not pleasant; and they +felt forlorn, as they went upstairs, and down Quaker Row, toward No. 6. + +"Aha! so you're going to be next door," said a gay voice, as they +passed No. 5, and Rose Red popped her head into the hall. "Well, +I'm glad," she went on, shaking hands cordially; "I sort of thought +you would, and yet I didn't know; and there are some awful stiffies +among the new girls. How do you both do?" + +"Oh! are we next door to you?" cried Clover, brightening. + +"Yes. It's rather good of me not to hate you; for I wanted the end +room myself, and Mrs. Florence wouldn't give it to me. Come in, and +let me introduce you to my room-mate. It's against the rules, but +that's no matter: nobody pretends to keep rules the first day." + +They went in. No.5 was precisely like No. 6, in shape, size and +furniture; but Rose had unpacked her trunk, and decorated the room +with odds and ends of all sorts. The table was covered with books +and boxes; colored lithographs were pinned on the walls; a huge blue +rosette ornamented the head-board of the bed; the blinds were tied +together with pink ribbon; over the top of the window was a festoon +of hemlock boughs, fresh and spicy. The effect was fantastic, but +cheery; and Katy and Clover exclaimed, with one voice, "How pretty!" + +The room-mate was a pale, shy girl, with a half-scared look in her +eyes, and small hands which twisted uneasily together when she moved +and spoke. Her name was Mary Silver. She and Rose were so utterly +unlike, that Katy thought it odd they should have chosen to be +together. Afterward she understood it better. Rose liked to protect, +and Mary to be protected; Rose to talk, and Mary to listen. Mary +evidently considered Rose the most entertaining creature in the +world; she giggled violently at all her jokes, and then stopped +short and covered her mouth with her fingers, in a frightened way, +as if giggling were wrong. + +"Only think, Mary," began Rose, after introducing Katy and Clover, +"these young ladies have got the end room. What do you suppose was +the reason that Mrs. Florence did not give it to us? It's very +peculiar." + +Mary laughed her uneasy laugh. She looked as if she could tell the +reason, but did not dare. + +"Never mind," continued Rose. "Trials are good for one, they say. +It's something to have nice people in the room, if we can't be there +ourselves. You are nice, aren't you?" turning to Clover. + +"Very," replied Clover, laughing. + +"I thought so. I can almost always tell without asking; still, it is +something to have it on the best authority. We'll be good neighbors, +won't we? Look here!" and she pulled one of the black-handled drawers +completely out and laid it on the bed. "Do you see? your drawers are +exactly behind ours. At any time in silent study hour, if I have +something I want to say, I'll rap and pop a note into your drawer, +and you can do the same to me. Isn't it fun?" + +Clover said, "Yes;" but Katy, though she laughed, shook her head. + +"Don't entice us into mischief," she said. + +"Oh, gracious!" exclaimed Rose. "Now, are you going to be good,-- +you two? If you are, just break the news at once, and have it over. +I can bear it." She fanned herself in such a comical way that no one +could help laughing. Mary Silver joined, but stopped pretty soon in +her sudden manner. + +"There's Mary, now," went on Rose: "she's a Paragon. But, if any more +are coming into the entry, just give me fair notice, and I pack and +move up among the sinners in Attic Row. Somehow, you don't look like +Paragons either,--you especially," nodding to Clover. "Your eyes are +like violets; but so are Sylvia's--that's my sister,--and she's the +greatest witch in Massachusetts. Eyes are dreadfully deceitful things. +As for you,"--to Katy,--"you're so tall that I can't take you in all +at once; but the piece I see doesn't look dreadful a bit." + +Rose was sitting in the window as she made these remarks; and, leaning +forward suddenly, she gave a pretty, blushing nod to some one below. +Katy glanced down, and saw a handsome young man replacing the cap he +had lifted from his head. + +"That's Berry Searles," said Rose. "He's the president's son, you +know. He always comes through the side yard to get to his room. +That's it,--the one with the red curtain. It's exactly opposite +your window: don't you see?" + +"So it is!" exclaimed Katy, remembering what Lilly had said. "Oh! +was that the reason?"--she stopped, afraid of being rude. + +"The reason we wanted the room?" inquired Rose, coolly. "Well, I +don't know. It hadn't occurred to me to look at it in that light. +Mary!" with sudden severity, "is it possible that you had Berry +Searles in your mind when you were so pertinacious about that room?" + +"Rose! How can you? You know I never thought of such a thing," +protested poor Mary. + +"I hope not; otherwise I should feel it my duty to consult with Mrs. +Florence on the subject," went on Rose, with an air of dignified +admonition. "I consider myself responsible for you and your morals, +Mary. Let us change this painful subject." She looked gravely at +the three girls for a moment; then her lips began to twitch, the +irresistible dimples appeared in her cheeks, and, throwing herself +back in her chair, she burst into a fit of laughter. + +"O Mary, you blessed goose! Some day or other you'll be the death of +me! Dear, dear! how I am behaving! It's perfectly horrid of me. And +I didn't mean it. I'm going to be real good this term; I promised +mother. Please forget it, and don't take a dislike to me, and never +come again," she added, coaxingly, as Katy and Clover rose to go. + +"Indeed we won't," replied Katy. As for sensible Clover, she was +already desperately in love with Rose, on that very first day! + +After a couple of hours of hard work, No. 6 was in order, and looked +like a different place. Fringed towels were laid over the wash-stand +and the table. Dr. Carr's photograph and some pretty chromos +ornamented the walls; the rocking-chair and the study-chair stood by +the window; the trunks were hidden by chintz covers, made for the +purpose by old Mary. On the window-sill stood Cousin Helen's vase, +which Katy had brought carefully packed among her clothes. + +"Now," she said, tying the blinds together with a knot of ribbon in +imitation of Rose Red's, "when we get a bunch of wild flowers for my +vase, we shall be all right." + +A tap at the door. Rose entered. + +"Are you done?" she asked; "may I come in and see?" + +"Oh, this is pretty!" she exclaimed, looking about: "how you can tell +in one minute what sort of a girl one is, just by looking at her room! +I should know you had been neat and dainty and housekeepery all your +days. And you would see in a minute that I'm a Madge Wildfire, and +that Ellen Gray is a saint, and Sally Satterlee a scatterbrain, and +Lilly Page an affected little hum-- oh, I forgot, she is your cousin, +isn't she? How dreadfully rude of me!" dimpling at Clover, who +couldn't help dimpling back again. + +"Oh, my!" she went on, "a wash-stand, I declare! Where did you get it?" + +"Papa bought it," explained Katy: "he asked Mrs. Florence's permission." + +"How bright of him! I shall just write to my father to ask for +permission too." Which she did; and the result was that it set the +fashion of wash-stands, and so many papas wrote to "ask permission," +that Mrs. Florence found it necessary to give up the lavatory system, +and provide wash-stands for the whole house. Katy's request had been +the opening wedge. I do not think this fact made her more popular +with the principals. + +"By the way, where is Lilly?" asked Katy; "I haven't seen her to-day." + +"Do you want to know? I can tell you. She's sitting on the edge of +one chair, with her feet on the rung of another chair, and her head +on the shoulder of her room-mate (who is dying to get away and arrange +her drawers); and she's crying"-- + +"How do you know? Have you been up to see her?" + +"Oh! I haven't seen her. It isn't necessary. I saw her last term, +and the term before. She always spends the first day at school in +that way. I'll take you up, if you'd like to examine for yourselves." + +Katy and Clover, much amused, followed as she led the way upstairs. +Sure enough, Lilly was sitting exactly as Rose had predicted. Her +face was swollen from crying. When she saw the girls, her sobs +redoubled. + +"Oh! isn't it dreadful?" she demanded. "I shall die, I know I shall. +Oh! why did pa make me come?" + +"Now, Lilly, don't be an idiot," said the unsympathizing Rose. Then +she sat down and proceeded to make a series of the most grotesque +faces, winking her eyes and twinkling her fingers round the head of +"Niobe," as she called Lilly, till the other girls were in fits of +laughter, and Niobe, though she shrugged her shoulders pettishly and +said, "Don't be so ridiculous, Rose Red," was forced to give way. +First she smiled, then a laugh was heard; afterward she announced +that she felt better. + +"That's right, Niobe," said Rose. "Wash your face now, and get ready +for tea, for the bell is just going to ring. As for you, Annie, you +might as well put your drawers in order," with a wicked wink. Annie +hurried away with a laugh, which she tried in vain to hide. + +"You heartless creature!" cried the exasperated Lilly. "I believe +you're made of marble; you haven't one bit of feeling. Nor you +either, Katy. You haven't cried a drop." + +"Given this problem," said the provoking Rose: "when the nose without +is as red as a lobster, what must be the temperature of the heart +within, and _vice versa?_" + +The tea-bell rang just in time to avert a fresh flood of tears from +Lilly. She brushed her hair in angry haste, and they all hurried +down by a side staircase which, as Rose explained, the school-girls +were expected to use. The dining-room was not large; only part of +the girls could be seated at a time; so they took turns at dining +at the first table, half one week and half the next. + +Mrs. Nipson sat at the tea-tray, with Mrs. Florence beside her. At +the other end of the long board sat a severe-looking person, whom +Lilly announced in a whisper as "that horrid Miss Jane." The meal +was very simple,--tea, bread and butter, and dried beef:--it was +eaten in silence; the girls were not allowed to speak, except to +ask for what they wanted. Rose Red indeed, who sat next to Mrs. +Florence, talked to her, and even ventured once or twice on daring +little jokes, which caused Clover to regard her with admiring +astonishment. No one else said any thing, except "Butter, please," +or "Pass the bread." As they filed upstairs after this cheerless +meal, they were met by rows of hungry girls, who were waiting to go +down, and who whispered, "How long you have been! What's for tea?" + +The evening passed in making up classes and arranging for recitation- +rooms and study-hours. Katy was glad when bed-time came. The day, +with all its new impressions and strange faces, seemed to her like a +confused dream. She and Clover undressed very quietly. Among the +printed rules, which hung on the bedroom door, they read: "All +communication between room-mates, after the retiring bell has rung, +is strictly prohibited." Just then it did not seem difficult to keep +this rule. It was only after the candle was blown out, that Clover +ventured to whisper,--very low indeed, for who knew but Miss Jane +was listening outside the door?--"Do you think you're going to like +it?" and Katy, in the same cautious whisper, responded, "I'm not +quite sure." And so ended the first day at the nunnery. + + + + +CHAPTER V. ROSES AND THORNS. + + +"Oh! what is it? What has happened?" cried Clover, starting up in +bed, the next morning, as a clanging sound roused her suddenly from +sleep. It was only the rising-bell, ringing at the end of Quaker Row. + +Katy held her watch up to the dim light. She could just see the hands. +Yes: they pointed to six. It was actually morning! She and Clover +jumped up, and began to dress as fast as possible. + +"We've only got half an hour," said Clover, unhooking the rules, and +carrying them to the window,--"Half an hour; and this says that we +must turn the mattress, smooth the under-sheet over the bolster, and +spend five minutes in silent devotion! We'll have to be quick to do +all that besides dressing ourselves!" + +It is never easy to be quick, when one is in a hurry. Every thing +sets itself against you. Fingers turn into thumbs; dresses won't +button, nor pins keep their place. With all their haste, Katy and +Clover were barely ready when the second bell sounded. As they +hastened downstairs, Katy fastening her breast-pin, and Clover her +cuffs, they met other girls, some looking half asleep, some half +dressed; all yawning, rubbing their eyes, and complaining of the +early hour. + +"Isn't it horrid?" said Lilly Page, hurrying by with no collar on, +and her hair hastily tucked into a net. "I never get up till nine +o'clock when I'm at home. Ma saves my breakfast for me. She says +I shall have my sleep out while I have the chance." + +"You don't look quite awake now," remarked Clover. + +"No, because I haven't washed my face. Half the time I don't, before +breakfast. There's that old mattress has to be turned; and, when I +sleep over, I just do that first, and then scramble my clothes on the +best way I can. Any thing not to be marked!" + +After prayers and breakfast were done, the girls had half an hour for +putting their bedrooms to rights, during which interval it is to be +hoped that Lilly found time to wash her face. After that, lessons +began, and lasted till one o'clock. Dinner followed, with an hour's +"recreation;" then the bell rang for "silent study hour," when the +girls sat with their books in their bedrooms, but were not allowed +to speak to each other. Next came a walk. + +"Who are you going to walk with?" asked Rose Red, meeting Clover in +Quaker Row. + +"I don't know. Katy, I guess." + +"Are you really? You and she like each other, don't you? Do you know +you're the first sisters I ever knew at school who did! Generally, they +quarrel awfully. The Stearns girls, who were here last term, scarcely +spoke to each other. They didn't even room together; and Sarah Stearns +was always telling tales against Sue, and Sue against Sara." + +"How disgusting! I never heard of any thing so mean," cried Clover, +indignantly. "Why, I wouldn't tell tales about Katy if we quarrelled +ever so much. We never do, though, Katy is so sweet." + +"I suppose she is," said Rose, rather doubtfully; "but, do you know, +I'm sort of afraid of her. It's because she's so tall. Tall people +always scare me. And then she looks so grave and grown up! Don't +tell her I said so, though; for I want her to like me." + +"Oh, she isn't a bit grave or grown up. She's the funniest girl in +the world. Wait till you know her," replied loyal Clover. + +"I'd give any thing if I could walk with you part of this term," +went on Rose, putting her arm round Clover's waist. "But you see, +unluckily, I'm engaged straight through. All of us old girls are. +I walk with May Mather this week and next, then Esther Dearborn +for a month, then Lilly Page for two weeks, and all the rest of +the time with Mary. I can't think why I promised Lilly. I'm sure +I don't want to go with her. I'd ask Mary to let me off, only I'm +afraid she'd feel bad. I say, suppose we engage now to walk with +each other for the first half of next term!" + +"Why, that's not till October!" said Clover + +"I know it; but it's nice to be beforehand. Will you?" + +"Of course I will; provided that Katy has somebody pleasant to go +with," replied Clover, immensely flattered at being asked by the +popular Rose. Then they ran downstairs, and took their places in +the long procession of girls, who were ranged two and two, ready +to start. Miss Jane walked at the head; and Miss Marsh, another +teacher, brought up the rear. Rose Red whispered that it was like +a funeral and a caravan mixed,--"as cheerful as hearses at both +ends, and wild beasts in the middle." + +The walk was along a wooded road; a mile out and a mile back. The +procession was not permitted to stop or straggle, or take any of +the liberties which make walking pleasant. Still, Katy and Clover +enjoyed it. There was a spring smell in the air, and the woods were +beginning to be pretty. They even found a little trailing aribitus +blossoming in a sunny hollow. Lilly was just in front of them, and +amused them with histories of different girls, whom she pointed out +in the long line. That was Esther Dearborn,--Rose Red's friend. +Handsome, wasn't she? but awfully sarcastic. The two next were Amy +Alsop and Ellen Gray. They always walked together, because they +were so intimate. Yes; they were nice enough, only so distressingly +good. Amy did not get one single mark last term! That child with +pig-tails was Bella Arkwright. Why on earth did Katy want to know +her? She was a nasty little thing. + +"She's just about Elsie's height," replied Katy. "Who's that pretty +girl with pink velvet on her hat?" + +"Dear me! Do you think she's pretty? I don't. Her name is Louisa +Agnew. She lives at Ashburn,--quite near us; but we don't know them. +Her family are not at all in good society." + +"What a pity! She looks sweet and lady-like." + +Lilly tossed her head. "They're quite common people," she said. "They +live in a little mite of a house, and her father paints portraits." + +"But I should think that would be nice. Doesn't she ever take you to +see his pictures?" + +"Take me!" cried Lilly, indignantly. "I should think not. I tell +you we don't visit. I just speak when we're here, but I never see +her when I'm at home." + +"Move on, young ladies. What are you stopping for?" cried Miss Jane. + +"Yes; move on," muttered Rose Red, from behind. "Don't you hear +Policeman X?" + +From walking-hour till tea-time was "recreation" again. Lilly +improved this opportunity to call at No. 6. She had waited to see +how the girls were likely to take in the school before committing +herself to intimacy; but, now that Rose Red had declared in their +favor, she was ready to begin to be friendly. + +"How lovely!" she said, looking about. "You got the end room, after +all, didn't you? What splendid times you'll have! Oh, how plainly +you can see Berry Searles's window! Has he spoken to you yet?" + +"Spoken to us,--of course not! Why should he?" replied Katy: "he +doesn't know us, and we don't know him." + +"That's nothing: half the girls in the school bow, and speak, and +carry on with young men they don't know. You won't have a bit of +fun if you're so particular." + +"I don't want that kind of fun," replied Katy, with energy in her +voice; "neither does Clover. And I can't imagine how the girls can +behave so. It isn't lady-like at all." + +Katy was very fond of this word, lady-like. She always laid great +stress upon it. It seemed in some way to be connected with Cousin +Helen, and to mean every thing that was good, and graceful, and sweet. + +"Dear me! I'd no idea you were so dreadfully proper," said Lilly, +pouting. "Mother said you were as prim and precise as your +grandmother; but I didn't suppose"-- + +"How unkind!" broke in Clover, taking fire, as usual, at any affront +to Katy. "Katy prim and precise! She isn't a bit! She's twice as +much fun as the rest of you girls; but it's nice fun,--not this horrid +stuff about students. I wish your mother wouldn't say such things!" + +"I didn't--she didn't--I don't mean exactly that," stammered Lilly, +frightened by Clover's indignant eyes. "All I meant was, that Katy +is dreadfully dignified for her age, and we bad girls will have to +look out. You needn't be so mad, Clover; I'm sure it's very nice +to be proper and good, and set an example." + +"I don't want to preach to anybody," said Katy, coloring, "and I +wasn't thinking about examples. But really and truly, Lilly, wouldn't +your mother, and all the girls' mothers, be shocked if they knew about +these performances here?" + +"Gracious! I should think so; ma would kill me. I wouldn't have her +know of my goings on for all the world." + +Just then Rose pulled out a drawer, and called through to ask if +Clover would please come in and help her a minute. Lilly took +advantage of her absence to say,-- + +"I came on purpose to ask you to walk with me for four weeks. Will +you?" + +"Thank you; but I'm engaged to Clover." + +"To Clover! But she's your sister; you can get off." + +"I don't want to get off. Clover and I like dearly to go together." + +Lilly stared. "Well, I never heard of such a thing," she said, "you're +really romantic. The girls will call you 'The Inseparables.'" + +"I wouldn't mind being inseparable from Clover," said Katy, laughing. + +Next day was Saturday. It was nominally a holiday; but so many tasks +were set for it, that it hardly seemed like one. The girls had to +practise in the gymnasium, to do their mending, and have all drawers +in apple-pie order, before afternoon, when Miss Jane went through the +rooms on a tour of inspection. Saturday, also, was the day for +writing home letters; so, altogether, it was about the busiest of +the week. + +Early in the morning Miss Jane appeared in Quaker Row with some slips +of paper in her hand, one of which she left at each door. They told +the hours at which the girls were to go to the bath-house. + +"You will carry, each, a crash towel, a sponge, and soap," she +announced to Katy, "and will be in the entry, at the foot of the +stairs, at twenty-five minutes after nine precisely. Failures in +punctuality will be punished by a mark." Miss Jane always delivered +her words like a machine, and closed her mouth with a snap at the +end of the sentence. + +"Horrid thing! Don't I wish her missionary would come and carry her +off. Not that I blame him for staying away," remarked Rose Red, from +her door; making a face at Miss Jane, as she walked down the entry. + +"I don't understand about the bath-house," said Katy. "Does it belong +to us? And where is it?" + +"No, it doesn't belong to us. It belongs to Mr. Perrit, and anybody +can use it; only on Saturday it is reserved for us nuns. Haven't you +every noticed it when we have been out walking? It's in that street +by the bakery, which we pass to take the Lebanon road. We go across +the green, and down by Professor Seccomb's, and we are in plain sight +from the college all the way; and, of course, those abominable boys +sit there with spy-glasses, and stare as hard as ever they can. It's +perfectly horrid. 'A crash towel, a sponge, and soap,' indeed! I +wish I could make Miss Jane eat the pieces of soap which she has +forced me to carry across this village." + +"O Rose!" remonstrated Mary Silver. + +"Well, I do. And the crash towels afterward, by way of a dessert," +replied the incorrigible Rose. "Never mind! Just wait! A bright +idea strikes me!" + +"Oh! what?" cried the other three; but Rose only pursed up her mouth, +arched he eye-brows, and vanished into her own room, locking the door +behind her. Mary Silver, finding herself shut out, sat down meekly +in the hall till such time as it should please Rose to open the door. +This was not till the bath hour. As Katy and Clover went by, Rose +put her head out, and called that she would be down in a minute. + +The bathing party consisted of eight girls, with Miss Jane for escort. +They were half way across the common before Miss Jane noticed that +everybody was shaking with stifled laughter, except Rose, who walked +along demurely, apparently unconscious that there was any thing to +laugh at. Miss Jane looked sharply from one to another for a moment, +then stopped short and exclaimed, "Rosamond Redding! how dare you?" + +"What is it ma'am?" asked Rose, with the face of a lamb. + +"Your bath towel! your sponge!" gasped Miss Jane. + +"Yes, ma'am, I have them all," replied the audacious Rose, putting her +hand to her hat. There, to be sure, was the long crash towel, hanging +down behind like a veil, while the sponge was fastened on one side like +a great cockade; and in front appeared a cake of pink soap, neatly +pinned into the middle of a black velvet bow. + +Miss Jane seized Rose, and removed these ornaments in a twinkling. +"We shall see what Mrs. Florence thinks of this conduct," she grimly +remarked. Then, dropping the soap and sponge in her own pocket, she +made Rose walk beside her, as if she were a criminal in custody. + +The bath-house was a neat place, with eight small rooms, well supplied +with hot and cold water. Katy would have found her bath very nice, had +it not been for the thought of the walk home. They must look so absurd, +she reflected, with their sponges and damp towels. + +Miss Jane was as good as her word. After dinner, Rose was sent for by +Mrs. Florence, and had an interview of two hours with her: she came +out with red eyes, and shut herself into her room with a disconsolate +bang. Before long, however, she revived sufficiently to tap on the +drawers and push through a note with the following words:-- + + + "My heart is broken! + "R.R." + + +Clover hastened in to comfort her. Rose was sitting on the floor, +with a very clean pocket-handkerchief in her hand. She wept, and +put her head against Clover's knee. + +"I suppose I'm the nastiest girl in the world," she said. "Mrs. +Florence thinks so. She said I was an evil influence in the school. +Wasn't that un--kind?" with a little sob. + +"I meant to be so good this term," she went on; "but what's the use? +A codfish might as well try to play the piano! It was always so, even +when I was a baby. Sylvia says I have got a little fiend inside of me. +Do you believe I have? Is it that makes me so horrid?" + +Clover purred over her. She could not bear to have Rose feel badly. +"Wasn't Miss Jane funny?" went on Rose, with a sudden twinkle; "and +did you see Berry, and Alfred Seccomb?" + +"No: where were they?" + +"Close to us, standing by the fence. All the time Miss Jane was +unpinning the towel, they were splitting their sides, and Berry made +such a face at me that I nearly laughed out. That boy has a perfect +genius for faces. He used to frighten Sylvia and me into fits, when +we were little tots, up here on visits." + +"Then you knew him before you came to school?" + +"Oh dear, yes! I know all the Hillsover boys. We used to make mud +pies together. They're grown up now, most of 'em, and in college; +and when we meet, we're very dignified, and say, 'Miss Redding,' and +'Mr. Seccomb,' and 'Mr. Searles;' but we're just as good friends as +ever. When I go to take tea with Mrs. Seccomb, Alfred always invites +Berry to drop in, and we have the greatest fun. Mrs. Florence won't +let me go this term, though, I guess, she's so mad about the towel." + +Katy was quite relieved when Clover reported this conversation. Rose, +for all her wickedness, seemed to be a little lady. Katy did not like +to class her among the girls who flirted with students whom they did +not know. + +It was wonderful how soon they all settled down, and became accustomed +to their new life. Before six weeks were over, Katy and Clover felt +as if they had lived at Hillsover for years. This was partly because +there was so much to do. Nothing makes time fly like having every +moment filled, and every hour set apart for a distinct employment. + +They made several friends, chief among whom were Ellen Gray and Louisa +Agnew. This last intimacy Lilly resented highly, and seemed to consider +as an affront to herself. With no one, however, was Katy so intimate +as Clover was with Rose Red. This cost Katy some jealous pangs at +first. She was so used to considering Clover her own exclusive +property that it was not easy to share her with another; and she +had occasional fits of feeling resentful, and injured, and left out. +These were but momentary, however. Katy was too healthy of mind to +let unkind feelings grow, and by and by she grew fond of Rose and +Rose of her, so that in the end the sisters share their friend as +they did other nice things, and neither of them was jealous of the +other. + +But, charming as she was, a certain price had to be paid for the +pleasure of intimacy with Rose. Her overflowing spirits, and "the +little fiend inside her," were always provoking scrapes, in which +her friends were apt to be more or less involved. She was very +pen intent and afflicted after these scrapes; but it didn't make a +bit of difference: the next time she was just as naughty as ever. + +"What are you?" said Katy, one day, meeting her in the hall with a +heap of black shawls and aprons on her arm. + +"Hush!" whispered Rose, mysteriously, "don't say a word. Senator +Brown is dead--our senator, you know. I'm going to put my window +into mourning for him, that's all. It's a proper token of respect." + +Two hours later, Mrs. Nipson, walking sedately across the common, +noticed quite a group of students, in the president's yard, looking +up at the Nunnery. She drew nearer. They were admiring Rose's +window, hung with black, and decorated with a photograph of the +deceased senator, suspended in the middle of a wreath of weeping- +willow. Of course she hurried upstairs, and tore down the shawls +and aprons; and, equally of course, Rose had a lecture and a mark; +but, dear me! what good did it do? The next day but one, as Katy +and Clover sat together in silent study hour, their lower drawer was +pushed open very noiselessly and gently, till it came out entirely, +and lay on the floor, and in the aperture thus formed appeared Roses's +saucy face flushed with mischief. She was crawling through from her +own room! + +"Such fun!" she whispered; "I never thought of this before! We can +have parties in study hours, and all sorts of things." + +"Oh, go back, Rosy!" whispered Clover in agonized entreaty, though +laughing all the time. + +"Go back? Not at all! I'm coming in," answered Rose, pulling herself +through a little farther. But at that moment the door opened: there +stood Miss Jane! She had caught the buzz of voices, as she passed in +the hall, and had entered to see what was going on. + +Rose, dreadfully frightened, made a rapid movement to withdraw. But the +space was narrow, and she had wedged herself, and could move neither +backward nor forward. She had to submit to being helped through by +Miss Jane, in a series of pulls, while Katy and Clover sat by, not +daring to laugh or to offer assistance. When Rose was on her feet, +Miss Jane released her with a final shake, which she seemed unable +to refrain from giving. + +"Go to your room," she said; "I shall report all of you young ladies +for this flagrant act of disobedience." + +Rose went, and in two minutes the drawer, which Miss Jane had replaced, +opened again, and there was this note:-- + + + "If I'm never heard of more, give my love to my family, and + mention how I died. I forgive my enemies; and leave Clover + my band bracelet. + "My blessings on you both. + "With the deepest regard, + "Your afflicted friend, R. R." + + +Mrs. Florence was very angry on this occasion, and would listen to no +explanations, but gave Katy and Clover a "disobedience mark" also. +This was very unfair, and Rose felt dreadfully about it. She begged +and entreated; but Mrs. Florence only replied: "There is blame on both +sides, I have no doubt." + +"She's entirely changed from what she used to be," declared Rose. "I +don't know what's the matter; I don't like her half so much as I did." + +The truth was, that Mrs. Florence had secretly determined to give up +her connection with the school at midsummer; and, regarding it now +rather as Mrs. Nipson's school than her own, she took no pains to +study character or mete out justice carefully among scholars with +whom she was not likely to have much to do. + + + + +CHAPTER VI. THE S. S. U. C. + + +It was Saturday afternoon; and Clover, having finished her practising, +dusting, and mending, had settle herself in No. 6 for a couple of hours +of quiet enjoyment. Every thing was in beautiful order to meet Miss +Jane's inspecting eye; and Clover, as she sat in the rocking chair, +writing-case in lap, looked extremely cosy and comfortable. + +A half-finished letter to Elsie lay in the writing-case; but Clover +felt lazy, and instead of writing was looking out of window in a dreamy +way, to where Berry Searles and some other young men were playing +ball in the yard below. She was not thinking of them or of any thing +else in particular. A vague sense of pleasant idleness possessed her, +and it was like the breaking of a dream when the door opened and Katy +came in, not quietly after her wont, but with a certain haste and +indignant rustle as if vexed by something. When she saw Clover at +the window, she cried out hastily, "O Clover, don't'!" + +"Don't what?" asked Clover, without turning her head. + +"Don't sit there looking at those boys." + +"Why? why not? They can't see me. The blinds are shut." + +"No matter for that. It's just as bad as if they could see you. Don't +do it. I can't bear to have you." + +"Well, I won't then," said Clover good-humoredly, facing round with +her back to the window. "I wasn't looking at them either,--not +exactly. I was thinking about Elsie and John, and wondering--But +what's the matter, Katy? What makes you fire up so about it? You've +watched the ball-playing yourself plenty of times." + +"I know I have, and I didn't mean to be cross, Clovy. The truth is +I am all put out. These girls with incessant talk about the students +make me absolutely sick. It is so unladylike, and so bad, especially +for the little ones. Fancy that mite of a Carrie Steele informing me +that she is "in love" with Harry Crosby. In love! A baby like that! +She has no business to know that there is such a thing." + +"Yes," said Clover laughing: "she wrote his name on a wintergreen +lozenge, and bored a hole and hung it round her neck on a blue ribbon. +But it melted and stuck to her frock, and she had to take it off." + +"Whereupon she ate it," added Rose, who came in at that moment. + +The girls shouted, but Katy soon grew grave. "One can't help +laughing," she said, "but isn't it a shame to have such things going +on? Just fancy our Elsie behaving so, Clover! Why, papa would have +a fit. I declare, I've a great mind to get up a society to put down +flirting." + +"Do!" said Rose. "What fun it would be! Call it 'The Society for +the Suppression of Young Men.' I'll join." + +"You, indeed!" replied Katy, shaking her head. "Didn't I see Berry +Searles throw a bunch of syringa into your window only this morning?" + +"Dear me! did he? I shall have to speak to Mary again. It's quite +shocking to have her go on so. But really and truly do let us have +a Society. It would be so jolly. We could meet on Saturday +afternoons, and write pieces and have signals and a secret, as +Sylvia's Society did when she was at school. Get one up, Katy,-- +that's a dear." + +"But," said Katy, taken aback by having her random idea so suddenly +adopted, "if I did get one up, it would be in real earnest, and it +would be a society against flirting. And you know you can't help +it, Rosy." + +"Yes, I can. You are doing me great injustice. I don't behave like +those girls in Attic Row. I never did. I just bow to Berry and the +rest whom I really know,--never to anybody else. And you must see, +Katherine darling, that it would be the height of ingratitude if I +didn't bow to the boys who made mud pies for me when I was little, +and lent me their marbles, and did all sorts of kind things. Now +wouldn't it?"--coaxingly. + +"Per--haps," admitted Katy, with a smile. "But you're such a witch!" + +"I'm not,--indeed I'm not. I'll be a pillar of society if only you'll +provide a Society for me to be a pillar of. Now, Katy, do--ah, do, do!" + +When Rose was in a coaxing mood, few people could resist her. Katy +yielded, and between jest and earnest the matter was settled. Katy +was to head the plan and invite the members. + +"Only a few at first," suggested Rose. "When it is proved to be a +success, and everybody wants to join, we can let in two or three more +as a great favor. What shall the name be? We'll keep it a secret, +whatever it is. There's no fun in a society without a secret." + +What should the name be? Rose invented half a dozen, each more absurd +than the last. "The Anti-Jane Society" would sound well, she insisted. +Or, no!--the "Put-him-down-Club" was better yet! Finally they settled +upon "The Society for the Suppression of Unladylike Conduct." + +"Only we'll never use the whole name," said Rose: "We'll say, 'The +S. S .U. C.' That sounds brisk and snappy, and will drive the whole +school wild with curiosity. What larks! How I long to begin!" + +The next Saturday was fixed upon for the first meeting. During the +week Katy proposed the plan to the elect few, all of whom accepted +enthusiastically. Lilly Page was the only person who declined. She +said it would be stupid; that for her part she didn't set up to be +"proper" or better than she was, and that in any case she shouldn't +wish to be mixed up in a Society of which "Miss Agnew" was a member. +The girls did not break their hearts over this refusal. They had +felt obliged to ask her for relationship's sake, but everybody was +a little relieved that she did not wish to join. + +No. 6 looked very full indeed that Saturday afternoon when the S. S. +U. C. came together for the first time. Ten members were present. +Mary Silver and Louisa were two; and Rose's crony, Esther Dearborn, +another. The remaining four were Sally Alsop and Amy Erskine; Alice +Gibbons, one of the new scholars, whom they all liked, but did not +know very well; and Ellen Gray, a pale, quiet girl, with droll blue +eyes, a comical twist to her mouth, and a trick of saying funny +things in such a demure way that half the people who listened never +found out that they were funny. All Rose's chairs had been borrowed +for the occasion. Three girls sat on the bed, and three on the floor. +With a little squeezing, there was plenty of room for everybody. + +Katy was chosen President, and requested to take the rocking-chair as +a sign of office. This she did with much dignity, and proceeded to +read the Constitution and By-Laws of the Society, which had been drawn +up by Rose Red, and copied on an immense sheet of blue paper. + +They ran thus:-- + + +CONSTITUTION FOR THE SOCIETY FOR THE SUPPRESSION OF UNLADYLIKE + CONDUCT, KNOWN TO THE UNINITIATED AS THE S. S. U. C. + + +ARTICLE I. + + The object of this Society is twofold: it combines + having a good time with the Pursuit of VIRTUE. + + +ARTICLE II. + + The good time is to take place once a week in No. 6 + Quaker Row, between the hours of four and six P. M. + + +ARTICLE III. + + The nature of the good time is to be decided upon by + a Committee to be appointed each Saturday by the members + of the Society. + + +ARTICLE IV. + + VIRTUE is to be pursued at all times and in all seasons, + by the members of the Society setting their faces against + the practice of bowing and speaking to young gentlemen + who are not acquaintances; waving of pocket handkerchiefs, + signals from windows, and any species of conduct which + would be thought unladylike by nice people anywhere, and + especially by the mammas of the Society. + + +ARTICLE V. + + The members of the Society pledge themselves to use their + influence against these practices, both by precept and + example. + + In witness whereof we sign. + + Katherine Carr, President. + Rosamond Redding, Secretary. + Clover E. Carr. + Mary L. Silver. + Esther Dearborn. + Sally P. Alsop. + Amy W. Erskine. + Alice Gibbons. + Ellen Whitworth Gray. + + +Next followed the By-Laws. Katy had not been able to see the necessity +of having any By-Laws, but Rose had insisted. She had never heard of +a Society without them, she said, and she didn't think it would be +"legal" to leave them out. It had cost her some trouble to invent +them, but at last they stood thus:-- + + + +BY-LAW NO. 1. + +The members of the S. S. U. C. will observe the following signals:-- + + 1st. The Grip.--This is given by inserting the first and middle + finger of the right hand between the thumb and fourth finger of + the respondent's left, and describing a rotatory motion in the + air with the little finger. N. B. Much practice is necessary + to enable members to exchange this signal in such a manner as + not to attract attention. + + 2nd. The Signal of Danger.--This signal is for use when Miss Jane, + or any other foe-woman, heaves into sight. It consists in + rubbing the nose violently, and at the same time giving three + stamps on the floor with the left foot. It must be done with + an air of unconsciousness. + + 3rd. The Signal for Consultation.--This signal is for use when + immediate communication is requisite between members of the + Society. It consists of a pinch on the back of the right + hand, accompanied by the word "Holofernes" pronounced in a + low voice. + + +BY-LAW NO. 2. + + The members of the S. S. U. C. pledge themselves to inviolable + secrecy about all Society proceedings. + + +BY-LAW NO. 3 + + The members of the S. S. U. C. will bring their Saturday corn- + balls to swell the common entertainment. + + +BY-LAW NO. 4. + + Members having boxes from home are at liberty to contribute such + part of the contents as they please to the aforementioned + common entertainment. + + + +Here the By-Laws ended. There was much laughter over them, especially +over the last. + +"Why did you put that in, Rosy?" asked Ellen Gray: "it strikes me as +hardly necessary." + +"Oh," replied Rose, "I put that in to encourage Silvery Mary there. +She's expecting a box soon, and I knew that she would pine to give +the Society a share, but would be too timid to propose it; so I +thought I would just pave the way." + +"How truly kind!" laughed Clover. + +"Now," said the President, "the entertainment of the meeting will +begin by the reading of 'Trailing Arbutus,' a poem by C. E. C." + +Clover had been very unwilling to read the first piece, and had only +yielded after much coaxing from Rose, who had bestowed upon her in +consequence the name of Quintia Curtia. She felt very shy as she +stood up with her paper in hand, and her voice trembled perceptibly; +but after a minute she grew used to the sound of it, and read steadily. + + + TRAILING ARBUTUS. + + I always think, when looking + At its mingled rose and white, + Of the pink lips of children + Put up to say good-night. + + + Cuddled its green leaves under, + Like babies in their beds, + Its blossoms shy and sunny + Conceal their pretty heads. + + + And when I lift the blanket up, + And peep inside of it, + They seem to give me smile for smile, + Nor be afraid a bit. + + + Dear little flower, the earliest + Of all the flowers that are; + Twinkling upon the bare, brown earth, + As on the clouds a star. + + + How can we fail to love it well, + Or prize it more and more! + It is the first small signal + That winter time is o'er; + + + That spring has not forgotten us, + Though late and slow she be, + But is upon her flying way, + And we her face shall see. + + +This production caused quite a sensation among the girls. They had +never heard any of Clover's verses before, and thought these wonderful. + +"Why!" cried Sally Alsop, "it is almost as good as Tupper!" Sally +meant this for a great compliment, for she was devoted to the +"Proverbial Philosophy." + +"A Poem by E.D." was the next thing on the list. Esther Dearborn rose +with great pomp and dignity, cleared her throat, put on a pair of eye- +glasses, and began. + + + MISS JANE. + + Who ran to catch me on the spot, + If I the slightest rule forgot, + Believing and excusing not? + Miss Jane. + + Who lurked outside my door all day + In hopes that I would disobey, + And some low whispered word would say? + Miss Jane. + + Who caught our Rose-bud half way through + The wall which parted her from two + Friends, and that small prank made her rue? + Miss Jane. + + Who is our bane, our foe, our fear? + Who's always certain to appear + Just when we do not think her near? + Miss Jane. + + +--"Who down the hall is creeping now + With stealthy step, but knowing not how + Exactly to discover"-- + +broke in Rose, improvising rapidly. Next moment came a knock at the +door. It was Miss Jane. + +"Your drawers, Miss Carr,--your cupboard,"--she said, going across +the room and examining each in turn. There was no fault to be found +with either, so she withdrew, giving the laughing girls a suspicious +glance, and remarking that it was a bad habit to sit on beds,--it +always injured them. + +"Do you suppose she heard?" whispered Mary Silver. + +"No, I don't think she did," replied Rose. "Of course she suspected +us of being in some mischief or other,--she always does that. Now, +Mary, it's you turn to give us an intellectual treat. Begin." + +Poor Mary shrank back, blushing and protesting. + +"You know I can't," she said, "I'm too stupid." + +"Rubbish!" cried Rose, "You're the dearest girl that ever was." She +gave Mary's shoulder a reassuring pat. + +"Mary is excused this time," put in Katy. "It is the first meeting, +so I shall be indulgent. But, after this, every member will be +expected to contribute something for each meeting. I mean to be +very strict." + +"Oh, I never, never can!" cried Mary. Rose was down on her at once. +"Nonsense! hush!" she said. "Of course you can. You shall, if I +have to write it for you myself!" + +"Order!" said the President, rapping on the table with a pencil. +"Rose has something to read us." + +Rose stood up with great gravity. "I would ask for a moment's delay, +that the Society may get out its pocket-handkerchiefs," she said. +"My piece is an affecting one. I didn't mean it, but it came so. We +cannot always be cheerful." Here she heaved a sigh, which set the +S. S. U. C. to laughing, and began. + + + A SCOTCH POEM. + + Wee, crimson-tippet Willie Wink, + Wae's me, drear, dree, and dra, + A waeful thocht, a fearsome flea, + A wuther wind, and a'. + + Sair, sair thy mither sabs her lane, + Her een, her mou, are wat; + Her cauld kail hae the corbies ta'en, + And grievously she grat. + + Ah, me, the suthering of the wind! + Ah, me, the waesom mither! + Ah, me the bairnies left ahind, + The shither, hither, blither! + + +"What _does_ it mean?" cried the girls, as Rose folded up the paper +and sat down. + +"Mean?" said Rose, "I'm sure I don't know. It's Scotch, I tell you! +It's the kind of thing that people read, and then they say, 'One of +the loveliest gems that Burns ever wrote!' I thought I'd see if I +couldn't do one too. Anybody can, I find: it's not at all difficult." + +All the poems having been read, Katy now proposed that they should +play "Word and Question." She and Clover were accustomed to the +game at home, but to some of the others it was quite new. + +Each girl was furnished with a slip of paper and a pencil, and was +told to write a word at the top of the paper, fold it over, and pass +it to her next left-hand neighbor. + +"Dear me! I don't know what to write," said Mary Silver. + +"Oh, write any thing," said Clover. So Mary obediently wrote "Any +thing," and folded it over. + +"What next?" asked Alice Gibbons. + +"Now a question," said Katy. "Write it under the word, and fold over +again. No, Amy, not _on_ the fold. Don't you see, if you do, the +writing will be on the wrong side of the paper when we come to read?" + +The questions were more troublesome than the words, and the girls sat +frowning and biting their pencil-tops for some minutes before all were +done. As the slips were handed in, Katy dropped them into the lid of +her work-basket, and thoroughly mixed and stirred them up. + +"Now," she said, passing it about, "each draw one, read, and write a +rhyme in which the word is introduced and the question answered. It +needn't be more than two lines, unless you like. Here, Rose, it's +your turn first." + +"Oh, what a hard game!" cried some of the girls; but pretty soon they +grew interested, and began to work over their verses. + +"I should uncommonly like to know who wrote this abominable word," +said Rose, in a tone of despair. "Clover, you rascal, I believe it +was you." + +Clover peeped over her shoulder, nodded, and laughed. + +"Very well then!" snatching up Clover's slip, and putting her own in +its place, "you can just write on it yourself,--I shan't! I never +heard of such a word in my life! You made it up for the occasion, +you know you did!" + +"I didn't! it's in the Bible," replied Clover, setting to work +composedly on the fresh paper. But when Rose opened Clover's slip +she groaned again. + +"It's just as bad as the other!" she cried. "Do change back again, +Clovy,--that's a dear." + +"No, indeed!" said Clover, guarding her paper: "you've changed once, +and now you must keep what you have." + +Rose made a face, chewed her pencil awhile, and then began to write +rapidly. For some minutes not a word was spoken. + +"I've done!" said Esther Dearborn at last, flinging her paper into the +basket-lid. + +"So have I!" said Katy. + +One by one the papers were collected and jumbled into a heap. Then +Katy, giving all a final shake, drew out one, opened it, and read. + + + WORD.--Radishes. + QUESTION.--How do you like your clergymen done? + + How do I like them done? Well, that depends. + I like them _done_ on sleepy, drowsy Sundays; + I like them under-done on other days; + Perhaps a little _over_-done on Mondays. + But always I prefer them old as pa, + And not like radishes, all red and raw. + + +"Oh, _what_ a rhyme! cried Clover. + +"Well,--what is one to do?" said Ellen Gray. Then she stopped and bit +her lip, remembering that no one was supposed to know who wrote the +separate papers. + +"Aha! it's your, is it, Ellen?" said Rose. "You're an awfully clever +girl, and an ornament to the S. S. U. C. Go on, Katy." + +Katy opened the second slip. + + + WORD.--Anything. + QUESTION.--Would you rather be a greater fool than you seem, or seem + a greater fool than you are? + + I wouldn't seem a fool for anything, my dear, + If I could help it; but I can't, I fear. + + +"Not bad," said Rose, nodding her head at Sally Alsop, who blushed +crimson. + +The third paper ran,-- + + + WORD.--Mahershahalhashbaz. + QUESTION.--Does your mother know you're out? + +Rose and Clover exchanged looks. + + + Why, of course my mother knows it, + For she sent me out herself. + She told me to run quickly, for + It wasn't but a mile; + But I found it was much farther, + And my feet grew tired and weary, + And I couldn't hurry greatly, + So I took a long, long while. + Beside, I stopped to read your word, + A stranger one I never heard! + I've met with _Pa_-pistical, + That's pat; + But _Ma-hershahalhashbaz, + What's that? + + +"Oh, Clovy, you bright little thing!" cried Rose, in fits of laughter. +But Mary Silver looked quite pale. + +"I never heard of any thing so awful!" she said. "If that word had +come to me, I should have fainted away on the spot,--I know I should!" + +Next came-- + + + WORD.--Buttons. + QUESTION.--What is the best way to make home happy? + + To me 'tis quite clear I can answer this right: + Sew on the buttons, and sew them on tight. + + +"I suspect that is Amy's," said Esther: "she's such a model for mending +and keeping things in order." + +"It's not fair, guessing aloud in this way," said Sally Alsop. Sally +always spoke for Amy, and Amy for Sally. "Voice and Echo" Rose called +them: only, as she remarked, nobody could tell which was Echo and +which Voice. + +The next word was "Mrs. Nipson," and the question, "Do you like +flowers?" + + + Do I like flowers? I will not write a sonnet, + Singing their beauty as a poet might do: + I just detest those on Aunt Nipson's bonnet, + Because they are like her,--all gray and blue, + Dusty and pinched, and fastened on askew! + And as for heaven's own buttercups and daisies, + I am not good enough to sing their praises. + + +Nobody knew who wrote this verse. Katy suspected Louisa, and Rose +suspected Katy. + +The sixth slip was a very brief one. + + + WORD.--When? + QUESTION.--Are you willing? + + If I wasn't willing, I would tell you; + But when-- Oh, dear, I _can't!_ + + +"What an extraordinary rhyme!" began Clover, but Rose spied poor Mary +blushing and looking distressed, and hastily interposed,-- + +"It's very good, I'm sure. I wish I'd written it. Go on, Katy." + +So Katy went on. + + + WORD.--Unfeeling. + QUESTION.--Which would you rather do, or go fishing? + + I don't feel up to fishing or such; + And so, if you please, I'd rather do--which? + + +"I don't seem to see the word in that poem," said Rose. "The +distinguished author will please write another." + +"The distinguished author" made no reply to this suggestion; but, +after a minute or two, Esther Dearborn, "quite disinterestedly," as +she stated, remarked that, after all, to "don't feel" was pretty much +the same as unfeeling. There was a little chorus of groans at this, +and Katy said she should certainly impose a fine if such dodges and +evasions were practised again. This was the first meeting, however, +and she would be merciful. After this speech she unfolded another +paper. It ran,-- + + + WORD.--Flea. + QUESTION.--What would you do, love? + + What would I do, love? Well, I do not know. + How can I tell till you are more explicit? + If 'twere a rose you held me, I would smell it; + If 'twere a mouth you held me, I would kiss it; + If 'twere a frog, I'd scream than furies louder' + If 'twere a flea, I'd fetch the Lyons Powder. + + +Only two slips remained. One was Katy's own. She knew it by the way +in which it was folded, and had almost instinctively avoided and left +it for the last. Now, however, she took courage and opened it. The +word was "Measles," and the question, "Who was the grandmother of +Invention?" These were the lines:-- + + + The night was horribly dark, + The measles broke out in the Ark: + Little Japher, and Shem, and all the young Hams, + Were screaming at once for potatoes and clams. + And "What shall I do," said poor Mrs. Noah, + "All alone by myself in this terrible shower: + I know what I'll do: I'll step down in the hold, + And wake up a lioness grim and old, + And tie her close to the children's door, + And giver her a ginger-cake to roar + At the top of her voice for an hour or more; + And I'll tell the children to cease their din, + Or I'll let that grim old party in, + To stop their squeazles and likewise their measles."-- + She practised this with the greatest success. + She was every one's grandmother, I guess. + + +"That's much the best of all!" pronounced Alice Gibbons. "I wonder +who wrote it?" + +"Dear me! did you like it so much?" said Rose, simpering, and doing +her best to blush. + +"Did you really write it?" said Mary; but Louisa laughed, and +exclaimed, "No use, Rosy! you can't take us in,--we know better!" + +"Now for the last," said Katy. "The word is 'Buckwheat,' and the +question, 'What is the origin of dreams?'" + + + When the nuns are sweetly sleeping, + Mrs. Nipson comes a-creeping, + Creeping like a kitty-cat from door to door; + And she listens to their slumbers, + And most carefully she numbers, + Counting for every nun a nunlet snore! + And the nuns in sweet forgetfulness who lie, + Dreaming of buckwheat cakes, parental love, and--pie; + Moan softly, twist and turn, and see + Black cats and fiends, who frolic in their glee; + And nightmares prancing wildly do abound + While Mrs. Nipson makes her nightly round. + + +"Who did write that?" exclaimed Rose. Nobody answered. The girls +looked at each other, and Rose scrutinized them all with sharp +glances. + +"Well! I never saw such creatures for keeping their countenances," +she said. "Somebody is as bold as brass. Didn't you see how I +blushed when my piece was read?" + +"You monkey!" whispered Clover, who at that moment caught sight of the +handwriting on the paper. Rose gave her a warning pinch, and the both +subsided into an unseen giggle. + +"What! The tea-bell!" cried everybody. "We wanted to play another +game." + +"It's a complete success!" whispered Rose, ecstatically, as they went +down the hall. "The girls all say they never had such a good time in +their lives. I'm so glad I didn't die with the measles when I was +little!" + +"Well," demanded Lilly, "so the high and mighty Society has had a +meeting! How did it go off?" + +"_De_licious!" replied Rose, smacking her lips as at the recollection +of something very nice. "But you mustn't ask any questions, Lilly. +Outsiders have nothing to do with the S. S. U. C. Our proceedings +are strictly private." She ran downstairs with Katy. + +"I think you're real mean!" called Lilly after them. Then she said +to herself, "They're just trying to tease. I know it was stupid." + + + + +CHAPTER VII. INJUSTICE. + + +Summer was always slow in getting to Hillsover, but at last she +arrived, and woods and hills suddenly put on new colors and became +beautiful. The sober village shared in the glorifying process. +Vines budded on piazzas. Wistaria purpled white-washed walls. The +brown elm boughs which hung above the Common turned into trailing +garlands of fresh green. Each walk revealed some change, or ended +in some delightful discovery, trilliums, dog-tooth violets, apple- +trees in blossom, or wild strawberries turning red. The wood +flowers and mosses, even the birds and bird-songs, were new to our +Western girls. Hillsover, in summer, was a great deal prettier than +Burnet, and Katy and Clover began to enjoy school very much indeed. + +Toward the end of June, however, something took place which gave them +quite a different feeling,--something so disagreeable that I hate to +tell about it: but, as it really happened, I must. + +It was on a Saturday morning. They had just come upstairs, laughing, +and feeling very merry; for Clover had written a droll piece for the +S. S. U. C. meeting, and was telling Katy about it, when, just at the +head of the stairs, they met Rose Red. She was evidently in trouble, +for she looked flushed and excited, and was under escort of Miss +Barnes, who marched before her with the air of a policeman. As she +passed the girls, Rose opened her eyes very wide, and made a face +expressive of dismay. + +"What's the matter?" whispered Clover. Rose only made another grimace, +clawed with her fingers at Miss Barnes's back, and vanished down the +entry which led to Mrs. Florence's room. They stood looking after her. + +"Oh, dear!" sighed Clover, "I'm so afraid Rose is in a scrape." + +They walked on toward Quaker Row. In the wash-room was a knot of +girls, with their heads close together, whispering. When they saw +Katy and Clover, they became silent, and gazed at them curiously. + +"What has Rose Red gone to Mrs. Florence about?" asked Clover, too +anxious to notice the strange manner of the girls. But at that moment +she caught sight of something which so amazed her that she forgot her +question. It was nothing less than her own trunk, with "C. E. C." at +the end, being carried along the entry by two men. Miss Jane followed +close behind, with her arms full of clothes and books. Katy's well- +know scarlet pin-cushion topped the pile; in Miss Jane's hand were +Clover's comb and brush. + +"Why, what does this mean?" gasped Clover, as she and Katy darted after +Miss Jane, who had turned into one of the rooms. It was No. 1, at the +head of the row,--a room which no one had wanted, on account of its +smallness and lack of light. The window looked out on a brick wall +not ten feet away; there was never a ray of sun to make it cheerful; +and Mrs. Nipson had converted it into a store-room for empty trunks. +The trunks were taken away now, and the bed was strewn with Katy's +and Clovers possessions. + +"Miss Jane, what is the matter? What are you moving our things for?" +exclaimed the girls in great excitement. + +Miss Jane laid down her load of dress, and looked them sternly. + +"You know the reason as well as I do," she said icily. + +"No, I don't. I haven't the least idea what you mean!" cried Katy. +"Oh, please be careful!" as Miss Jane flung a pair of boots on top of +Cousin Helen's vase, "you'll break it! Dear, dear! Clover, there's +your Cologne bottle tipped over, and all the Cologne spilt! What does +it mean? Is our room going to be painted, or what?" + +"Your room," responded Miss Jane, "is for the future to be this,--No. +1. Miss Benson and Miss James will take No. 6; and, it is to be hoped, +will conduct themselves more properly than you have done." + +"Than we have done!" cried Katy, hardly believing her ears. + +"Do not repeat my words in that rude way!" said Miss Jane, tartly. +"Yes, than you have done!" + +"But what have we done? There is some dreadful mistake! Do tell us +what you mean, Miss Jane! We have done nothing wrong, so far as I +know!" + +"Indeed!" replied Miss Jane, sarcastically. "Your ideas of right and +wrong must be peculiar! I advise you to say no more on the subject, +but be thankful that Mrs. Florence keeps you in the school at all, +instead of dismissing you. Nothing but the fact that your home is +at such a distance prevents her from doing so." + +Katy felt as if all the blood in her body were turned to fire as she +heard these words, and met Miss Jane's eyes. Her old, hasty temper, +which had seemed to die out during years of pain and patience, flashed +into sudden life, as a smouldering coal flashes, when you least expect +it, into flame. She drew herself up to her full height, gave Miss Jane +a look of scorching indignation, and, with a rapid impulse, darted out +of the room and along the hall towards Mrs. Florence's door. The girls +she met scattered from her path right and left. She looked so tall +and moved so impetuously that she absolutely frightened them. + +"Come in," said Mrs. Florence, in answer to her sharp, quivering knock. +Katy entered. Rose was not there, and Mrs. Florence and Mrs. Nipson +sat together, side by side, in close consultation. + +"Mrs. Florence," said Katy, too much excited to feel in the least +afraid, "will you please tell me why our things are being changed +to No. 1?" + +Mrs. Florence flushed with anger. She looked Katy all over for a +minute before she answered, then she said, in a sever voice, "It +is done by my orders, and for good and sufficient reasons. What +those reasons are, you know as well as I." + +"No, I don't!" replied Katy, as angry as Mrs. Florence. "I haven't +the least idea what they are, and I insist on knowing!" + +"I cannot answer questions put in such an improper manner," said Mrs. +Florence, with a wave of the hand which meant that Katy was to go. +But Katy did not stir. + +"I am sorry if my manner was improper," she said, trying to speak +quietly, "but I think I have a right to ask what this means. If we +are accused of doing wrong, it is only fair to tell us what it is." + +Mrs. Florence only waved her hand again; but Mrs. Nipson, who had been +twisting uneasily in her chair, said, "Excuse me, Mrs. Florence, but +perhaps it would better--would satisfy Miss Carr better--if you were +to be explicit." + +"It does not seem to me that Miss Carr can be in need of any +explanation," replied Mrs. Florence. "When a young lady writes +underhand notes to young gentlemen, and throws them from her window, +and they are discovered, she must naturally expect that persons of +correct ideas will be shocked and disgusted. Your note to Mr. +Abernathy Searles, Miss Carr, was found by his mother while mending +his pocket, and was handed by her to me. After this statement you +will hardly be surprised that I do not consider it best to permit +you to room longer on that side of the house. I did not suppose I +had a girl in my school capable of such conduct." + +For a moment Katy was too much stunned to speak. She took hold of a +chair to steady herself, and her color changed so quickly from red to +pale and back again to red, that Mrs. Florence and Mrs. Nipson, who +sat watching her, might be pardoned for thinking that she looked +guilty. As soon as she recovered her voice, she stammered out, "But +I didn't! I never did! I haven't written any note! I wouldn't for +the world! Oh, Mrs. Florence, please believe me!" + +"I prefer to believe the evidence of my eyes," replied Mrs. Florence, +as she drew a paper from her pocket. "Here is the note! I suppose +you will hardly deny your own signature." + +Katy seized the note. It was written in a round, unformed hand, and +ran thus:-- + + +"Dear Berry,--I saw you last night on the green. I think you are +splendid. All the nuns think so. I look at you very often out of +my window. If I let down a string, would you tie a cake to it, like +that kind which you threw to Mary Andrews last term? Tie two cakes, +please; one for me and one for my room-mate. The string will be at +the end of the Row. + "Miss Carr." + + +In spite of her agitation, Katy could hardly keep back a smile as she +read this absurd production. Mrs. Florence saw the smile, and her +tone was more severe than ever, as she said,-- + +"Give that back to me, if you please, It will be my justification +with your father if he objects to your change of room." + +"But, Mrs. Florence," cried Katy, "I never wrote that note. It isn't +my handwriting; it isn't my-- Oh, surely you can't think so! It's +too ridiculous." + +"Go to your room at once," said Mrs. Florence, "and be thankful that +your punishment is such a mild one. If your home were not so distant, +I should write to ask your father to remove you from the school; +instead of which, I merely put you on the other side of the entry, +out of reach of farther correspondence of this sort." + +"But _I_ shall write him, and he will take us away immediately," cried +Katy, stung to the quick by this obstinate injustice. "I will not +stay, neither shall Clover, where our word is disbelieved, and we are +treated like this. Papa knows! Papa will never doubt us a moment +when we tell him that this isn't true." + +With these passionate words she left the room. I do not think that +either Mrs. Florence or Mrs. Nipson felt very comfortable after she +was gone. + +That was a dreadful afternoon. The girls had no heart to arrange No. +1, or do any thing toward making it comfortable, but lay on the bed +in the midst of their belongings, crying, and receiving visits of +condolence from their friends. The S. S. U. C. meeting was put off. +Katy was in no humor to act as president, or Clover to read her funny +poem. Rose and Mary Silver sat by, kissing them at intervals, and +declaring that it was a shame, while the other members dropped in one +by one to re-echo the same sentiments. + +"If it had been anybody else!" said Alice Gibbons; "but Katy of all +persons! It is too much!" + +"So I told Mrs. Florence," sobbed Rose Red. "Oh, why was I born so +bad? If I'd always been good, and a model to the rest of you, perhaps +she'd have believed me instead of scolding harder than ever." + +The idea of Rose as a "model" made Clover smile in the midst of her +dolefulness. + +"It's an outrageous thing," said Ellen Gray, "if Mrs. Florence only +knew it, you two have done more to keep the rest of us steady than +any girls in school." + +"So they have," blubbered Rose, whose pretty face was quite swollen +with crying. "I've been getting better and better every day since +they came." She put her arms round Clover as she spoke, and sobbed +harder than ever. + +It was in the midst of this excitement that Miss Jane saw fit to come +in and "inspect the room." When she saw the crying girls and the +general confusion of every thing, she was very angry. + +"I shall mark you both for disorder," she said. "Get off the bed, +Miss Carr. Hang your dresses up at once, Clover, and put your shoes +in the shoe-bag. I never saw any thing so disgraceful. All these +things must be in order when I return, fifteen minutes from now, or +I shall report you to Mrs. Florence." + +"It's of no consequence what you do. We are not going to stay," +muttered Katy. But soon she was ashamed of having said this. Her +anger was melting, and grief taking its place. "Oh, papa! papa! +Elsie! Elsie!" she whispered to herself, as she slowly hung up the +dresses; and, unseen by the girls, she hid her face in the folds of +Clover's gray alpaca, and shed some hot tears. Till then she had +been too angry to cry. + +This softer mood followed her all through the evening. Clover and +Rose sat by, talking over the affair and keeping their wrath warm +with discussion. Katy said hardly a word. She felt too weary and +depressed to speak. + +"Who could have written the note?" asked Clover again and again. It +was impossible to guess. It seemed absurd to suspect any of the older +girls; but then, as Rose suggested, the absurdity as well as the +signature might have been imitated to avoid detection. + +"I know one thing" remarked Rose, "and that is that I should like to +kill Mrs. Searles. Horrid old thing!--peeping and prying into pockets. +She has no business to be alive at all." + +Rose's ferocious speeches always sounded specially comical when taken +in connection with her pink cheeks and her dimples. + +"Shall you write to papa to-night, Katy?" asked Clover. + +Katy shook her head. She was too heavy-hearted to talk. Big tears +rolled down unseen and fell upon the pillow. After Rose was gone, +and the candle out, she cried herself to sleep. + +Waking early in the dim dawn, she lay and thought it over, Clover +slumbering soundly beside her meanwhile. "Morning brings counsel," +says the old proverb. In this case it seemed true. Katy, to her +surprise, found a train of fresh thoughts filling her mind, which were +not there when she fell asleep. She recalled her passionate words +and feelings of the day before. Now that the mood had passed, they +seemed to her worse than the injury which provoked them. Quick- +tempered and generous people often experience this. It was easier +for Katy to forgive Mrs. Florence, because it was needful also that +she should forgive herself. + +"I said I would write to papa to take us away," she thought "Why +did I say that? What good would it do? It wouldn't make anybody +disbelieve this hateful story. They'd only think I wanted to get +away because I was found out. And papa would be so worried and +disappointed. It has cost him a great deal to get us ready and send +us here, and he wants us to stay a year. If we went home now, all +the money would be wasted. And yet how horrid it is going to be +after this! I don't feel as if I could ever bear to see Mrs. +Florence again. I must write. + +"But then," her thoughts flowed on, "home wouldn't seem like home if +we went away from school in disgrace, and knew that everybody here +was believing such things. Suppose, instead, I were to write to +papa to come on and make things straight. He'd find out the truth, +and force Mrs. Florence to see it. It would be very expensive, +though; and I know he oughtn't to leave home again so soon. Oh, +dear! How hard it is to know what to do!" + +"What would Cousin Helen say?" she continued, going in imagination +to the sofa-side of the dear friend who was to her like a second +conscience. She shut her eyes and invented a long talk,--her +questions, Cousin Helen's replies. But, as everybody knows, it is +impossible to play croquet by yourself and be strictly impartial to +all the four balls. Katy found that she was making Cousin Helen +play (that is, answer) as she herself wished, and not, as something +whispered, she would answer were she really there. + +"It is just the 'Little Scholar' over again," she said, half aloud, +"I can't see. I don't know how to act." She remembered the dream +she once had, of a great beautiful Face and a helping hand. "And +it was real," she murmured, "and just as real, and just as near, +now as then." + +The result of this long meditation was that, when Clover woke up, +she found Katy leaning over, ready to kiss her for good morning, +and looking bright and determined. + +"Clovy," she said, "I've been thinking; and I'm not going to write +to papa about this affair at all!" + +"Aren't you? Why not?" asked Clover, puzzled. + +"Because it would worry him, and be of no use. He would come on and +take us right away, I'm sure; but Mrs. Florence and all the teachers, +and a great many of the girls, would always believe that this horrid, +ridiculous story is true. I can't bear to have them. Let's stay, +instead, and convince them that it isn't. I think we can." + +"I would a great deal rather go home," said Clover. "It won't ever +be nice here again. We shall have this dark room, and Miss Jane will +be more unkind than ever, and the girls will think you wrote that +note, and Lilly Page will say hateful things!" She buttoned her +boots with a vindictive air. + +"Never mind," said Katy, trying to feel brave. "I don't suppose it +will be pleasant, but I'm pretty sure it's right. And Rosy and all +the girls we really care for know how it is." + +"I can't bear it," sighed Clover, with tears in her eyes. "It is so +cruel that they should say such things about you." + +"I mean that they shall say something quite different before we go +away," replied Katy, stroking her hair. "Cousin Helen would tell +us to stay, I'm pretty sure. I was thinking about her just now, +and I seemed to hear her voice in the air, saying over and over, +'Live it down! Live it down! Live it down!'" She half sang this, +and took two or three dancing steps across the room. + +"What a girl you are!" said Clover, consoled by seeing Katy look +so bright. + +Mrs. Florence was surprised that morning, as she sat in her room, by +the appearance of Katy. She looked pale, but perfectly quiet and +gentle. + +"Mrs. Florence," she said, "I've come to say that I shall not write +to my father to take us away, as I told you I should." + +Mrs. Florence bowed stiffly, by way of answer. + +"Not," went on Katy, with a little flash in her eyes, "that he would +hesitate, or doubt my word one moment, if I did. But he wished us +to stay here a year, and I don't want to disappoint him. I'd rather +stay. And, Mrs. Florence, I'm sorry I was angry, and felt that you +were unjust." + +"And to-day you own that I was not?" + +"Oh, no!" replied Katy, "I can't do that. You _were_ unjust, because +neither Clover nor I wrote that note. We wouldn't do such a horrid +thing for the world, and I hope some day you will believe us. But I +oughtn't to have spoken so." + +Katy's face and voice were so truthful as she said this, that Mrs. +Florence was almost shaken in her opinion. + +"We will say no more about the matter," she remarked, in a kinder +tone. "If your conduct is perfectly correct in future, it will go +far to make this forgotten." + +Few things are more aggravating than to be forgiven when one has done +no wrong. Katy felt this as she walked away from Mrs. Florence's +room. But she would not let herself grow angry again. "Live it +down!" she whispered, as she went into the school-room. + +She and Clover had a good deal to endure for the next two or three +weeks. They missed their old room with its sunny window and pleasant +outlook. They missed Rose, who, down at the far end of Quaker Row, +could not drop in half so often as had been her custom. Miss Jane +was specially grim and sharp; and some of the upstairs girls, who +resented Katy's plain speaking, and the formation of a society against +flirting, improved the chance to be provoking. Lilly Page was one of +these. She didn't really believe Katy guilty, but she liked to tease +her by pretending to believe it. + +"Only to think of the President of the Saintly Stuck-Up Society being +caught like this!" she remarked, maliciously. "What are our great +reformers coming to? Now if it had been a sinner like me, no one +would be surprised!" + +All this naturally was vexatious. Even sunny Clover shed many tears +in private over her mortifications. But the girls bore their trouble +bravely, and never said one syllable about the matter in the letters +home. There were consolations, too, mixed with the annoyances. Rose +Red clung to her two friends closely, and loyally fought their battles. +The S. S. U. C. to a girl rallied round its chief. After that sad +Saturday the meetings were resumed with as much spirit as ever. +Katy's steadiness and uniform politeness and sweet temper impressed +even those who would have been glad to believe a tale against her, +and in short time the affair ceased to be a subject for discussion,-- +was almost forgotten, in fact, except for a sore spot in Katy's heart, +and one page in Rose Red's album, upon which, under the date of that +fatal day, were written these words, headed by an appalling skull +and cross-bones in pen-and-ink:-- + + "N. B.--Pay Miss Jane off." + + + + +CHAPTER VIII. CHANGES. + + +"Clover, where's Clover?" cried Rose Red, popping her head into the +schoolroom, where Katy sat writing her composition. "Oh, Katy! there +you are. I want you too. Come down to my room right away. I've such +a thing to tell you!" + +"What is it?" Tell me too!" said Bella Arkwright. Bella was a +veritable "little pitcher," of the kind mentioned in the Proverb, +and had an insatiable curiosity to know every thing that other +people knew. + +"Tell you, Miss? I should really like to know why!" replied Rose, +who was not at all fond of Bella. + +"You're real mean, and real unkind," whined Bella. "You think you're +a great grown-up lady, and can have secrets. But you ain't! You're +a little girl too,--most as little as me. So there!" + +Rose made a face at her, and a sort of growling rush, which had the +effect of sending Bella screaming down the hall. Then, returning to +the school-room,-- + +"Do come, Katy," she said: "find Clover, and hurry! Really and truly +I want you. I feel as if I should burst if I don't tell somebody +right away what I've found out." + +Katy began to be curious. She went in pursuit of Clover, who was +practising in one of the recitation-rooms, and the three girls ran +together down Quaker Row. + +"Now," said Rose, locking the door, and pushing forward a chair for +Katy and another for Clover, "swear that you won't tell, for this is +a real secret,--the greatest secret that ever was, and Mrs. Florence +would flay me alive if she knew that I knew!" She paused to enjoy +the effect of her words, and suddenly began to snuff the air in a +peculiar manner. + +"Girls," she said, solemnly, "that little wretch of a Bella is in this +room. I am sure of it." + +"What makes you think so?" cried the others supervised. + +"I smell that dreadful pomatum that she puts on her hair! Don't you +notice it? She's hidden somewhere." Rose looked sharply about for +a minute, then made a pounce, and from under the bed dragged a small +kicking heap. It was the guilty Bella. + +"What were you doing there, you bad child?" demanded Rose, seizing the +kicking feet and holding them fast. + +"I don't care," blubbered Bella, "you wouldn't tell me your secret. +You're a real horrid girl, Rose Red. I don't love you a bit." + +"Your affection is not a thing which I particularly pine for," retorted +Rose, seating herself, and holding the culprit before her by the ends +of her short pig-tails. "I don't want little girls who peep and hide +to love me. I'd rather they wouldn't. Now listen. Do you know what +I shall do if you ever come again into my room without leave. First, +I shall cut off your hair, pomatum and all, with my penknife,"--Bella +screamed,--"and then I'll turn myself into a bear--a great brown bear +--and eat you up." Rose pronounced this threat with tremendous energy, +and accompanied it with a snarl which showed all her teeth. Bella +roared with fright, twitched away her pig-tails, unlocked the door and +fled, Rose not pursuing, but sitting comfortably in her chair and +growling at intervals, till her victim was out of hearing. Then she +rose and bolted the door again. + +"How lucky that the imp is so fond of that smelly pomatum!" she +remarked: "one always knows where to look for her. It's as good as +a bell round her neck! Now, for the secret. You promise not to tell? +Well, then, Mrs. Florence is going away week after next, and, what's +more,--she's going to be married!" + +"Not really!" cried the others. + +"Really and truly. She's going to be married to a clergyman." + +"How did you find out?" + +"Why, it's the most curious thing. You know my blue lawn, which Miss +James is making. This morning I went to try it on, Miss Barnes with +me of course, and while Miss James was fitting the waist Mrs. Seccomb +came in and sat down on the sofa by Miss Barnes. They began to talk, +and pretty soon Mrs. Seccomb said, 'What day does Mrs. Florence go?" + +"'Thursday week,' said Miss Barnes. She sort of mumbled it, and +looked to see if I were listening. I wasn't; but of course after +that I did,--as hard as I could. + +"'And where does the important event take place?' asked Mrs. Seccomb. +She's so funny with her little bit of a mouth and her long words. +She always looks as if each of them was a big pill, and she wanted +to swallow it and couldn't. + +"'In Lewisberg, at her sister's house,' said Miss Barnes. She mumbled +more than ever, but I heard. + +"'What a deplorable loss she will be to our limited circle!' said Mrs. +Seccomb. I couldn't imagine what they meant. But don't you think, +when I got home there was this letter from Sylvia, and she says, 'Your +adored Mrs. Florence is going to be married. I'm afraid you'll all +break your hearts about it. Mother met the gentleman at a party the +other night. She says he looks clever, but isn't at all handsome, +which is a pity, for Mrs. Florence is a raving beauty in my opinion. +He's an excellent preacher, we hear; and won't she manage the parish +to perfection? How shall you like being left to the tender mercies +of Mrs. Nipson?' Now did you ever hear any thing so droll in your +life?" went on Rose, folding up her letter. "Just think of those two +things coming together the same day! It's like a sum in arithmetic, +with an answer which 'proves' the sum, isn't it?" + +Rose had counted on producing an effect, and she certainly was not +disappointed. The girls could think and talk of nothing else for +the remainder of that afternoon. + +It was a singular fact that before two days were over every scholar +in the school knew that Mrs. Florence was going to be married! How +the secret got out, nobody could guess. Rose protested that it +wasn't her fault,--she had been a miracle of discretion, a perfect +sphinx; but there was a guilty laugh in her eyes, and Katy suspected +that the sphinx had unbent a little. Nothing so exciting had ever +happened at the Nunnery before. Some of the older scholars were +quite inconsolable. They bemoaned themselves, and got together in +corners to enjoy the luxury of woe. Nothing comforted them but the +project of getting up a "testimonial" for Mrs. Florence. + +What this testimonial should be caused great discussion in the school. +Everybody had a different idea, and everybody was sure that her idea +was better than anybody's else. All the school contributed. The +money collected amounted to nearly forty dollars, and the question +was, What should be bought? + +Every sort of thing was proposed. Lilly Page insisted that nothing +could possibly be so appropriate as a bouquet of wax flowers and a +glass shade to put over it. There was a strong party in favor of +spoons. Annie Silsbie suggested "a statue;" somebody else a clock. +Rose Red was for a cabinet piano, and Katy had some trouble in +convincing her that forty dollars would not buy one. Bella demanded +that they should get "an organ." + +"You can go along with it as monkey," said Rose, which remark made +Bella caper with indignation. + +At last, after long discussion and some quarelling, a cake-basket was +fixed upon. Sylvia Redding happened to be making a visit in Boston, +and Rose was commissioned to write and ask her to select the gift +and send it up by express. The girls could hardly wait till it came. + +"I do hope it will be pretty, don't you?" they said over and over +again. When the box arrived, they all gathered to see it opened. +Esther Dearborn took out the nails, half a dozen hands lifted the +lid, and Rose unwrapped the tissue paper and displayed the basket +up to general view. + +"Oh, what a beauty!" cried everybody. It was woven of twisted silver +wire. Two figures of children with wings and garlands supported the +handle on either side. In the middle of the handle were a pair of +silver doves, billing and cooing in the most affectionate way, over +a tiny shield, on which were engraved Mrs. Florence's initials. + +"I never saw one like it!" "Doesn't it look heavy?" cried a chorus +of voices, as Rose, highly gratified, held up the basket. + +"Who shall present it?" asked Louisa Agnew. + +"Rose Red," said some of the girls. + +"No, indeed, I'm not tall enough," protested Rose, "it must be somebody +who'd kind of sweep into the room and be impressive. I vote for Katy." + +"Oh, no!" said Katy, shrinking back, "I shouldn't do it well at all. +Suppose we put it to a vote." + +Ellen Gray cut some slips of paper, and each girl wrote a name and +dropped it into the box. When the votes were counted, Katy's name +appeared on all but three. + +"I propose that we make this vote unanimous," said Rose, highly +delighted. The girls agreed; and Rose, jumping on a chair, exclaimed, +"Three cheers for Katy Carr! keep time, girls,--one, two, hip, hip, +hurrah!" + +The hurrahs were given with enthusiasm, for Katy, almost without +knowing it, had become popular. She was too much touched and +pleased to speak at first. When she did, it was to protest against +her election. + +"Esther would do it beautifully," she said, "and I think Mrs. Florence +would like the basket better if she gave it. You know ever since"-- +she stopped. Even now she could not refer with composure to the +affair of the note. + +"Oh!" cried Louisa, "she's thinking of that ridiculous note Mrs. +Florence made such a fuss about. As if anybody supposed you wrote +it, Katy! I don't believe even Miss Jane is such a goose as that. +Any way, if she is, that's one reason more why you should present +the basket, to show that we don't think so." She gave Katy a kiss +by way of period. + +"Yes, indeed, you're chosen, and you must give it," cried the others. + +"Very well," said Katy, extremely gratified, "what am I to say?" + +"We'll compose a speech for you," replied Rose, "sugar your voice, +Katy, and, whatever you do, stand up straight. Don't crook over, +as if you thought you were tall. It's a bad trick you have, child, +and I'm always sorry to see it," concluded Rose, with the air of a +wise mamma giving a lecture. + +It is droll how much can go on in a school unseen and unsuspected by +its teachers. Mrs. Florence never dreamed that the girls had guessed +her secret. Her plan was to go away as if for a visit, and leave Mrs. +Nipson to explain at her leisure. She was therefore quite unprepared +for the appearance of Katy, holding the beautiful basket, which was +full of fresh roses, crimson, white, and pink. I am afraid the rules +of the S. S. U. C. had been slightly relaxed to allow of Rose Red's +getting these flowers; certainly they grew nowhere in Hillsover except +in Professor Seccomb's garden! + +"The girls wanted me to give you this, with a great deal of love from +us all," said Katy, feeling strangely embarrassed, and hardly venturing +to raise her eyes. She set the basket on the table. "We hope that +you will be happy," she added in a low voice, and moved toward the +door. Mrs. Florence had been to much surprised to speak, but now +she called, "Wait! Come back a moment." + +Katy came back. Mrs. Florence's cheeks were flushed. She looked very +handsome. Katy almost thought there were tears in her eyes. + +"Tell the girls that I thank them very much. Their present is +beautiful. I shall always value it." She blushed as she spoke, and +Katy blushed too. It made her shy to see the usually composed Mrs. +Florence so confused. + +"What did she say? What did she say?" demanded the others, who were +collected in groups round the school-room door to hear a report of +the interview. + +Katy repeated her message. Some of the girls were disappointed. + +"Is that all?" they said. "We thought she would stand up and make a +speech." + +"Or a short poem," put in Rose Red,--"a few stanzas thrown off on the +spur of the moment; like this, for instance:-- + + + "Thank you, kindly, for your basket, + Which I didn't mean to ask it; + But I'll very gladly take it, + And when 'tis full of cake, it + Will frequently remind me + Of the girls I left behind me! + + +There was a universal giggle, which brought Miss Jane out of the +school-room. + +"Order!" she said, ringing the bell. "Young ladies, what are you +about? Study hour has begun." + +"We're so sorry Mrs. Florence is going away," said some of the girls. + +"How did you know that she is going?" demanded Miss Jane, sharply. +Nobody answered. + +Next day Mrs. Florence left. Katy saw her go with a secret regret. + +"If only she would have said that she didn't believe I wrote that +note!" she told Clover. + +"I don't care what she believes! She's a stupid, unjust woman!" +replied independent little Clover. + +Mrs. Nipson was now in sole charge of the establishment. She had +never tried school-keeping before, and had various pet plans and +theories of her own, which she had only been waiting for Mrs. +Florence's departure to put into practice. + +One of these was that the school was to dine three times a week on +pudding and bread and butter. Mrs. Nipson had a theory,--very +convenient and economical for herself, but highly distasteful to her +scholars,--that it was injurious for young people to eat meat every +day in hot weather. + +The puddings were made of batter, with a sprinkling of blackberries +or raisins. Now, rising at six, and studying four hours and a half +on a light breakfast, has wonderful effect on the appetite, as all who +have tried it will testify. The poor girls would go down to dinner +as hungry as wolves, and eye the large, pale slices on their plates +with a wrath and dismay which I cannot describe. Very thick the +slices were, and there was plenty of thin, sugared sauce to eat with +them, and plenty of bread and butter; but, somehow, the whole was +unsatisfying, and the hungry girls would go upstairs almost as +ravenous as when they came down. The second-table-ites were always +hanging over the balusters to receive them, and when to the demand, +"What did you have for dinner?" "Pudding!" was answered, a low groan +would run from one to another, and a general gloom seemed to drop +down and envelop the party. + +It may have been in consequence of this experience of starvation that +the orders for fourth of July were that year so unusually large. It +was an old custom in the school that the girls should celebrate the +National Independence by buying as many goodies as they liked. There +was no candy-shop in Hillsover, so Mrs. Nipson took the orders, and +sent to Boston for the things, which were charged on the bills with +other extras. Under these blissful circumstances, the girls felt +that they could afford to be extravagant, and made out their lists +regardless of expense. Rose Red's, for this Fourth, ran thus:-- + + "Two pounds of Chocolate Caramels. + Two pounds of Sugar almonds. + Two pounds of Lemon Drops. + Two pounds of Mixed Candy. + Two pounds of Maccaroons. + A dozen Oranges. + A dozen Lemons. + A drum of Figs. + A box of French Plums. + A loaf of Almond Cake." + +The result of this liberal order was that, after the great wash-basket +of parcels had been distributed, and the school had rioted for twenty- +four hours upon these unaccustomed luxuries, Rose was found lying on +her bed, ghastly and pallid. + +"Never speak to me of any thing sweet again so long as I live!" she +gasped. "Talk of vinegar, or pickles, or sour apples, but don't +allude to sugar in any form, if you love me! Oh, why, why did I +send for those fatal things?" + +In time all the candy was eaten up, and the school went back to its +normal condition. Three weeks later came College commencement. + +"Are you and Clover Craters or Symposiums?" demanded Lilly Page, +meeting Katy in the hall, a few days before this important event. + +"What do you mean?" + +"Why, has nobody told you about them? They are the two great College +Societies. All the girls belong to one or the other, and make the +wreaths to dress their halls. We work up in the Gymnasium; the Crater +girls take the east side, and the Symposium girls the west, and when +the wreaths grow too long we hang them out of the windows. It's the +greatest fun in the world! Be a Symposium, do! I'm one!" + +"I shall have to think about it before deciding," said Katy, privately +resolving to join Rose Red's Society, whichever it was. The Crater it +proved to be, so Katy and Clover enrolled themselves with the Craters. +Three days before Commencement wreath-making began. The afternoons +were wholly given up to the work, and, instead of walking or piano +practice, the girls sat plaiting oak-leaves into garlands many yards +long. Baskets of fresh leaves were constantly brought in, and there +was a strife between the rival Societies as to which should accomplish +most. + +It was great fun, as Lilly had said, to sit there amid the green +boughs, and pleasant leafy smells, a buzz of gay voices in the air, +and a general sense of holiday. The Gymnasium would have furnished +many a pretty picture for an artist during those three afternoons, +only, unfortunately, no artist was let in to see it. + +One day, Rose Red, emptying a basket, lighted upon a white parcel, +hidden beneath the leaves. + +"Lemon drops!" she exclaimed, applying finger and thumb with all the +dexterity of Jack Horner. "Here, Crater girls, here's something for +you! Don't you pity the Symposiums?" + +But next day a big package of peppermints appeared in the Symposium +basket, so neither Society could boast advantage over the other. They +were pretty nearly equal, too, in the quantity of wreath made,--the +Craters measuring nine hundred yards, and the Symposiums nine hundred +and two. As for the Halls, which they were taken over to see the +evening before Commencement, it was impossible to say which was most +beautifully trimmed. Each faction preferred its own, and President +Searles said that both did the young ladies credit. + +They all sat in the gallery of the church on Commencement Day, and +heard the speeches. It was very hot, and the speeches were not exactly +interesting, being on such subjects as "The Influence of a Republic on +Men of Letters," and "The Abstract Law of Justice, as applied to Human +Affairs;" but the music, and the crowd, and the spectacle of six hundred +ladies all fanning themselves at once, were entertaining, and the girls +would not have missed them for the world. Later in the day another +diversion was afforded them by the throngs of pink and blue ladies +and white-gloved gentlemen who passed the house, on their way to the +President's Levee; but they were not allowed to enjoy this amusement +long, for Miss Jane, suspecting what was going on, went from room to +room, and ordered everybody summarily off to bed. + +With the close of Commencement Day, a deep sleep seemed to settle +over Hillsover. Most of the Professors' families went off to enjoy +themselves at the mountains or the sea-side, leaving their houses shut +up. This gave the village a drowsy and deserted air. There were no +boys playing balls on the Common, or swinging on the College fence; +no look of life in the streets. The weather continued warm, the +routine of study and excercise grew dull, and teachers and scholars +alike were glad when the middle of September arrived, and with it +the opening of the autumn vacation. + + + + +CHAPTER IX. THE AUTUMN VACATION. + + +The last day of the term was one of confusion. Every part of the +house was given over to trunks and packing. Mrs. Nipson sat at her +desk making out bills, and listening to requests about rooms and +room-mates. Miss Jane counted books and atlases, taking note of +each ink-spot and dog-eared page. The girls ran about, searching +for missing articles, deciding what to take home and what to leave, +engaging each other for the winter walks. All rules were laid aside. +The sober Nunnery seemed turned into a hive of buzzing bees. Bella +slid twice down the baluster of the front stairs without being +reproved, and Rose Red threw her arm round Katy's waist and waltzed +the whole length of Quaker Row. + +"I'm so happy that I should like to scream!" she announced, as their +last whirl brought them up against the wall. "Isn't vacation just +lovely? Katy, you don't look half glad." + +"We're not going home, you know," replied Katy, in rather a doleful +tone. She and Clover were not so enraptured at the coming of vacation +as the rest of the girls. Spending a month with Mrs. Page and Lilly +was by no means the same thing as spending it with papa and the +children. + +Next morning, however, when the big stage drove up, and the girls +crowded in; when Mrs. Nipson stood in the door-way, blandly waving +farewell, and the maids flourished their dusters out of the upper +windows, they found themselves sharing the general excitement, and +joining heartily in the cheer which arose as the stage moved away. +The girls felt so happy and good-natured that some of them even +kissed their hands to Miss Jane. + +Such a wild company is not often met with on a railroad train. They +all went together as far as the Junction: and Mr. Gray, Ellen's father, +who had been put in charge of the party by Mrs. Nipson, had his hands +full to keep them in any sort of order. He was a timid old gentleman, +and, as Rose suggested, his expression resembled that of a sedate hen +who suddenly finds herself responsible for the conduct of a brood of +ducklings. + +"My dear, my dear!" he feebly remonstrated, "would you buy any more +candy? Do you not think so many pea-nuts may be bad for you?" + +"Oh, no, sir!" replied Rose, "they never hurt me a bit. I can eat +thousands!" Then, as a stout lady entered the car, and made a motion +toward the vacant seat beside her, she rolled her eyes wildly, and +said, "Excuse me, but perhaps I had better take the end seat so as +to get out easily in case I have a fit." + +"Fits!" cried the stout lady, and walked away with the utmost dispatch. +Rose gave a wicked chuckle, the girls tittered, and Mr. Gray visibly +trembled. + +"Is she really afflicted in this way?" he whispered. + +"Oh, no, papa! it's only Rose's nonsense!" apologized Ellen, who was +laughing as hard as the rest. But Mr. Gray did not feel comfortable, +and he was very glad when they reached the Junction, and half of his +troublesome charge departed on the branch road. + +At six o'clock they arrived in Springfield. Half a dozen papas were +waiting for their daughters, trains stood ready, there was a clamor of +good-bys. Mr. Page was absorbed by Lilly, who kissed him incessantly, +and chattered so fast that he had no eyes for any one else. Louisa +was borne away by an uncle, with whom she was to pass the night, and +Katy and Clover found themselves left alone. They did not like to +interrupt Lilly, so they retreated to a bench, and sat down feeling +rather left-out and home-sick; and, though they did not say so, I am +sure that each was thinking about papa. + +It was only for a moment. Mr. Page spied them, and came up with such +a kind greeting that the forlorn feeling fled at once. They were to +pass the night at the Massasoit, it seemed; and he collected their +bags, and led the way across the street to the hotel, where rooms +were already engaged for them. + +"Now for waffles," whispered Lilly, as they went upstairs; and when, +after a few minutes of washing and brushing, they came down again into +the dining-room, she called for so many things, and announced herself +"starved" in such a tragical tone, that two amused waiters at once +flew to the rescue, and devoted themselves to supplying her wants. +Waffle after waffle--each hotter and crisper than the last--did those +long-suffering men produce, till even Lilly's appetite gave out, and +she was forced to own that she could not swallow another morsel. +This climax reached, they went into the parlor, and the girls sat +down in the window to watch the people in the street, which, after +quiet Hillsover, looked as brilliant and crowded as Broadway. + +There were not many persons in the parlor. A grave-looking couple sat +at a table at some distance, and a pretty little boy in a velvet jacket +was playing around the room. He seemed about five years old; and Katy, +who was fond of children, put out her hand as he went by, caught him, +and lifted him into her lap. He did not seem shy, but looked her in +the face composedly, like a grown person. + +"What is your name, dear?" she asked. + +"Daniel D'Aubigny Sparks," answered the little boy, His voice was prim +and distinct. + +"Do you live at this hotel?" + +"Yes, ma'am. I reside here with my father and mother." + +"And what do you do all day? Are there some other little boys for you +to play with?" + +"I do not wish to play with any little boys," replied Daniel D'Aubigny, +in a dignified tone: "I prefer to be with my parents. To-day we have +taken a walk. We went to see a beautiful conservatory outside the city. +There is a Victoria Regia there. I had often heard of this wonderful +lily, and in the last number of the London 'Musee' there is a picture +of it, represented with a small negro child standing upon one of its +leaves. My father said that he did not think this possible, but when +we saw the plant we perceived that the print was not an exaggeration. +Such is the size of the leaf, that a small negro child might very +easily supported upon it." + +"Oh, my!" cried Katy, feeling as if she had accidentally picked up an +elderly gentleman or a college professor. "Pray, how old are you?" + +"Nearly nine, ma'am," replied the little fellow with a bow. + +Katy, too much appalled for farther speech, let him slide off her lap. +But Mr. Page, who was much diverted, continued the conversation; and +Daniel, mounting a chair, crossed his short legs, and discoursed with +all the gravity of an old man. The talk was principally about himself, +--his tastes, his adventures, his ideas about art and science. Now and +then he alluded to his papa and mamma, and once to his grandfather. + +"My maternal grandfather," he said, "was a remarkable man. In his +youth he spent a great deal of time in France. He was there at the +time of the French Revolution, and, as it happened, was present at +the execution of the unfortunate Queen Marie Antoinette. This of +course was not intentional. It chanced thus. My grandfather was +in a barber's shop, having his hair cut. He saw a great crowd going +by, and went out to ask what was the cause. The crowd was so immense +that he could not extricate himself; he was carried along against +his will, and not only so, but was forced to the front and compelled +to witness every part of the dreadful scene. He has often told my +mother that, after the execution, the executioner held up the queen's +head to the people: the eyes were open, and there was in them an +expression, not of pain, not of fear, but of great astonishment +and surprise." + +This anecdote carried "great astonishment and surprise" into the +company who listened to it. Mr. Page gave a sort of chuckle, and +saying, "By George!" got up and left the room. The girls put their +heads out of the window that they might laugh unseen. Daniel gazed +at their shaking shoulders with an air of wonder, while the grave +couple at the end of the room, who for some moments had been looking +disturbed, drew near and informed the youthful prodigy that it was +time for him to go to bed. + +"Good-night, young ladies," said the small condescending voice. Katy +alone had "presence of countenance" enough to return this salutation. +It was a relief to find that Daniel went to bed at all. + +Next morning at breakfast they saw him seated between his parents, +eating bread and milk. He bowed to them over the edge of the bowl. + +"Dreadful little prig! They should bottle him in spirits of wine as +a specimen. It's the only thing he'll ever be fit for," remarked Mr. +Page, who rarely said so sharp a thing about anybody. + +Louisa joined them at the station. She was to travel under Mr. Page's +care, and Katy was much annoyed at Lilly's manner with her. It grew +colder and less polite with every mile. By the time they reached +Ashburn it was absolutely rude. + +"Come and see me very soon, girls," said Louisa, as they parted in +the station. "I long to have you know mother and little Daisy. Oh, +there's papa!" and she rushed up to a tall, pleasant-looking man, +who kissed her fondly, shook hands with Mr. Page, and touched his +hat to Lilly, who scarcely bowed in return. + +"Boarding-school is so horrid," she remarked, "you get all mixed up +with people you don't want to know,--people not in society at all." + +"How can you talk such nonsense?" said her father: "the Agnews are +thoroughly respectable, and Mr. Agnew is one of the cleverest men I +know." + +Katy was pleased when Mr. Page said this, but Lilly shrugged her +shoulders and looked cross. + +"Papa is so democratic," she whispered to Clover, "he don't care a +bit who people are, so long as they are respectable and clever." + +"Well, why should he?" replied Clover. Lilly was more disgusted than +ever. + +Ashburn was a large and prosperous town. It was built on the slopes of +a picturesque hill, and shaded with fine elms. As they drove through +the streets, Katy and Clover caught glimpses of conservatories and +shrubberies and beautiful houses with bay-windows and piazzas. + +"That's ours," said Lilly, as the carriage turned in at a gate. It +stopped, and Mr. Page jumped out. + +"Here we are," he said. "Gently, Lilly, you'll hurt yourself. Well, +my dears, we're very glad to see you in our home at last." + +This was kind and comfortable, and the girls were glad of it, for the +size and splendor of the house quite dazzled and made them shy. They +had never seen any thing like it before. The hall had a marble floor, +and busts and statues. Large rooms opened on either side; and Mrs. +Page, who came forward to receive them, wore a heavy silk with a train +and laces, and looked altogether as if she were dressed for a party. + +"This is the drawing-room," said Lilly, delighted to see the girls +looking so impressed. "Isn't it splendid?" And she led the way +into a stiff, chilly, magnificent apartment, where all the blinds +were closed, and all the shades pulled down, and all the furniture +shrouded in linen covers. Even the picture frames and mirrors were +sewed up in muslin to keep off flies; and the bronzes and alabaster +ornaments on the chimney-piece and _etagere_ gleamed through the dim +light in a ghostly way. Katy thought it very dismal. She couldn't +imagine anybody sitting down there to read or sew, or do any thing +pleasant, and probably it was not intended that any one should do so; +for Mrs. Page soon showed them out, and led the way into a smaller +room at the back of the hall. + +"Well, Katy," she said, "how do you like Hillsover?" + +"Very well, ma'am," replied Katy; but she did not speak enthusiastically. + +"Ah!" said Mrs. Page shaking her head, "it takes time to shake off +home habits, and to learn to get along with young people after living +with older ones and catching their ways. You'll like it better as +you go on." + +Katy privately doubted whether this was true, but she did not say so. +Pretty soon Lilly offered to show them upstairs to their room. She +took them first into three large and elegant chambers, which she +explained were kept for grand company, and then into a much smaller +one in a wing. + +"Mother always puts my friends in here," she remarked: "she says it's +plenty good enough for school-girls to thrash about in!" + +"What does she mean?" cried Clover, indignantly, as Lilly closed the +door. "We don't thrash!" + +"I can't imagine," answered Katy, who was vexed too. But pretty soon +she began to laugh. + +"People are so funny!" she said. "Never mind, Clovy, this room is +good enough, I'm sure." + +"Must we unpack, or will it do to go down in our alpacas?" asked Clover. + +"I don't know," replied Katy, in a doubtful tone. "Perhaps we had +better change our gowns. Cousin Olivia always dresses so much! Here's +your blue muslin right on top of the trunk. You might put on that, and +I'll wear my purple." + +The girls were glad that they had done this, for it was evidently +expected, and Lilly had dressed her hair and donned a fresh white +pique. Mrs. Page examined their dresses, and said that Clover's was +a lovely blue, but that ruffles were quite gone out, and every thing +must be made with basques. She supposed they needed quantities of +things, and she had already engaged a dressmaker to work for them. + +"Thank you," said Katy, "but I don't think we need any thing. We had +our winter dresses made before we left home." + +"Winter dresses! last spring! My dear, what were you thinking of? +They must be completely out of fashion." + +"You can't think how little Hillsover people know about fashions," +replied Katy, laughing. + +"But, my dear, for your own sake!" exclaimed Mrs. Page, distressed by +these lax remarks. "I'll look over your things to-morrow and see what +you need." + +Katy did not dare to say "No," but she felt rebellious. When they were +half through tea, the door opened, and a boy came in. + +"You are late, Clarence," said Mr. Page, while Mrs. Page groaned and +observed, "Clarence makes a point of being late. He really deserves +to be made to go without his supper. Shut the door, Clarence. O +mercy! don't bang it in that way. I wish you would learn to shut a +door properly. Here are your cousins, Katy and Clover Carr. Now +let me see if you can shake hands with them like a gentleman, and +not like a ploughboy." + +Clarence, a square, freckled boy of thirteen, with reddish hair, and +a sort of red sparkle in his eyes, looked very angry at this address. +He did not offer to shake hands at all, but elevating his shoulders +said, "How d'you do?" in a sulky voice, and sitting down at the table +buried his nose without delay in a glass of milk. His mother gave a +disgusted sigh. + +"What a boy you are!" she said. "Your cousins will think that you +have never been taught any thing, which is not the case; for I'm sure +I've taken twice the pains with you that I have with Lilly. Pray +excuse him, Katy. It's no use trying to make boys polite!" + +"Isn't it?" said Katy, thinking of Phil and Dorry, and wondering what +Mrs. Page could mean. + +"Hullo, Lilly!" broke in Clarence, spying his sister as it seemed for +the first time. + +"How d'you do?" said Lilly, carelessly. "I was wondering how long it +would be before you would condescend to notice my existence." + +"I didn't see you." + +"I know you didn't. I never knew such a boy! You might as well have +no eyes at all." + +Clarence scowled, and went on with his supper. His mother seemed +unable to let him alone. "Clarence, don't take such large mouthfuls! +Clarence, pray use your napkin! Clarence, your elbows are on the +table, sir! Now, Clarence, don't try to speak until you have +swallowed all that bread,"--came every other moment. Katy felt very +sorry for Clarence. His manners were certainly bad, but it seemed +quite dreadful that public attention should be thus constantly called +to them. + +The evening was rather dull. There was a sort of put-in-order-for- +company air about the parlor, which made everybody stiff. Mrs. Page +did not sew or read, but sat in a low chair looking like a lady in a +fashion plate, and asked questions about Hillsover, some of which were +not easy to answer, as, for example, "Have you any other intimate +friends among the school-girls beside Lilly?" About eight o'clock a +couple of young, very young, gentlemen came in, at the sight of whom +Lilly, who was half asleep, brightened and became lively and talkative. +One of them was the Mr. Hickman, whose father married Mr. Page's +sister-in-law's sister, thus making him in some mysterious way a +"first cousin" of Lilly's. He was an Arrowmouth student, and seemed +to have so many jokes to laugh over with Lilly that before long they +conversed in whispers. The other youth, introduced as Mr. Eels, was +left to entertain the other three ladies, which duty he performed by +sucking the head of his cane in silence while they talked to him. He +too was an Arrowmouth Sophomore. + +In the midst of the conversation, the door, which stood ajar, opened +a little wider, and a dog's head appeared, followed by a tail, which +waggled so beseechingly for leave to come farther that Clover, who +liked dogs, put out her hand at once. He was not pretty, being of a +pepper-and-salt color, with a blunt nose and no particular sort of a +tail, but looked good-natured; and Clover fondled him cordially, while +Mr. Eels took his cane out of his mouth to ask, "What kind of a dog +is that, Mrs. Page?" + +"I'm sure I don't know," she replied; while Lilly, from the distance, +added affectedly, "Oh, he's the most dreadful dog, Mr. Eels. My +brother picked him up in the street, and none of us know the least +thing about him, except that he's the commonest kind of dog,--a sort +of cur, I believe." + +"That's not true!" broke in a stern voice from the hall, which made +everybody jump; and Katy, looking that way, was aware of a vengeful +eye glaring at Lilly through the crack of the door. "He's a very +valuable dog, indeed,--half mastiff and half terrier, with a touch +of the bull-dog,--so there, Miss!" + +The effect of this remark was startling. Lilly gave a scream; Mrs. +Page rose, and hurried to the door; while the dog, hearing his master's +voice, rushed that way also, got before her, and almost threw her down. +Katy and Clover could not help laughing, and Mr. Eels, meeting their +amused eyes, removed the cane from his mouth, and grew conversible. + +"That Clarence is a droll chap!" he remarked confidentially. "Bright, +too! He'd be a nice fellow if he wasn't picked at so much. It never +does a fellow any good to be picked at,--now does it, Miss Carr?" + +"No: I don't think it does." + +"I say," continued Mr. Eels, "I've seen you young ladies up at +Hillsover, haven't I? Aren't you both at the Nunnery?" + +"Yes. It's vacation now, you know." + +"I was sure I'd seen you. You had a room on the side next the +President's, didn't you? I thought so. We fellows didn't know +your names, so we called you 'The Real Nuns.'" + +"Real Nuns?" + +"Yes, because you never looked out of the window at us. Real nuns and +sham nuns,--don't you see?" Almost all the young ladies are sham nuns, +except you, and two pretty little ones in the story above, fifth +window from the end." + +"Oh, I know!" said Clover, much amused. "Sally Alsop, you know, Katy, +and Amy Erskine. They are such nice girls!" + +"Are they?" replied Mr. Eels, with the air of one who notes down names +for future reference. "Well, I thought so. Not so much fun in them as +some of the others, I guess; but a fellow likes other things as well as +fun. I know if my sister was there, I'd rather have her take the dull +line than the other." + +Katy treasured up this remark for the benefit of the S. S. U. C. Mrs. +Page came back just then, and Mr. Eels resumed his cane. Nothing more +was heard of Clarence that night. + +Next morning Cousin Olivia fulfilled her threat of inspecting the +girls' wardrobe. She shook her head over the simple, untrimmed +merinos and thick cloth coats. + +"There's no help for it," she said, "but it's a great pity. You +would much better have waited, and had things fresh. Perhaps it +may be possible to match the merino, and have some sort of basque +arrangement added on. I will talk to Madame Chonfleur about it. +Meantime, I shall get one handsome thick dress for each of you, and +have it stylishly made. That, at least, you really need." + +Katy was too glad to be so easily let off to raise objections. +So that afternoon she and Clover were taken out to "choose their +material," Mrs. Page said, but really to sit by while she chose +it for them. At the dressmaker's it was the same: they stood +passive while the orders were given, and every thing decided upon. + +"Isn't it funny!" whispered Clover; "but I don't like it a bit, +do you? It's just like Elsie saying how she'll have her doll's +things made." + +"Oh, this dress isn't mine! it's Cousin Olivia's!" replied Katy. +"She's welcome to have it trimmed just as she likes!" + +But when the suits came home she was forced to be pleased. There was +no over-trimming, no look of finery: every thing fitted perfectly, and +had the air of finish which they had noticed and admired in Lilly's +clothes. Katy almost forgot that she had objected to the dresses +as unnecessary. + +"After all, it is nice to look nice," she confessed to Clover. + +Excepting going to the dressmaker's there was not much to amuse the +girls during the first half of vacation. Mrs. Page took them to drive +now and then, and Katy found some pleasant books in the library, and +read a good deal. Clover meantime made friends with Clarence. I think +his heart was won that first evening by her attentions to Guest the +dog, that mysterious composite, "half mastiff and half terrier, with +a touch of the bull-dog." Clarence loved Guest dearly, and was +gratified that Clover liked him; for the poor animal had few friends +in the household. In a little while Clarence became quite sociable +with her, and tolerably so with Katy. They found him, as Mr. Eels +said, "a bright fellow," and pleasant and good-humored enough when +taken in the right way. Lilly always seemed to take him wrong, and +his treatment of her was most disagreeable, snappish, and quarrelsome +to the last degree. + +"Much you don't like oranges!" he said one day at dinner, in answer to +an innocent remark of hers. "Much! I've seen you eat two at a time, +without stopping. Pa, Lilly says she don't like oranges! I've seen +her eat two at a time, without stopping! Much she doesn't! I've seen +her eat two at a time, without stopping!" He kept this up for five +minutes, looking from one person to another, and repeating, "Much she +don't! Much!" till Lilly was almost crying from vexation, and even +Clover longed to box his ears. Nobody was sorry when Mr. Page ordered +him to leave the room, which he did with a last vindictive "Much!" +addressed to Lilly. + +"How can Clarence behave so?" said Katy, when she and Clover were +alone. + +"I don't know," replied Clover. "He's such a nice boy, sometimes; but +when he isn't nice, he's the horridest boy I ever saw. I wish you'd +talk to him, Katy, and tell him how dreadfully it sounds when he says +such things." + +"No, indeed! He'd take it much better from you. You're nearer his +age, and could do it nicely and pleasantly, and not make him feel as +if he were being scolded. Poor fellow, he gets plenty of that!" + +Clover said no more about the subject, but she meditated. She had a +good deal of tact for so young a girl, and took care to get Clarence +into a specially amicable mood before she began her lecture. "Look +here, you bad boy, how could you tease poor Lilly so yesterday? +Guest, speak up, sir, and tell your massa how naughty it was!" + +"Oh, dear! now you're going to nag!" growled Clarence, in an injured +voice. + +"No, I'm not,--not the least in the world. I'll promise not to. But +just tell me,"--and Clover put her hand on the rough, red-brown hair, +and stroked it,--"just tell me why you 'go for to do' such things? +They're not a bit nice." + +"Lilly's so hateful!" grumbled Clarence. + +"Well,--she is sometimes, I know," admitted Clover, candidly. "But +because she is hateful is no reason why you should be unmanly." + +"Unmanly!" cried Clarence, flushing. + +"Yes. I call it unmanly to tease and quarrel, and contradict like +that. It's like girls. They do it sometimes, but I didn't think +a boy would. I thought he'd be ashamed!" + +"Doesn't Dorry ever quarrel or tease?" asked Clarence, who liked to +hear about Clover's brothers and sisters. + +"Not now, and never in that way. He used to sometimes when he was +little, but now he's real nice. He wouldn't speak to a girl as you +speak to Lilly for any thing in the world. He'd think it wasn't +being a gentleman." + +"Stuff about gentleman, and all that!" retorted Clarence. "Mother +dings the word in my ears till I hate it!" + +"Well, it is rather teasing to be reminded all the time, I admit; but +you can't wonder that your mother wants you to be a gentleman, Clarence. +It's the best thing in the world, I think. I hope Phil and Dorry will +grow up just like papa, for everybody says he's the most perfect +gentleman, and it makes me so proud to hear them." + +"But what does it mean any way! Mother says it's how you hold your +fork, and how you chew, and how you put on your hat. If that's all, +I don't think it amounts to much." + +"Oh, that isn't all. It's being gentle, don't you see? Gentle and +nice to everybody, and just as polite to poor people as to rich ones," +said Clover, talking fast, in her eagerness to explain her meaning,-- +"and never being selfish, or noisy, or pushing people out of their +place. Forks, and hats, and all that are only little ways of making +one's self more agreeable to other people. A gentleman is a gentleman +inside,--all through! Oh, I wish I could make you see what I mean!" + +"Oh, that's it, is it?" said Clarence. Whether he understood or not, +Clover could not tell; or whether she had done any good or not; but +she had the discretion to say no more; and certainly Clarence was not +offended, for after that day he grew fonder of her than ever. Lilly +became absolutely jealous. She had never cared particularly for +Clarence's affection, but she did not like to have any one preferred +above herself. + +"It's pretty hard, I think," she told Clover. "Clare does every thing +you tell him, and he treats me awfully. It isn't a bit fair! I'm his +sister, and you're only a second cousin." + +All this time the girls had seen almost nothing of Louisa Agnew. She +called once, but Lilly received the call with them, and so cool and +stiff that Louisa grew stiff also, and made but a short stay; and when +the girls returned the visit she was out. A few days before the close +of vacation, however, a note came from her. + + + "Dear Katy,--I am so sorry not to have seen more of you and + Clover. Won't you come and spend Wednesday with us? Mamma + sends her love, and hopes you will come early, so as to have + a long day, for she wants to know you. I long to show you + the baby and every thing. Do come. Papa will see you home + in the evening. Remember me to Lilly. She has so many + friends to see during vacation that I am sure she will + forgive me for stealing you for one day. + "Yours affectionately, + "Louisa." + + +Katy thought this message very politely expressed, but Lilly, when she +heard it, tossed her head, and said she "really thought Miss Agnew +might let her name alone when she wrote notes." Mrs. Page seemed to +pity the girls for having to go. They must, she supposed, as it was +a schoolmate; but she feared it would be stupid for them. The Agnews +were queer sort of people, not in society at all. Mr. Agnew was +clever, people said; but, really, she knew very little about the +family. Perhaps it would not do to decline. + +Katy and Clover had no idea of declining. They sent a warm little +note of acceptance, and on the appointed day set off bright and early +with a good deal of pleasant anticipation. The vacation had been +rather dull at Cousin Olivia's. Lilly was a good deal with her own +friends, and Mrs. Page with hers; and there never seemed any special +place where they might sit, or any thing in particular for then to do. + +Louisa's home was at some distance from Mr. Page's, and in a less +fashionable street. It looked pleasant and cosy as the girls opened +the gate. There was a small garden in front with gay flower-beds; +and on the piazza, which was shaded with vines, sat Mrs. Agnew with +a little work-table by her side. She was a pretty and youthful- +looking woman, and her voice and smile made them feel at home +immediately. + +"There is no need of anybody to introduce you," she said. "Lulu has +described you so often that I know perfectly well which is Katy and +which is Clover. I am so glad you could come. Won't you go right in +my bed-room by that long window and take off your things? Lulu has +explained to you that I am lame and never walk, so you won't think +it strange that I do not show you the way. She will be here in a +moment. She ran upstairs to fetch the baby." + +The girls went into the bed-room. It was a pretty and unusual-looking +apartment. The furniture was simple as could be, but bed and toilet +and windows were curtained and frilled with white, and the walls were +covered thick with pictures, photographs, and pen-and-ink sketches, +and water-color drawings, unframed most of them, and just pinned up +without regularity, so as to give each the best possible light. It +was an odd way of arranging pictures; but Katy liked it, and would +gladly have lingered to look at each one, only that she feared Mrs. +Agnew would expect them and would think it strange that they did not +come back. + +Just as they went out again to the piazza, Louisa came running +downstairs with her little sister in her arms. + +"I was curling her hair," she explained, "and did not hear you come +in. Daisy, give Katy a kiss. Now another for Clover. Isn't she a +darling?" embracing the child rapturously herself, "now isn't she a +little beauty?" + +"Perfectly lovely?" cried the others, and soon all three were seated +on the floor of the piazza, with Daisy in the midst, passing her from +hand to hand as if she had been something good to eat. She was used +to it, and submitted with perfect good nature to being kissed, trotted, +carried up and down, and generally made love to. Mrs. Agnew sat by +and laughed at the spectacle. When Baby was taken off for her noonday +nap, Louisa took the girls into the parlor, another odd and pretty +room, full of prints and sketches, and pictures of all sorts, some +with frames, others with a knot of autumn leaves or a twist of ivy +around them by way of a finish. There was a bowl of beautiful autumn +roses on the table; and, though the price of one of Mrs. Page's damask +curtains would probably have bought the whole furniture of the room, +every thing was so bright and homelike and pleasant-looking that Katy's +heart warmed at the sight. They were examining a portrait of Louisa +with Daisy in her lap, painted by her father, when Mr. Agnew came in. +The girls liked his face at once. It was fine and frank; and nothing +could be prettier than to see him pick up his sweet invalid wife as +if she had been a child, and carry her into the dining-room to her +place at the head of the table. + +Katy and Clover agreed afterward that it was the merriest dinner they +had had since they left home. Mr. Agnew told stories about painters +and painting, and was delightful. No less so was the nice gossip +upstairs in Louisa's room which followed dinner, or the afternoon +frolic with Daisy, or the long evening spent in looking over books +and photographs. Altogether the day seemed only too short. As they +went out of the gate at ten o'clock, Mr. Agnew following, lo! a dark +figure emerged from behind a tree and joined Clover. It was Clarence! + +"I thought I'd just walk this way," he explained, "the house has been +dreadfully dull all day without you." + +Clover was immensely flattered, but Mrs. Page's astonishment next day +knew no bounds. + +"Really," she said, "I have hopes of Clarence at last. I never knew +him volunteer to escort anybody anywhere before in his life." + +"I say," remarked Clarence, the evening before the girls went back to +school,--"I say, suppose you write to a fellow sometimes, Clover." + +"Do you mean yourself by 'a fellow'?" laughed Clover. + +"You don't suppose I meant George Hickman or that donkey of an Eels, +did you?" retorted Clarence. + +"No, I didn't. Well, I've no objection to writing to a fellow, if +that fellow is you, provided the fellow answers my letters. Will +you?" + +"Yes," gruffly, "but you mustn't show 'em to any girls or laugh at +my writing, or I'll stop. Lilly says my writing is like beetle +tracks. Little she knows about it though! I don't write to her! +Promise, Clover!" + +"Yes, I promise," said Clover, pleased at the notion of Clare's +proposing a correspondence of his own accord. Next morning they all +left for Hillsover. Clarence's friendship and the remembrance of +their day with the Agnews were the pleasantest things that the girls +carried away with them from their autumn vacation. + + + + +CHAPTER X. A BUDGET OF LETTERS. + + +"Hillsover, October 21st. + +Dearest Elsie,--I didn't write you last Saturday, because that was +the day we came back to school, and there hasn't been one minute since +when I could. We thought perhaps Miss Jane would let us off from the +abstracts on Sunday, because it was the first day, and school was +hardly begun; and, if she had, I was going to write to you instead, +but she didn't. She said the only way to keep girls out of mischief +was to keep them busy. Rose Red is sure that something has gone wrong +with Miss Jane's missionary during the vacation,--she's so dreadfully +cross. Oh, dear, how I do hate to come back and be scolded by her +again! + +"I forget if I told you about the abstracts. They are of the sermons +on Sunday, you know, and we have to give the texts, and the heads, +and as much as we can remember of the rest. Sometimes Dr. Prince +begins: 'I shall divide my subject into three parts,' and tells what +they are going to be. When he does that, most of the girls take out +their pencils and put them down, and then they don't listen any more. +Katy and I don't, for she says it isn't right not to listen some. +Miss Jane pretends that she reads all the abstracts through, but +she doesn't; for once Rose Red, just to try her, wrote in the middle +of hers, 'I am sitting by my window at this moment, and a red cow is +going down the street. I wonder if she is any relation to Mrs. +Seccomb's cow?' and Miss Jane never noticed it, but marked her +'perfect' all the same. Wasn't it funny? + +"But I must tell you about our journey back. Mr. Page came all the +way with us, and was ever so nice. Clarence rode down in the carriage +to the depot. He gave me a real pretty india-rubber and gold pencil +for a good-by present. I think you and Dorry would like Clarence, +only just at first you might say he was rather rude and cross. I did; +but now I like him ever so much. Cousin Olivia gave Katy a worked +collar and sleeves, and me an embroidered pocket-handkerchief with +clover leaves in the corner. Wasn't it kind? I'm sorry I said in +my last letter that we didn't enjoy our vacation. We didn't much; +but it wasn't exactly Cousin Olivia's fault. She meant we should, +but she didn't know how. Some people don't, you know. And don't +tell any one I said so, will you? + +"Rose Red got here in the train before we did. She was so glad when we +came that she cried. It was because she was home-sick waiting four +hours at the Nunnery without us, she said. Rose is such a darling! +She had a splendid vacation, and went to three parties and a picnic. +Isn't it queer? her winter bonnet is black velvet trimmed with pink, +and so is mine. I wanted blue at first, but Cousin Olivia said pink +was more stylish; and now I am glad, because I like to be like Rose. + +"Katy and I have got No. 2 this term. It's a good deal pleasanter +than our old room, and the entry-stove is just outside the door, so +we shall keep warm. There is sun, too, only Mrs. Nipson has nailed +thick cotton over all the window except a little place at top. Every +window in the house is just so. You can't think how mad the girls +are about it. The first night we had an indignation meeting, and +passed resolutions, and some of the girls said they wouldn't stay,-- +they should write to their fathers to come and take them home. None +of them did, though. It's perfectly forlorn, not being able to look +out. Oh, dear, how I wish it were spring! + +"We've got a new dining-room. It's a great deal bigger than the old +one, so now we all eat together, and don't have any first and second +tables. It's ever so much nicer, for I used to get so dreadfully +hungry waiting that I didn't know what to do. One thing is horrid, +though, and that is, that every girl has to make a remark in French +every day at dinner. The remarks are about a subject. Mrs. Nipson +gives out the subjects. To-day the subject was 'Les oiseaux,' and +Rose Red said, 'J'aime beaucoup les oiseaux, et surtout ceux qui +sont rotis,' which made us all laugh. That ridiculous little Bella +Arkwright said, 'J'aime beaucoup les oiseaux qui sing.' She thought +sing was French! Every girl in school began, 'J'aime beaucoup les +oiseaux'! To-morrow the subject is 'Jules Cesar.' I'm sure I don't +know what to say. There isn't a word in Ollendorf about him. + +"There aren't so many new scholars this term as there were last. The +girls think it is because Mrs. Nipson isn't so popular as Mrs. Florence +used to be. Two or three of the new ones look pleasant, but I don't +know them yet. Louisa Agnew is the nicest girl here next to Rose. +Lilly Page says she is vulgar, because her father paints portraits +and they don't know the same people that Cousin Olivia know, but she +isn't a bit. We went to spend the day there just before we left +Ashburn, and her father and mother are splendid. Their house is +just full of all sorts of queer, interesting things, and pictures; +and Mr. Agnew told us ever so many stories about painters, and what +they did. One was about a boy who used to make figures of lions in +butter, and afterward he became famous. I forget his name. We had +a lovely time. I wish you could see Lou's little sister Daisy. She's +only two, and a perfect little beauty. She has got ten teeth, and +hardly ever cries. + +"Please ask papa"-- + + +Just as Clover had got to this point she was interrupted by Katy, who +walked in with her hat on, and a whole handful of letters. + +"See here!" she cried. "Isn't this delightful? Miss Marsh took me +with her to the Post-Office, and we found these. Three for you and +two for me, and one for rose. Wait a minute till I give Rose hers, +and we'll read them together." + +In another moment the two were cosily seated with their heads close +together, opening their budget. First came one from papa. + + +"My dear Daughters,"-- + + +"It's for you too, you see," said Katy. + + +"Last week came your letter of the 31st, and we were glad to hear that +you were well and ready to go back to school. By the time this reaches +you, you will be in Hillsover, and your winter term begun. Make the +most of it, for we all feel as if we could never let you go from home +again. Johnnie says she shall rub Spalding's Prepared Glue all over +your dresses when you come back, so that you cannot stir. I am a +little of the same way of thinking myself. Cecy has returned from +boarding-school, and set up as a young lady. Elsie is much excited +over the party dresses which Mrs. Hall is having made for her, and +goes over every day to see if any thing new has come. I am glad on +this account that you are away just now, for it would not be easy to +keep steady heads and continue you studies, with so much going on +next door. I have sent Cousin Olivia a check to pay for the things +she bought for you, and am much obliged to her for seeing that you +were properly fitted out. Katy was very right to consider expense, +but I wish you to have all things needful. I enclose two ten-dollar +bills, one for each of you, for pocket-money; and, with much love +from the children, am, + "Yours affectionately, + P. Carr." + +"P. S.--Cousin Helen has had a sharp attack, but is better." + + +"I wish papa would write longer letters," said Katy. "He always sends +us money, but he don't send half enough words with it." She folded +the letter, and fondled it affectionately. + +"He's always so busy," replied Clover. "Don't you remember how he +used to sit down at his desk and scrabble off his letters, and how +somebody always was sure to ring the bell before he got through? +I'm very glad to have some money, for now I can pay the sixty-two +cents I owe you. It's my turn to read. This is from Elsie, and a +real long one. Put away the bills first, Katy, or they'll be lost. +That's right; now we'll begin together." + + +"Dear Clover,--You don't know how glad I am when my turn comes to get +a letter all to myself. Of course I read papa's, and all the rest you +write to the family, but it never seems as if you were talking to me +unless you begin 'Dear Elsie.' I wish some time you'd put in a little +note marked 'private,' just for me, which nobody else need see. It +would be such fun! Please do. I should think you would have hated +staying at Cousin Olivia's. When I read what she said about your +travelling dresses looking as if they had come out of the Ark, I was +too mad for any thing. But I shouldn't think you'd want much to go +back to school either, though sometimes it must be splendid. John +has named her old stockinet doll, which she used to call 'Scratch- +face,' 'Nippy,' after Mrs. Nipson; and I made her a muslin cap, and +Dorry drew a pair of black spectacles round her eyes. She is a +perfect fright, and John plays all the time that dreadful things +happen to her. She pricks her with pins, and pretends she has the +ear-ache, and lets her tumble down and hurt herself, till sometimes +I nearly feel sorry, though it's all make-believe. When you wrote +us about only having pudding for dinner, I didn't a bit. John put +her into the rag-closet that very day, and has been starving her to +death ever since, and Phil says it serves her right. You can't +think how awfully lonely I sometimes get without you. If it wasn't +for Helen Gibbs, that new girl I told you about, I shouldn't know +what to do. She is the prettiest girl in Miss McCrane's school. +Her hair curls just like mine, only it is four times as long and a +million times as thick, and her waist is really and truly not much +bigger round than a bed-post. We're the greatest friends. She says +she loves me just exactly as much as if I was her sister, but she +never had any real sisters. She was quite mad the other day because +I said I couldn't love her quite so well as you and Katy; and all +recess-time she wouldn't speak to me, but now we've made up. Dorry +is so awfully in love with her that I never can get him to come into +the room when she is here, and he blushes when we tease him about +her. But this is a great secret. Dorry and I play chess every +evening. He almost always beats unless papa comes behind and helps +me. Phil has learned too, because he always wants to do every thing +that we do. Dorry gives him a castle, and a bishop, and a knight, +and four pawns, and then beats him in six moves. Phil gets so mad +that we can't help laughing. Last night he buttoned his king up +inside his jacket, and said, 'There! you can't checkmate me now, +any way!' + +"Cecy has come home. She is a young lady now. She does her hair up +quite different, and wears long dresses. This winter she is going to +parties, and Mrs. Hall is going to have a party for her on Thursday, +with real, grown-up young ladies and gentlemen at it. Cecy has got +some beautiful new dresses,--a white muslin, a blue tarlatan, and a +pink silk. The pink silk is the prettiest, I think. Cecy is real +kind, and lets me see all her things. She has got a lovely breast- +pin too, and a new fan with ivory sticks, and all sorts of things. +I wish I was grown up. It must be so nice. I was to tell you +something, only you mustn't tell any body except Katy. Don't you +remember how Cecy used to say that she never was going out to drive +with young gentlemen, but was going to stay at home and read the +Bible to poor people? Well, she didn't tell the truth, for she +has been out three times already with Sylvester Slack in his buggy. +When I told her she oughtn't to do so, because it was breaking a +promise, she only laughed, and said I was a silly little girl. Isn't +it queer? + +"I want to tell you what an awful thing I did the other night. Maria +Avery invited me to tea, and papa said I might go. I didn't want to +much, but I didn't know what to tell Maria, so I went. You know how +poor they are, and how aunt Izzie used to say that they were 'touchy,' +so I thought I would take great care not to hurry home right after +tea, for fear they would think I wasn't having a good time. So I +waited, and waited, and waited, and got so sleepy that I had to pinch +my fingers to keep awake. At last I was sure that it must be almost +nine, so I asked Mr. Avery if he'd please take me home; and don't you +believe, when we got there, it was a quarter past ten, and papa was +coming for me! Dorry said he guessed I must be enjoying myself to +stay so late. I didn't tell anybody about it for three days, because +I knew they'd laugh at me, and they did. Wasn't it funny? And old +Mrs. Avery looked as sleepy as I felt, and kept yawning behind her +hand. I told papa if I had a watch of my own I shouldn't make such +mistakes, and he laughed, and said, 'We'll see.' Oh, do you suppose +that means he's going to give me one? + +"We are so proud of Dorry's having taken two prizes at the examination +yesterday. He took the second Latin prize, and the first Mathematics. +Dr. Pullman says he thinks Dorry is one of the most thorough boys he +ever saw. Isn't that nice? The prizes were books: one was the life +of Benjamin Franklin, and the other the Life of General Butler. Papa +says he doesn't think much of the Life of Butler; but Dorry has begun +it, and says it is splendid. Phil says when he takes a prize he wants +candy and a new knife; but he'll have to wait a good while unless he +studies harder than he does now. He has just come in to tease me to +go up into the garret and help him to get down his sled, because he +thinks it is going to snow; but there isn't a sign of it, and the +weather is quite warm. I asked him what I should say for him to you, +and he said, 'Oh, tell her to come home, and any thing you please.' +I said, 'Shall I give her your love, and say that you are very well?' +and he says, 'Oh, yes, Miss Elsie, I guess you'd think yourself mighty +well if your head ached as much as mine does every day.' Don't be +frightened, however, for he's just as fat and rosey as can be; but +almost every day he says he feels sick about school-time. When papa +was at Moorfield, Miss Finch believed him, and let him stay at home +two mornings. I don't wonder at it, for you can think what a face he +makes up; but he got well so fast that she pays no attention to him +now. The other day, about eleven o'clock, papa met him coming along +the road, shying stones at the birds, and making lots of noise. He +told papa he felt so sick that his teacher had let him go home; but +papa noticed that his mouth looked sticky, so he opened his dinner- +basket, and found that the little scamp had eaten up all his dinner +on the road, corned beef, bread and butter, a great piece of mince +pie, and six pears. Papa couldn't help laughing, but he made him +turn around and go right back to school again. + +"I told you in my last about Johnnie's going to school with me now. +She is very proud of it, and is always talking about 'Elsie's and my +school.' She is twice as smart as the other girls of her age. Miss +McCrane has put her into the composition class, where they write +compositions on their slates. The first subject was, 'A Kitten;' and +John's began, 'She's a dear, little, soft scratching thing, only you'd +better not pull her by the tail, but she's real cunning.' All the +girls laughed, and Johnnie called out, 'Well, it's true, anyhow.' + +"I can't write any more, for I must study my Latin. Beside, this is +the longest letter that ever was. I have been four days writing it. +Please send me one just as long. Old Mary and the children send lots +of love, and papa says, 'Tell Katy if a pudding diet sets her to +growing again she must come home at once, for he couldn't afford it.' +Oh, dear, how I wish I could see you! Please give my love to Rose +Red. She must be perfectly splendid. + "Your affectionate + Elsie." + + +"Oh, the dear little duck! Isn't that just like her?" said Clover. +"I think Elsie has a real genius for writing, don't you? She tells +all the little things, and is so droll and cunning. Nobody writes +such nice letters. Who's that from, Katy?" + +"Cousin Helen, and it's been such a long time coming. Just look at +this date! September 22, a whole month ago!" Then she began to read. + + +"Dear Katy,--It seems a long time since we have had a talk, but I +have been less well lately, so that it has been difficult to write. +Yesterday I sat up for the first time in several weeks, and to-day +I am dressed and beginning to feel like myself. I wish you could see +my room this morning,--I often wish this,--but it is so particularly +pretty, for little Helen has been in with a great basket full of +leaves and flowers, and together we have dressed it to perfection. +There are four vases of roses, a bowl full of chrysanthemums, and +red leaves round all my pictures. The leaves are Virginia creeper. +It doesn't last long, but is lovely while it lasts. Helen also +brought a bird's nest which the gardener found in a hawthorn-tree +on the lawn. It hangs on a branch, and she has tied it to one side +of my bookshelves. On the opposite side is another nest quite +different,--a great, gray hornets' nest, as big as a band-box, which +came from the mountains a year ago. I wonder if any such grow in the +woods about Hillsover. In spite of the red leaves, the day is warm +as summer, and the windows stand wide open. I suppose it is cooler +with you, but I know it is delicious cold. Now that I think of it, +you must be in Ashburn by this time. I hope you will enjoy every +moment of your vacation. + +"Oct. 19th. I did not finish my letter the day it as begun, dear +Katy, and the next morning it proved that I was not so strong as I +fancied, and I had to go to bed again. I am still there, and, as +you see, writing with a pencil; but do not be worried about me, for +the doctor says I am mending, and soon I hope to be up and in my +chair. The red leaves are gone, but the roses are lovely as ever, +for little Helen keeps bringing me fresh ones. She has just been +in to read me her composition. The subject was 'Stars,' and you +can't think how much she found to say about them, She is a bright +little creature, and it is a great pleasure to teach her. I am +hardly ever so sick that she cannot come for her lessons, and she +gets on fast. We have made an arrangement that when she knows more +than I do she is to give me lessons, and I am not sure that the time +is so very far off. + +"I must tell you about my Ben. He is a new canary which was given me +in the summer, and lately he has grown so delightfully tame that I +feel as if it were not a bird at all, but a fairy prince come to live +with me and amuse me. The cage door is left open always now, and he +flies in and out as he likes. He is a restless, inquisitive fellow, +and visits any part of the room, trying each fresh thing with his +bill to see if it is good to eat, and then perching on it to see if +it good to sit upon. He mistakes his own reflection in the looking- +glass for another canary, and sits on the pin-cushion twittering and +making love to himself for half an hour at a time. To watch him is +one of my greatest amusements, especially just now when I am in bed so +much. Sometimes he hides and keeps so still that I have not the least +idea where he is. but the moment I call, 'Ben, Ben,' and hold out my +finger, wings begin to rustle, and out he flies and perches on my +finger. He isn't the least bit in the world afraid, but sits on my +head or shoulder, eats out of my mouth, and kisses me with his beak. +He is on the pillow at this moment making runs at my pencil, of which +he is mortally jealous. It is just so with my combs and brushes if I +attempt to do my hair; he cannot bear to have me do any thing but +play with him. I do wish I could show him to you and Clover. + +"Little Helen, my other pet, has just come in with a sponge cake which +she frosted herself. She sends her love, and says when you come to +me next summer she will frost you each one just like it. Good-by, my +Katy. I had nothing to write about and have written it, but I never +like to keep silent too long, or let you feel as if you were forgotten +by your loving cousin, + Helen." + +"P.S. Be sure to wear plenty of warm wraps for your winter walks. +And, Katy, dear, you must eat meat every day. Mrs. Nipson will +probably give up her favorite pudding now that the cold weather +has begun; but, if not, write to papa." + + +"Isn't that letter Cousin Helen all over?" said Katy, "So little +about her illness, and so bright and merry, and yet she has really +been sick. Papa says 'a sharp attack.' Isn't she the dearest person +in the world, next to papa I mean?" + +"Yes, indeed. There's nobody like her. I do hope we can go to see +her next summer. Now it's my turn. I can't think who this letter +is from. Oh, Clarence! Katy, I can't let you see this. I promised +I wouldn't show his letters to anybody, not even you!" + +"Oh, very well. But you've got another. Dorry, isn't it? Read that +first, and I'll go away and leave you in peace." + +So Clover read:-- + + +"Dear Clover,--Elsie says she is going to write you to-day; but I +won't stop because next Saturday I'm going out fishing with the +Slacks. There are a great many trout now in Blue Brook. Eugene caught +six the other day,--no, five, one was a minnow. Papa has given me a +splendid rod, it lets out as tall as a house. I hope I shall catch +with it. Alexander says the trout will admire it so much that they +can't help biting; but he was only funning. Elsie and I play chess +most every night. She plays a real good game for a girl. Sometimes +pa helps, and then she beats. Miss Finch is well. She don't keep +house quite like Katy did, and I don't like her so well as I do you, +but she's pretty nice. The other day we had a nutting picnic, and +she gave me and Phil a loaf of Election cake and six quince turnovers +to carry. The boys gave three cheers for her when they saw them. +Did Elsie tell you that I have invented a new machine? It is called +'The Intellectual Peach Parer.' There is a place to hold a book +while you pare the peaches. It is very convenient. I don't think +of any thing else to tell you. Cecy has got home, and is going to +have a party next week. She's grown up now, she says, and she wears +her hair quite different. It's a great deal thicker than it used +to be. Elsie says it's because there are rats in it; but I don't +believe her. Elsie has got a new friend. Her name is Helen Gibbs. +She's quite pretty. + "Your affectionate brother, + Dorry." + +P.S.--John wants to put in a note." + +John's note was written in a round hand, as easy to read as print. + + +"Dear Clover,--I am well, and hope you are the same. I wish you would +write me a letter of my own. I go to school with Elsie now. We write +compossizions. They are hard to write. We don't go up into the loft +half so much as we used to when you ware at home. Mrs. Worrett came +to dinner last week. She says she ways two hundred and atey pounds. +I should think it would be dredful to way that. I only way 76. My +head comes up to the mark on the door where you ware mesured when you +ware twelve. Isn't that tal? Good-bye. I send a kiss to Katy. + Your loving + "John." + + +After they had finished this note, Katy went away, leaving Clover to +open Clarence's letter by herself. It was not so well written or +spelt as Dorry's by any means. + + +"Dear Clover,--Don't forget what you promised. I mene about not +showing this. And don't tell Lilly I rote. If you do, she'll be +as mad as hops. I haven't been doing much since you went away. +School begun yesterday, and I am glad; for it's awfully dull now that +you girls have gone. Mother says Guest has got flees on him, so she +won't let him come into the house any more. I stay out in the barn +with him insted. He is well, and sends you a wag of his tail. Jim +and me are making him a colar. It is black, with G.P. on it, for +Guest Page, you know. A lot of the boys had a camping out last week. +I went. It was real jolly; but ma wouldn't let me stay all night, so +I lost the best part. They roasted scullpins for supper, and had a +bon-fire. The camp was on Harstnet Hill. Next time you come I'll +take you out there. Pa has gone to Mane on bizness. He said I must +take care of the house, so I've borrowed Jim's gun, and if any robers +come I mean to shoot them. I always go to sleep with a broom agenst +the door, so as to wake up when they open it. This morning I thought +they had come, for the broom was gone, and the gun too; but it was +only Briget. She opened the door, and it fell down; but I didn't wake +up, so she took it away, and put the gun in the closset. I was mad, +I can tell you. + +"This is only a short letter, but I hope you will answer it soon. +Give my love to Katy, and tell Dorry that if he likes I'll send him +my compas for his machenery, because I've got two. + "Your affectionate Cousin, + "Clarence Page." + + +This was the last of the budget. As Clover folded it up, she was +dismayed by the tinkle of the tea-bell. + +"Oh, dear!" she cried, "there's tea, and I have not finished my letter +to Elsie. Where has the afternoon gone! How splendid it has been! I +wish I could have four letters every day as long as I live." + + + + +CHAPTER XI. CHRISTMAS BOXES. + + +October was a delightful month, clear and sparkling; but early in +November the weather changed, and became very cold. Thick frosts +fell, every leaf vanished from the woods, in the gardens only +blackened stalks remained to show where once the summer flowers +had been. In spite of the stove outside the door, No. 2 began to +be chilly; more than once Katy found her tooth-brush stiff with ice +in the morning. It was a fore-taste of the what the winter was to +be, and the girls shivered at the prospect. + +Toward the end of November Miss Jane caught a heavy cold. Unsparing +of herself as of others, she went on hearing her classes as usual; +and nobody paid much attention to her hoarseness and flushed cheeks, +until she grew so much worse that she was forced to go to bed. There +she stayed for nearly four weeks. It made a great change in the +school; and the girls found it such a relief to have her sharp voice +and eyes taken away that I am afraid they were rather glad of her +illness than otherwise. + +Katy shared in this feeling of relief. She did not like Miss Jane; it +was pleasant not to have to see her or hear of her. But as day after +day passed, and still she continued ill, Katy's conscience began to +prick. One night she lay awake a long time, and heard Miss Jane +coughing violently. Katy feared she was very sick, and wondered who +took care of her all night and all day. None of the girls went near +her. The servants were always busy. And Mrs. Nipson, who did not +love Miss Jane, was busy too. + +In the morning, while studying and practising, Katy caught herself +thinking over this question. At last she asked Miss Marsh,-- + +"How is Miss Jane to-day?" + +"About the same. She is not dangerously ill, the doctor says; but +she coughs a great deal, and has some fever." + +"Is anybody sitting with her?" + +"Oh, no! there's no need of any one. Susan answers the bell, and she +has her medicine on the table within reach." + +It sounded forlorn enough. Katy had lived in a sick-room so long +herself that she knew just how dreary it is for an invalid to be +left alone with "medicine within reach," and some one to answer a +bell. She began to feel sorry for Miss Jane, and almost without +intending it went down the entry, and tapped at her door. The "Come +in!" sounded very faint; and Miss Jane as she lay in bed looked weak +and dismal, and quite unlike the sharp, terrible person whom the +girls feared so much. She was amazed at the sight of Katy, and +made a feeble attempt to hold up her head and speak as usual. + +"What is it, Miss Carr?" + +"I only came to see how you are," said Katy, abashed at her own daring, +"You coughed so much last night that I was afraid you were worse. Isn't +there something I could do for you?" + +"Thank you," said Miss Jane, "you are very kind." Think of Miss Jane's +thanking anybody, and calling anybody kind! + +"I should be very glad. Isn't there any thing?" repeated Katy, +encouraged. + +"Well, I don't know: you might put another stick of wood on the fire," +said Miss Jane, in an ungracious tone. Katy did so; and seeing that +the iron cup on top of the stove was empty, she poured some water into +it. Then she took a look about the room. Books and papers were +scattered over the table; clean clothes from the wash lay on the +chairs; nothing was in its place; and Katy, who knew how particular +Miss Jane was on the subject of order, guessed at the discomfort +which this untidy state of affairs must have caused her. + +"Wouldn't you like to have me put these away?" she asked, touching the +pile of clothes. + +Miss Jane sighed impatiently, but she did not say no; so Katy, taking +silence for consent, opened the drawers, and laid the clothes inside, +guessing at the right places with a sort of instinct, and making as +little noise and bustle as possible. Next she moved quietly to the +table, where she sorted and arranged the papers, piled up the books, +and put the pens and pencils in a small tray which stood there for +the purpose. Lastly she began to dust the table with her pocket +handkerchief, which proceeding roused Miss Jane at once. + +"Don't," she said, "there is a duster in the cupboard." + +Katy could not help smiling, but she found the duster, and proceeded +to put the rest of the room into nice order, laying a fresh towel +over the bedside table, and arranging watch, medicine, and spoon +within reach. Miss Jane lay and watched her. I think she was as much +surprised at herself for permitting all this, as Katy was at being +permitted to do it. Sick people often consent because they feel too +weak to object. After all, it _was_ comfortable to have some one +come in and straighten the things which for ten days past had vexed +her neat eyes with their untidiness. + +Lastly, smoothing the quilt, Katy asked if Miss Jane wouldn't like +to have her pillow shaken up? + +"I don't care," was the answer. It sounded discouraging; but Katy +boldly seized the pillow, beat, smoothed, and put it again in place. +Then she went out of the room as noiselessly as she could, Miss Jane +never saying, "Thank you," or seeming to observe whether she went +or stayed. + +Rose Red and Clover could hardly believe their ears when told where +she had been. They stared at her as people stare at Van Amburgh when +he comes safely out of the lion's den. + +"My stars!" exclaimed Rose, drawing a long breath. "You didn't really? +And she hasn't bitten your head off!" + +"Not a bit," said Katy, laughing. "What's more, I'm going again." + +She was as good as her word. After that she went to see Miss Jane very +often. Almost always there was some little thing which she could do, +the fire needed mending, or the pitcher to be filled with ice-water, or +Miss Jane wanted the blinds opened or shut. Gradually she grew used +to seeing Katy about the room. One morning she actually allowed her +to brush her hair; and Katy's touch was so light and pleasant that +afterwards Miss Jane begged her to do it every day. + +"What makes you such a good nurse?" she asked one afternoon, rather +abruptly. + +"Being sick myself," replied Katy, gently. Then in answer to farther +questioning, she told of her four years' illness, and her life +upstairs, keeping house and studying lessons all alone by herself. +Miss Jane did not say any thing when she got through; but Katy +fancied she looked at her in a new and kinder way. + +So time went on till Christmas. It fell on a Friday that year, which +shortened the holidays by a day, and disappointed many of the girls. +Only a few went home, the rest were left to pass the time as best they +might till Monday, when lessons were to begin again. + +"It isn't much like merry Christmas," sighed Clover to herself, as +she looked up at the uncottoned space at the top of the window, and +saw great snow-flakes wildly whirling by. No. 2 felt cold and dreary, +and she was glad to exchange it for the school-room, round whose warm +stove a cluster of girls was huddling. Everybody was in bad spirits; +there was a tendency to talk about home, and the nice time which +people were having there, and the very bad time they themselves were +having at the Nunnery. + +"Isn't it mis-e-ra-ble? I shall cry all night, I know I shall, I am +so homesick," gulped Lilly, who had taken possession of her room- +mate's shoulder and was weeping ostentatiously. + +"I declare, you're just Mrs. Gummidge in 'David Copperfield' over +again," said Rose. "You recollect her, girls, don't you? When the +porridge was burnt, you know,--'All of us felt the disappointment, +but Mrs. Gummidge felt it the most.' Isn't Lilly a real Mrs. Gummidge, +girls?" + +The observation changed Lilly's tears into anger. "You're as hateful +and as horrid as you can be, Rose Red," she exclaimed angrily. Then +she flew out of the room, and shut the door behind her with a bang. + +"There! she's gone upstairs to be mad," said Louisa Agnew. + +"I don't care if she has," replied Rose, who was in a perverse mood. + +"I wish you hadn't said that, Rosy," whispered Clover. "Lilly really +felt badly." + +"Well, what if she did? So do I feel badly, and you, and the rest of +us. Lilly hasn't taken out a patent for bad feelings, which nobody +must infringe. What business has she to make us feel badder, by +setting up to be so much worse than the rest of the world?" + +Clover said nothing, but went on with a book she was reading. In less +than ten minutes, Rose, whose sun seldom stayed long behind a cloud, +was at her elbow, dimpling and coaxing. + +"I forgive you," she whispered, giving Clover's arm a little pinch. + +"What for?" + +"For being in the right. About Lilly, I mean. I was rather hateful +to her, I confess. Never mind. When she comes downstairs, I'll make +up. She's a crocodile, if ever there was one; but, as she's your +cousin, I'll be good to her. Kiss me quick to prove that you're not +vexed." + +"Vexed indeed!" said Clover, kissing the middle of the pink cheek. "I +wonder if anybody ever stayed vexed with you for ten minutes together, +You Rosy-Posy you?" + +"Bless you, yes! Miss Jane, for example. She hates me like poison, +and all the time. Well, what of it? I know she's sick, but I 'can't +tell a lie, pa,' on that account. Where's Katy?" + +"Gone in to see her, I believe." + +"One of these days," prophesied Rose, solemnly, "she'll go into that +room, and she'll never come out again! Miss Jane is getting back into +biting condition. I advise Katy to be careful. What's that noise? +Sleigh-bells, I declare! Girls,"--mounting a desk, and peeping out +of the window,--"somebody's got a big box,--a big one! Here's old +Joyce at the door, with his sledge. Now who do you suppose it is?" + +"It's for me. I'm sure it's for me," cried half a dozen voices. + +"Bella, my love, peep over the balusters, and see if you can't see +the name," cried Louisa; and Bella, nothing loath, departed at once +on this congenial errand. + +"No, I can't," she reported, coming back from the hall. "The name's +tipped up against the wall. There's two boxes! One is big, and one +is little!" + +"Oh, who can they be for?" clamored the girls. Half the school +expected boxes, and had been watching the storm all day, with a +dreadful fear that it would block the roads, and delay the expected +treasures. + +At this moment Mrs. Nipson came in. + +"There will be the usual study-hour this evening," she announced. +"All of you will prepare lessons for Monday morning. Miss Carr, +come her for a moment, if you please." + +Clover, wondering, followed her into the entry. + +"A parcel has arrived for you, and a box," said Mrs. Nipson. "I +presume that they contain articles for Christmas. I will have the +nails removed, and both of them placed in you room this evening, +but I expect you to refrain from examining them until to-morrow. The +vacation does not open until after study-hour to-night, and it will +then be too late for you to begin." + +"Very well, ma'am," said Clover, demurely. But the minute Mrs. +Nipson's back was turned, she gave a jump, and rushed into the +school-room. + +"O girls," she cried, "what do you think? Both the boxes are for +Katy and me!" + +"Both!" cried a disappointed chorus. + +"Yes, both. Nipson said so. I'm so sorry for you. But isn't it nice +for us? We've never had a box from home before, you know; and I didn't +think we should, it's so far off. It's too lovely! But I do hope yours +will come to-night." + +Clover's voice was so sympathizing, for all its glee, that nobody +could help being glad with her. + +"You little darling!" said Louisa, giving her a hug. "I'm rejoiced +that the box is yours. The rest of us are always getting them, and +you and Katy never had a thing before. I hope it's a nice one!" + +Study-hour seemed unusually long that night. The minute it was over, +the sisters ran to No. 2. There stood the boxes, a big wooden one, +with all the nails taken out of the lid, and a small paper one, +carefully tied up and sealed. It was almost more than the girls +could do to obey orders and not peep. + +"I feel something hard," announced Clover, inserting a finger-top +under the lid. + +"Oh, do you?" cried Katy. Then, making an heroic effort, she jumped +into the bed. + +"It's the only way," she said, "you'd better come too, Clovy. Blow +the candle out and let's get to sleep as fast as we can, so as to +make morning come quicker." + +Katy dreamed of home that night. Perhaps it was that which made her +wake so early. It was not five o'clock, and the room was perfectly +dark. She did not like to disturb Clover, so she lay perfectly still, +for hours as it seemed, till a faint gray dawn crept in, and revealed +the outlines of the big box standing by the window. Then she could +wait no longer, but crept out of bed, crossed the floor on tip-toe, +and raising the lid a little put in her hand. Something crumby and +sugary met it, and when she drew it out, there, fitting on her finger +like a ring, was a round cake with a hole in the middle of it. + +"Oh! it's one of Debby's jumbles!" she exclaimed. + +"Where? What are you doing? Give me one too!" cried Clover, starting +up. Katy rummaged till she found another, then, half frozen, she ran +back to bed; and the two lay nibbling the jumbles, and talking about +home, till dawn deepened into daylight, and morning was fairly come. + +Breakfast was half an hour later than usual, which was comfortable. +As soon as it was over, the girls proceeded to unpack their box. The +day was so cold that they wrapped themselves in shawls, and Clover +put on a hood and thick gloves. Rose Red, passing the door, burst +out laughing, and recommended that she should add india rubbers and +an umbrella. + +"Come in," cried the sisters,--"come in, and help us open our box." + +"Oh, by the way, you have a box, haven't you?" said Rose, who was +perfectly aware of the important fact, and had presented herself with +the hope of being asked to look on. "Thank you, but perhaps I would +better come some other time. I shall be in your way." + +"You humbug!" said Clover, while Katy seized Rose and pulled her into +the room. "There, sit on the bed, you ridiculous goose, and put on +my gray cloak. How can you be so absurd as to say you won't? You +know we want you, and you know you came on purpose!" + +"Did I? Well, perhaps I did," laughed Rose. Then Katy lifted off the +lid and set it against the door. It was an exciting moment. + +"Just look here!" cried Katy. + +The top of the box was mostly taken up with four square paper boxes, +round which parcels of all shapes and sized were wedged and fitted. +The whole was a miracle of packing. It had taken Miss Finch three +mornings, with assistance from old Mary, and much advice from Elsie, +to do it so beautifully. + +Each box held a different kind of cake. One was of jumbles, another +of ginger-snaps, a third of crullers, and the fourth contained a big +square loaf of frosted plum-cake, with a circle of sugar almonds set +in the frosting. How the trio exclaimed at this! + +"I never imagined any thing so nice," declared Rose, with her mouth +full of jumble. "As for those snaps, they're simply perfect. What +can be in all those fascinating bundles? Do hurry and open one, +Katy." + +Dear little Elsie! The first two bundles opened were hers, a white +hood for Katy, and a blue one for Clover, both of her own knitting, +and so nicely done. The girls were enchanted. + +"How she has improved!" said Katy. "She knits better than either of +us, Clover." + +"There never was such a clever little darling!" responded Clover, and +they patted the hoods, tried them on before the glass, and spent so +much time in admiring them that Rose grew impatient. + +"I declare," she cried, "it isn't any of my funeral, I know; but if +you don't open another parcel soon, I shall certainly fall to myself. +It seems as if, what with cold and curiosity, I couldn't wait." + +"Very well," said Katy, laying aside her hood, with one final glance. +"Take out a bundle, Clover. It's your turn." + +Clover's bundle was for herself, "Evangeline," in blue and gold; and +pretty soon "Golden Legend," in the same binding, appeared for Katy. +Both these were from Dorry. Next came a couple of round packages of +exactly the same size. These proved to be ink-stands, covered with +Russia leather: one marked, "Katy from Johnnie," and the other, +"Clover from Phil." It was evident that the children had done their +shopping together, for presently two long narrow parcels revealed the +carved pen-handles, precisely alike; and these were labelled, "Katy +from Phil," and "Clover from Johnnie." + +What fun it was opening those bundles! The girls made a long business +of it, taking out but one at a time, exclaiming, admiring, and +exhibiting to Rose, before they began upon another. They laughed, +they joked, but I do not think it would have taken much to make +either of them cry. It was almost too tender a pleasure, these +proofs of loving remembrance from the little one; and each separate +article seemed full of the very look and feel of home. + +"What can this be?" said Katy, as she unrolled a paper and disclosed +a pretty round box. She opened. Nothing was visible but pink cotton +wool. Katy peeped beneath, and gave a cry. + +"O Clovy! Such a lovely thing! It's from papa,--of course it's from +papa. How could he? It's a great deal too pretty." + +The "lovely thing" was a long slender chain for Katy's watch, worked +in fine yellow gold. Clover admired it extremely; and her joy knew +no bounds when farther search revealed another box with a precisely +similar chain for herself. It was too much. The girls fairly cried +with pleasure. + +"There never was such a papa in the world!" they said. + +"Yes, there is. Mine is just as good," declared Rose, twinkling away +a little tear-drop from her own eyes. "Now don't cry, honeys. Your +papa's an angel, there's no doubt about it. I never saw such pretty +chains in my life,--never. As for the children, they're little ducks. +You certainly are a wonderful family. Katy, I'm dying to know what +is in the blue parcel." + +The blue parcel was from Cecy, and contained a pretty blue ribbon for +Clover. There was a pink one also, with a pink ribbon for Katy. +Everybody had thought of the girls. Old Mary sent them each a yard +measure; Miss Finch, a thread-case, stocked with differently colored +cottons. Alexander had cracked a bag full of hickory nuts. + +"Did you ever?" said, Rose, when this last was produced. "What a +thing it is to be popular! Mrs. Hall? Who's Mrs. Hall?" as Clover +unwrapped a tiny carved easel. + +"She's Cecy's mother," explained Clover. "Wasn't she kind to send me +this, Katy? And here's Cecy's photograph in a little frame for you." + +Never was such a wonderful box. It appeared to have no bottom +whatever. Under the presents were parcels of figs, prunes, almonds, +raisins, candy; under those, apples and pears. There seemed no end +to the surprises. + +At last all were out. + +"Now," said Katy, "let's throw back the apples and pears, and then I +want you to help divide the other things, and make some packages for +the girls. They are all disappointed not to have their boxes. I +should like to have them share ours. Wouldn't you, Clover?" + +"Yes, indeed. I was just going to propose it." + +So Clover cut twenty-nine squares of white paper, Rose and Katy sorted +and divided, and pretty soon ginger-snaps and almonds and sugar-plums +were walking down all the entries, and a gladsome crunching showed +that the girls had found pleasant employment. None of the snowed-up +boxes got through till Monday, so except for Katy and Clover the +school would have had no Christmas treat at all. + +They carried Mrs. Nipson a large slice of cake, and a basket full of +the beautiful red apples. All the teachers were remembered, and the +servants. The S. S. U. C. was convened and feasted; and as for Rose, +Louisa, and other special cronies, dainties were heaped upon them +with such unsparing hand that they finally remonstrated. + +"You're giving everything away. You'll have none left for yourselves." + +"Yes, we shall,--plenty," said Clover. "O Rosy! here's such a splendid +pear! You must have this." + +"No! no!" protested Rose; but Clover forced it into her pocket. "The +Carrs' Box" was always quoted in the Nunnery afterward, as an example +of what papas and mammas could accomplish, when they were of the right +sort, and really wanted to make school-girls happy. Distributing +their treasures kept Katy and Clover so busy that it was not until +after dinner that they found time to open the smaller box. When they +did so, they were sorry for the delay. The box was full of flowers, +roses, geranium-leaves, heliotrope, beautiful red and white carnations, +all so bedded in cotton that the frost had not touched them. But they +looked chilled, and Katy hastened to put them in warm water, which she +had been told was the best way to revive drooping flowers. + +Cousin Helen had sent them; and underneath, sewed to the box, that +they might not shake about and do mischief, were two flat parcels +wrapped in tissue paper, and tied with white ribbon, in Cousin Helen's, +dainty way. They were glove-cases, of quilted silk, delicately +scented, one white, and one lilac; and to each was pinned a loving +note, wishing the girls a Merry Christmas. + +"How awfully good people are!" said Clover. "I do think we ought to +be the best girls in the world." + +Last of all, Katy made a choice little selection from her stores, a +splendid apple, a couple of fine pears, and handful of raisins and +figs, and, with a few of the freshest flowers in a wine-glass, she +went down the Row and tapped at Miss Jane's door. + +Miss Jane was sitting up for the first time, wrapped in a shawl, and +looking very thin and pale. Katy, who had almost ceased to be afraid +of her, went in cheerily. + +"We've had a delicious box from home, Miss Jane, full of all sorts +of things. It has been such fun unpacking it! I've brought you an +apple, some pears, and this little bunch of flowers. Wasn't it a +nice Christmas for us?" + +"Yes," said Miss Jane, "very nice indeed. I heard some one saying +in the entry that you had a box. Thank you," as Katy set the basket +and glass on the table. "Those flowers are very sweet. I wish you +a Merry Christmas, I'm sure." + +This was much from Miss Jane, who couldn't help speaking shortly, even +when she was pleased. Katy withdrew in high glee. + +But that night, just before bed-time, something happened so surprising +that Katy, telling Clover of it afterward, said she half fancied that +she must have dreamed it all. It was about eight o'clock in the +evening: she was passing down Quaker Row, and Miss Jane called and +asked her to come in. Miss Jane's cheeks were flushed, and she spoke +fast, as if she had resolved to say something, and thought the sooner +it was over the better. + +"Miss Carr," she began, "I wish to tell you that I made up my mind some +time since that we did you an injustice last term. It is not your +attentions to me during my illness which have changed my opinion,-- +that was done before I fell ill. It is your general conduct, and +the good influence which I have seen you exert over other girls, which +convinced me that we must have been wrong about you. That is all. I +thought you might like to hear me say this, and I shall say the same +to Mrs. Nipson." + +"Thank you," said Katy, "you don't know how glad I am!" She half +thought she would kiss Miss Jane, but somehow it didn't seem possible; +so she shook hands very heartily instead, and flew to her room, feeling +as if her feet were wings. + +"It seems too good to be true. I want to cry, I am so happy," she +told Clover. "What a lovely day this has been!" + +And of all that she had received, I think Katy considered this +explanation with Miss Jane as her very best Christmas box. + + + + +CHAPTER XII. WAITING FOR SPRING. + + +School was a much happier place after this. Mrs. Nipson never +alluded to the matter, but her manner altered. Katy felt that +she was no longer watched or distrusted, and her heart grew light. + +In another week Miss Jane was so much better as to be hearing her +classes again. Illness had not changed her materially. It is only +in novels that rheumatic fever sweetens tempers, and makes disagreeable +people over into agreeable ones. Most of the girls disliked her as +much as ever. Her tongue was just as sharp, and her manner as grim. +But for Katy, from that time forward, there was a difference. Miss +Jane was not affectionate to her,--it was not in her nature to be +that,--but she was civil and considerate, and in a dry way, friendly, +and gradually Katy grew to have an odd sort of liking for her. + +Do any of you know how incredibly long winter seems in climates where +for weeks together the thermometer stands at zero? There is something +hopeless in such cold. You think of summer as of a thing read about +somewhere in a book, but which has no actual existence. Winter seems +the only reality in the world. + +Katy and Clover felt this hopelessness growing upon them as the days +went on, and the weather became more and more severe. Ten, twenty, +even thirty degrees below zero, was no unusual register for the +Hillsover thermometers. Such cold half frightened them, but nobody +else was frightened or surprised. It was dry, brilliant cold. The +December snows lay unmelted on the ground in March, and the paths +cut then were crisp and hard still, only the white walls on either +side had risen higher and higher, till only a moving line of hoods +and tippets was visible above them, when the school went out for its +daily walk. Morning after morning the girls woke to find thick +crusts of frost on their window-panes, and every drop of water in +the wash-bowl or pitcher turned to solid ice. Night after night, +Clover, who was a chilly little creature, lay shivering and unable +to sleep, notwithstanding the hot bricks at her feet, and the many +wraps which Katy piled upon her. To Katy herself the cold was more +bracing than depressing. There was something in her blood which +responded to the sharp tingle of frost, and she gained in strength +in a remarkable way during this winter. But the long storms told +upon her spirits. She pined for spring and home more than she liked +to tell, and felt the need of variety in their monotonous life, where +the creeping days appeared like weeks, and the weeks stretched +themselves out, and seemed as long as months do in other places. + +The girls resorted to all sorts of devices to keep themselves alive +during this dreary season. They had little epidemics of occupation. +At one time it was "spattering," when all faces and fingers had a +tendency to smudges of India ink; and there was hardly a fine comb +or tooth-brush fit for use in the establishment. Then a rage for +tatting set in, followed by a fever of fancy-work, every one falling +in love with the same pattern at the same time, and copying and +recopying, till nobody could bear the sight of it. At one time Clover +counted eighteen girls all at work on the same bead and canvas pin- +cushion. Later there was a short period of _decalcomanie;_ and then +came the grand album craze, when thirty-three girls out of the thirty- +nine sent for blank books bound in red morocco, and began to collect +signatures and sentiments. Here, also, there was a tendency toward +repetition. + +Sally Austin added to her autograph these lines of her own composition:-- + + + When on this page your beauteous eyes you bend, + Let it remind you of your absent friend. + Sally J. Austin, + Galveston, Texas. + + +The girls found this sentiment charming, at least a dozen borrowed it, +and in half the albums in the school you might read,-- + + + "When on this page your beauteous eyes," &c. + + +Esther Dearborn wrote in Clover's book: "The better part of Valor is +Discretion." Why she wrote it, nobody knew, or why it was more +applicable to Clover than to any one else; but the sentiment proved +popular, and was repeated over and over again, above various neatly +written signatures. There was a strife as to who should display the +largest collection. Some of the girls sent home for autographs of +distinguished persons, which they pasted in their books. Rose Red, +however, out-did them all. + +"Did I ever show you mine?" she asked one day, when most of the girls +were together in the school-room. + +"No, never!" cried a number of voices. "Have you got one? Oh, do let +us see it." + +"Certainly, I'll get it right away, if you like," said Rose, obligingly. + +She went to her room, and returned with a shabby old blank book in her +hand. Some of the girls looked disappointed. + +"The cover of mine isn't very nice," explained Rose. "I'm going to +have it rebound one of these days. You see it's not a new album at +all, nor a school album; but it's very valuable to me." Here she +heaved a sentimental sigh. "All my friends have written in it," +she said. + +The girls were quite impressed by the manner in which Rose said this. +But, when they turned over the pages of the album, they were even more +impressed. Rose had evidently been on intimate terms with a circle of +most distinguished persons. Half the autographs in the book were from +gentlemen, and they were dated all over the world. + +"Just listen to this!" cried Louisa, and she read,-- + + + "Thou may'st forget me, but never, never shall I forget thee!" + Alphonso of Castile. + The Escurial, April 1st. + + +'Who's he?" asked a circle of awe-struck girls. + +"Didn't you ever hear of him? Youngest brother of the King of Spain," +replied Rose carelessly. + +"Oh, my! and just hear this," exclaimed Annie Silsbie. + + + If you ever deign to cast a thought in my direction, Miss Rose, + remember me always as + Thy devoted servitor, + Potemkin Montmorency. + + St. Petersburg, July 10th. + + +"And this," shrieked Alice White. + + + "They say love is a thorn, I say it is a dart, + And yet I cannot tear thee from my heart." + Antonio, Count of Vallambrosa. + + +"Do you really and truly know a Count?" asked Bella, backing away +from Rose with eyes as big as saucers. + +"Know Antonio de Vallambrosa! I should think I did," replied Rose. +"Nobody in this country knows him so well, I fancy." + +"And he wrote that for you?" + +"How else could it get into my book, goosey?" + +This was unanswerable; and Rose was installed from that time forward +in the minds of Bella and the rest as a heroine of the first water. +Katy, however, knew better; and the first time she caught Rose alone +she attacked her on the subject. + +"Now, Rosy-Posy, confess. Who wrote all those absurd autographs in +your book?" + +"Absurd autographs! What can you mean?" + +"All those Counts and things. No, it's no use. You shan't wriggle +away till you tell me." + +"Oh, Antonio and dear Potemkin, do you mean them?" + +"Yes, of course I do." + +"And you really want to know?" + +"Yes." + +"And will swear not to tell?" + +"Yes." + +"Well, then," bursting into a laugh, "I wrote every one of them myself." + +"Did you really? When?" + +"Day before yesterday. I thought Lilly needed taking down, she was +so set up with her autographs of Wendell Phillips and Mr. Seward, so +I just sat down and wrote a book full. It only took me half an hour. +I meant to write some more: in fact, I had one all ready,-- + + + 'I am dead, or pretty near: + David's done for me I fear' + Goliath of Gath. + + +but I was afraid even Bella wouldn't swallow that, so I tore out the +page. I'm sorry I did now, for I really think the geese would have +believed it. Written in his last moments, you know, to oblige an +ancestor of my own," added Rose, in a tone of explanation. + +"You monkey!" cried Katy, highly diverted. But she kept Rose's +counsel, and I daresay some of the Hillsover girls believe in that +wonderful album to this day. + +It was not long after that a sad piece of news came for Bella. Her +father was dead. Their home was in Iowa, too far to allow of her +returning for the funeral; so the poor little girl stayed at school, +to bear her trouble as best she might. Katy, who was always kind to +children, and had somewhat affected Bella from the first on account +of her resemblance to Elsie in height and figure, was especially +tender to her now, which Bella repaid with the gift of her whole +queer little heart. Her affectionate demonstrations were rather of +the monkey order, and not un frequently troublesome; but Katy was never +otherwise than patient and gentle with her, though Rose, and even +Clover, remonstrated on what they called this "singular intimacy." + +"Poor little soul! It's so hard for her, and she's only eleven years +old," she told them. + +"She has such a funny way of looking at you sometimes," said Rose, who +was very observant. "It is just the air of a squirrel who has hidden +a nut, and doesn't want you to find out where, and yet can hardly help +indicating it with his paw. She's got something on her mind, I'm sure." + +"Half a dozen things, very likely," added Clover: "she's such a +mischief." + +But none of them guessed what this "something" was. + +Early in January Mrs. Nipson announced that in four weeks she proposed +to give a "Soiree," to which all young ladies whose records were +entirely free from marks during the intervening period would be +allowed to come. This announcement created great excitement, and +the school set itself to be good; but marks were easy to get, and +gradually one girl after another lost her chance, till by the +appointed day only a limited party descended to join the festivities, +and nearly half the school was left upstairs to sigh over past sins. +Katy and Rose were among the unlucky ones. Rose had incurred a mark +by writing a note in study-hour, and Katy by being five minutes late +to dinner. They consoled themselves by dressing Clover's hair, and +making her look as pretty as possible, and then stationed themselves +in the upper hall at the head of the stairs to watch her career, and +get as much fun out of the occasion as they could. + +Pretty soon they saw Clover below on Professor Seccomb's arm. He was +a kingly, pleasant man, with a bald head, and it was a fashion among +the girls to admire him. + +"Doesn't she look pretty?" said Rose. "Just notice Mrs. Searles, Katy. +She's grinning at Clover like the Cheshire cat. What a wonderful cap +that is of hers! She had it when Sylvia was here at school, eight +years ago." + +"Hush! she'll hear you." + +"No, she won't. There's Ellen beginning her piece. I know she's +frightened by the way she plays. Hark! how she hurries the time!" + +"There, they are going to have refreshments, after all!" cried Esther +Dearborn, as trays of lemonade and cake-baskets appeared below on +their way to the parlor. "Isn't it a shame to have to stay up here?" + +"Professor Seccomb! Professor!" called Rose, in a daring whisper. +"Take pity upon us. We are starving for a piece of cake." + +The Professor gave a jump; then retreated, and looked upward. When +he saw the circle of hungry faces peering down, he doubled up with +laughter. "Wait a moment," he whispered back, and vanished into the +parlor. Pretty soon the girls saw him making his way through the +crowd with an immense slice of pound-cake in each hand. + +"Here, Miss Rose," he said,--"catch it." But Rose ran half-way +downstairs, received the cake, dimpled her thanks, and retreated to +the darkness above, whence sounds proceeded which sent the amused +Professor into the parlor convulsed with suppressed laughter. +Pretty soon Clover stole up the back stairs to report. + +"Are you having a nice time? Is the lemon-ade good? Who have you +been talking with?" inquired a chorus of voices. + +"Pretty nice. Everybody is very old. I haven't been talking to +anybody in particular, and the lemonade is only cream-of-tartar water. +I guess it's jollier up here with you," replied Clover. "I must go +now: my turn to play comes next." Down she ran. + +"Except for the glory of the thing, I think we're having more fun than +she," answered Rose. + +Next week came St. Valentine's Day. Several of the girls received +valentines from home, and they wrote them to each other. Katy and +Clover both had one from Phil, exactly alike, with the same purple +bird in the middle of the page, and "I love you" printed underneath; +and they joined in fabricating a gorgeous one for Rose, which was +supposed to come from Potemkin de Montmorencey, the hero of the album. +But the most surprising valentine was received by Miss Jane. It +came with the others, while all the household were at dinner. The +girls saw her redden and look angry, but she put the letter in her +pocket, and said nothing. + +In the afternoon, it came out through Bella that "Miss Jane's letter +was in poetry, and that she was just mad as fire about it." Just +before tea, Louisa came running down the Row, to No. 5, where Katy +was sitting with Rose. + +"Girls, what do you think? That letter which Miss Jane got this +morning was a valentine, the most dreadful thing, but so funny!" +she stopped to laugh. + +"How do you know?" cried the other two. + +"Miss Marsh told Alice Gibbons. She's a sort of cousin, you know; and +Miss Marsh often tells her things. She says Miss Jane and Mrs. Nipson +are furious, and are determined to find out who sent it. It was from +Mr. Hardhack, Miss Jane's missionary,--or no, not from Mr. Hardhack, +but from a cannibal who had just eaten Mr. Hardhack up; and he sent +Miss Jane a lock of his hair, and the recipe the tribe cooked him by. +They found him 'very nice,' he said, and 'He turned out quite tender.' +That was one of the lines in the poem. Did you ever hear of any thing +like it? Who do you suppose could have sent it?" + +"Who could it have been?" cried the others. Katy had one moment's +awful misgiving; but a glance at Rose's face, calm and innocent as a +baby's, reassured her. It was impossible that she could have done +this mischievous thing. Katy, you see, was not privy to that entry +in Rose's journal, "Pay Miss Jane off," nor aware that Rose had just +written underneath, "Did it. Feb. 14, 1869." + +Nobody ever found out the author of this audacious valentine. Rose +kept her own counsel, and Miss Jane probably concluded that "the +better part of valor was discretion," for the threatened inquiries +were never made. + +And now it lacked but six weeks to the end of the term. The girls +counted the days, and practised various devices to make them pass +more quickly. Esther Dearborn, who had a turn for arithmetic, set +herself to a careful calculation of how many hours, minutes, and +seconds must pass before the happy time should come. Annie Silsbie +strung forty-two tiny squares of card-board on a thread and each +night slipped one off and burned it up in the candle. Others made +diagrams of the time, with a division for each day, and every night +blotted one out with a sense of triumph. None of these devices made +the time hasten. It never moved more slowly than now, when life +seemed to consist of a universal waiting. + +But though Katy's heart bounded at the thought of home till she could +hardly bear the gladness, she owned to Clover,--"Do you know, much as +I long to get away, I am half sorry to go! It is parting with something +which we shall never have any more. Home is lovely, and I would rather +be there than anywhere else; but, if you and I live to be a hundred, +we shall never be girls at boarding-school again." + + + + +CHAPTER XIII. PARADISE REGAINED. + + +"Only seven days more to cross off," said Clover, drawing her pencil +through one of the squares on the diagram pinned beside her looking- +glass, "seven more, and then--oh, joy!--papa will be here, and we +shall start for home." + +She was interrupted by the entrance of Katy, holding a letter and +looking pale and aggrieved. + +"Oh, Clover," she cried, "just listen to this! Papa can't come for +us. Isn't it too bad?" And she read:-- + + +"Burnet, March 20. + +"My dear Girls,--I find that it will not be possible for me to come +for you next week, as I intended. Several people are severely ill, +and old Mrs. Barlow struck down suddenly with paralysis, so I cannot +leave. I am sorry, and so will you be; but there is no help for it. +Fortunately, Mrs. Hall has just heard that some friends of hers are +coming westward with their family, and she has written to ask them +to take charge of you. The drawback to this plan is, that you will +have to travel alone as far as Albany, where Mr. Peters (Mrs. Hall's +friend) will meet you. I have written to ask Mr. Page to put you +on the train, and under the care of the conductor, on Tuesday morning. +I hope you will get through without embarassment. Mr. Peters will +be at the station in Albany to receive you; or, if any thing should +hinder him, you are to drive at once to the Delavan House where they +are staying. I enclose a check for your journey. If Dorry were five +years older, I should send him after you. + +"The children are most impatient to have you back. Miss Finch has +been suddenly called away by the illness of her sister-in-law, so +Elsie is keeping house till you return. + +"God bless you, my dear daughters, and send you safe. + + "Yours affectionately, + P. Carr." + + +"Oh, dear!" said Clover, with her lip trembling, "now papa won't see +Rosy." + +"No," said Katy, "and Rosy and Louisa and the rest won't see him. +That is the worst of all. I wanted them to so much. And just think +how dismal it will be to travel with people we don't know. It's too, +too bad, I declare." + +"I do think old Mrs. Barlow might have put off being ill just one week +longer," grumbled Clover. "It takes away half the pleasure of going +home." + +The girls might be excused for being cross, for this was a great +disappointment. There was no help for it, however, as papa said. +They could only sigh and submit. But the journey, to which they +had looked forward so much, was no longer thought of as a pleasure, +only a disagreeable necessity, something which must be endured in +order that they might reach home. + +Five, four, three days,--the last little square was crossed off, the +last dinner was eaten, the last breakfast. There was much mourning +over Katy and Clover among the girls who were to return for another +year. Louisa and Ellen Gray were inconsolable; and Bella, with a +very small pocket handkerchief held tightly in her hand, clung to +Katy every moment, crying, and declaring that she would not let her +go. The last evening she followed her into No. 2 (where she was +dreadfully in the way of the packing), and after various odd +contortions and mysterious, half-spoken sentences, said:-- + +"Say, won't you tell if I tell you something?" + +"What is it?" asked Katy, absently, as she folded and smoothed her +best gown. + +"Something," repeated Bella, wagging her head mysteriously, and +looking more like a thievish squirrel than ever. + +"Well, what is it? Tell me." + +To Katy's surprise, Bella burst into a violent fit of crying. + +"I'm real sorry I did it," she sobbed,--"real sorry! And now you'll +never love me any more." + +"Yes, I will. What is it? Do stop crying, Bella dear, and tell me," +said Katy, alarmed at the violence of the sobs. + +"It was for fun, really and truly it was. But I wanted some cake too," +--protested Bella, sniffing very hard. + +"What!" + +"And I didn't think anybody would know. Berry Searles doesn't care +a bit for us little girls, only for big ones. And I knew if I said +"Bella," he'd never give me the cake. So I said 'Miss Carr' instead." + +"Bella, did you write that note?" inquired Katy, almost to much +surprised to speak. + +"Yes. And I tied a string to your blind, because I knew I could go in +and draw it up when you were practising. But I didn't mean to do any +harm; and when Mrs. Florence was so mad, and changed your room, I was +real sorry," moaned Bella, digging her knuckles into her eyes. + +"Won't you ever love me any more?" she demanded. Katy lifted her into +her lap, and talked so tenderly and seriously that her contrition, +which was only half genuine, became real; and she cried in good +earnest when Katy kissed her in token of forgiveness. + +"Of course you'll go at once to Mrs. Nipson," said Clover and Rose, +when Katy imparted this surprising discovery. + +"No, I think not. Why should I? It would only get poor little Bella +into a dreadful scrape, and she's coming back again, you know. Mrs. +Nipson does not believe that story now,--nobody does. We had 'lived +it down,' just as I hope we should. That is much better than having +it contradicted." + +"I don't think so; and I should enjoy seeing that little wretch of a +Bella well whipped," persisted Rose. But Katy was not to be shaken. + +"To please me, promise that not a word shall be said about it," she +urged; and, to please her, the girls consented. + +I think Katy was right in saying that Mrs. Nipson no longer believed +her guilty in the affair of the note. She had been very friendly to +both the sisters of late; and when Clover carried in her album and +asked for an autograph, she waxed quite sentimental and wrote, "I +would not exchange the modest Clover for the most beautiful parterre, +so bring it back, I pray thee, to your affectionate teacher, Marianne +Nipson;" which effusion quite overwhelmed "the modest Clover," and +called out the remark from Rose,--"Don't she wish she may get you!" +Miss Jane said twice, "I shall miss you, Katy," a speech which, to +quote Rose again, made Katy look as "surprised as Balaam." Rose +herself was not coming back to school. She and the girls were half +broken-hearted at parting. They lavished tears, kisses, promises of +letters, and vows of eternal friendship. Neither of them, it was +agreed, was ever to love anybody else so well. The final moment +would have been almost too tragical, had it not been for a last bit +of mischief on the part of Rose. It was after the stage was actually +at the door, and she had her foot upon the step, that, struck by a +happy thought, she rushed upstairs again, collected the girls, and, +each taking a window, they tore down the cotton, flung open sashes, +and startled Mrs. Nipson, who stood below, by the simultaneous waving +therefrom of many white flags. Katy, who was already in the stage, +had the full benefit of this performance. Always after that, when +she thought of the Nunnery, her memory recalled this scene,--Mrs. +Nipson in the door-way, Bella blubbering behind, and overhead the +windows crowded with saucy girls, laughing and triumphantly flapping +the long cotton strips which had for so many months obscured the +daylight for them all. + +At Springfield next morning she and Clover said good-by to Mr. Page +and Lilly. The ride to Albany was easy and safe. With every mile +their spirits rose. At last they were actually on the way home. + +At Albany they looked anxiously about the crowded depot for "Mr. +Peters." Nobody appeared at first, and they had time to grow nervous +before they saw a gentle, careworn little man coming toward them in +company with the conductor. + +"I believe you are the young ladies I have come to meet," he said. +"You must excuse my being late, I was detained by business. There +is a great deal to do to move a family out West," he wiped his +forehead in a dispirited way. Then he put the girls into a carriage, +and gave the driver a direction. + +"We'd better leave your baggage at the office as we pass," he said, +"because we have to get off so early in the morning." + +"How early?" + +"The boat goes at six, but we ought to be on board by half-past five, +so as to be well settled before she starts." + +"The boat?" said Katy, opening her eyes. + +"Yes. Erie Canal, you know. Our furniture goes that way, so we +judged it best to do the same, and keep an eye on it ourselves. +Never be separated from your property, if you can help it, that's +my maxim. It's the Prairie Belle,--one of the finest boats on the +Canal." + +"When do we get to Buffalo?" asked Katy, with an uneasy recollection +of having heard that canal boats travel slowly. + +"Buffalo? Let me see. This is Tuesday,--Wednesday, Thursday,--well, +if we're lucky we ought to be there Friday evening; so, if we're not +too late to catch the night boat on the lake, you'll reach home +Saturday afternoon." + +Four days! The girls looked at each other with dismay too deep for +words. Elsie was expecting them by Thursday at latest. What should +they do? + +"Telegraph," was the only answer that suggested itself. So Katy +scribbled a despatch, "Coming by canal. Don't expect us till +Saturday," which she begged Mr. Peters to send; and she and Clover +agreed in whispers that it was dreadful, but they must bear it as +patiently as they could. + +Oh, the patience which is needed on a canal! The motion which is not +so much motion as standing still! The crazy impulse to jump out and +help the crawling boat along by pushing it from behind! How one grows +to hate the slow, monotonous glide, the dull banks, and to envy every +swift-moving thing in sight, each man on horseback, each bird flying +through the air. + +Mrs. Peters was a thin, anxious woman, who spent her life anticipating +disasters of all sorts. She had her children with her, three little +boys, and a teething baby; and such a load of bundles, and baskets, +and brown paper parcels, that Katy and Clover privately wondered how +she could possibly have got through the journey without their help. +Willy, the eldest boy, was always begging leave to go ashore and ride +the towing horses; Sammy, the second could only be kept quiet by means +of crooked pins and fish-lines of blue yarn; while Paul, the youngest, +was possessed with a curiosity as to the under side of the boat, which +resulted in his dropping his new hat overboard five times in three +days, Mr. Peters and the cabin-boy rowing back in a small boat each +time to recover it. Mrs. Peters sat on deck with her baby in her lap, +and was in a perpetual agony lest the locks should work wrongly, or the +boys be drowned, or some one fail to notice the warning cry, "Bridge!" +and have their heads carried off from their shoulders. Nobody did; +but the poor lady suffered the anguish of ten accidents in dreading +the one which never took place. The berths at night were small and +cramped, restless children woke and cried, the cabins were close, the +decks cold and windy. There was nothing to see, and nothing to do. +Katy and Clover agreed that they never wanted to see a canal boat +again. + +They were very helpful to Mrs. Peters, amused the boys, and kept them +out of mischief; and she told her husband that she really thought she +shouldn't have lived through the journey if it hadn't been for the +Miss Carrs, they were such kind girls, and so fond of children. But +the three days were terribly long. At last they ended. Buffalo was +reached in time for the lake boat; and once established on board, +feeling the rapid motion, and knowing that each stroke of the paddles +took them nearer home, the girls were rewarded for their long trial +of patience. + +At four o'clock the next afternoon Burnet was in sight. Long before +they touched the wharf Clover discovered old Whitey and the carryall, +and Alexander, waiting for them among the crowd of carriages. Standing +on the edge of the dock appeared a well-known figure. + +"Papa! papa!" she shrieked. It seemed as if the girls could not wait +for the boat to stop, and the plank to be lowered. How delightful it +was to feel papa again! Such a sense of home and comfort and shelter +as came with his touch! + +"I'll never go away from you again, never, never!" repeated Clover, +keeping tight hold of his hand as they drove up the hill. Dr. Carr, +as he gazed at his girls, was equally happy,--they were so bright, +affectionate and loving. No, he could never spare them again, for +the boarding-school or any thing else, he thought. + +"You must be very tired," he said. + +"Not a bit. I'm hardly ever tired now," replied Katy. + +"Oh, dear! I forgot to thank Mr. Peters for taking care of us," +said Clover. + +"Never mind. I did it for you," answered her father. + +"Oh, that baby!" she continued: "how glad I am that it has gone to +Toledo, and I needn't hear it cry any more! Katy! Katy! there's +home! We are at the gate!" + +The girls looked eagerly out, but no children were visible. They +hurried up the gravel path, under the locust boughs just beginning +to bud. There, over the front door, was an arch of evergreens, with +"Katy" and "Clover" upon it in scarlet letters; and as they reached +the porch, the door flew open, and out poured the children in a +tumultuous little crowd. They had been on the roof, looking through +a spy-glass after the boat. + +"We never knew you had come till we heard the gate," explained John +and Dorry; while Elsie hugged Clover, and Phil, locking his arms +round Katy's neck, took his feet off the floor, and swung them in +and ecstasy of affection, until she begged for mercy. + +"How you are grown! Dorry, you're as tall as I am! Elsie, darling, +how well you look! Oh, isn't it delicious, delicious, delicious, to +be at home again!" There was such a hubbub of endearments and +explanations that Dr. Carr could hardly make himself heard. + +"Clover, your waist has grown as small as a pin. You look just like +the beautiful princess in Elsie's story," said Johnnie. + +"Take the girls into the parlor," repeated Dr. Carr: "it is cold out +here, with the door open." + +"Take 'em upstairs! You don't know what is upstairs!" shouted Phil, +whereupon Elsie frowned and shook her head at him. + +The parlor was gay with daffodils and hyacinths, and vases of blue +violets, which smelt delightfully. Cecy had helped to arrange them, +Elsie said. And just at that moment Cecy herself came in. Her hair +was arranged in a sort of pin-cushion of puffs, with a row of curls +on top, where no curls used to grow, and her appearance generally +was very fine and fashionable; but she was the same affectionate Cecy +as ever, and hugged the girls, and danced round them as she used to +do at twelve. She had waited until they had had time to kiss once +all round, she said, and then she really couldn't wait any longer. + +"Now come upstairs," suggested Elsie, when Clover had warmed her +feet, and the flowers had been admired, and everybody had said ten +times over how nice it was to have the girls back, and the girls +had replied that it was just as nice to come back. + +So they all went upstairs, Elsie leading the way. + +"Where are you going?" cried Katy: "that's the Blue Room." But Elsie +did not pause. + +"You see," she explained, with the door-knob in her hand, "papa and I +thought you ought to have a bigger room now, because you are grown-up +young ladies! So we have fixed this for you, and your old one is going +to be the spare room instead." Then she threw the door open, and led +the girls in. + +"See, Katy," she said, "this is your bureau, and this is Clover's. +And look what nice drawers papa has had put in the closet,--two for +you, and two for her. Aren't they convenient? Don't you like it? +And isn't it a great deal pleasanter than the old room?" + +"Oh, a great deal," cried the girls. "It is delightful, every thing +about it." All Katy's old treasures had been transferred from her old +quarters to this. There was her cushioned chair, her table, her book- +shelf, the pictures from the walls. There were some new things too, +--a blue carpet, blue paper on the walls, window curtains of fresh +chintz; and Elsie had made a tasteful pin-cushion for each bureau, +and Johnnie crocheted mats for the wash-stand. Altogether, it was +as pretty a bower as two sisters just grown into ladies could desire. + +"What are those lovely things hanging on either side of the bed?" +asked Clover. + +They were two illuminated texts, sent as a "welcome home," by Cousin +Helen. One was a morning text, and other an evening text, Elsie +explained. The evening text, which bore the words, "I will lay me +down to sleep, and take my rest, for it is thou, Lord, only who makest +me dwell in safety," was painted in soft purples and grays, and among +the poppies and silver lilies which wreathed it appeared a cunning +little downy bird, fast asleep, with his head under his wing. The +morning text, "When I awake, I am still with Thee," was in bright +colors, scarlet and blue and gold, and had a frame of rose garlands +and wide-awake-looking butterflies and humming-birds. The girls +thought they had never seen any thing so pretty. + +Such a gay supper as they had that night! Katy would not take her +old place at the tea-tray. She wanted to know how Elsie looked as +housekeeper, she said. So she sat on one side of papa, and Clover +on the other, and Elsie poured the tea, with a mixture of delight +and dignity which was worth seeing. + +"I'll begin to-morrow," said Katy. + +And with that morrow, when she came out of her pretty room and took +her place once more as manager of the household, her grown-up life +may be said to have begun. So it is time that I should cease to +write about her. Grown-up lives may be very interesting, but they +have no rightful place in a child's book. If little girls will +forget to be little, and take it upon them to become young ladies, +they must bear the consequences, one of which is, that we can follow +their fortunes no longer. + + . . . . . . . . . . . . . + +I wrote these last words sitting in the same green meadow where the +first words of "What Katy Did" were written. A year had passed, but +a cardinal-flower which seemed the same stood looking at itself in +the brook, and from the bulrush-bed sounded tiny voices. My little +goggle-eyed friends were discussing Katy and her conduct, as they did +then, but with less spirit; for one voice came seldom and faintly, +while the other, bold and defiant as ever, repeated over and over +again, "Katy didn't! Katy didn't! She didn't, didn't, didn't" + +"Katy did!" sounded faintly from the farther rush. + +"She didn't, she didn't," chirped the undaunted partisan. Silence +followed. His opponent was either convinced or tired of the +discussion. + +"Katy didn't." The words repeated themselves in my mind as I walked +homeward. How much room for "Didn'ts" there is in the world, I thought +What an important part they play! And how glad I am that, with all her +own and other people's doings, so many of these "Didn'ts" were included +among the things which my Katy did at School! + + + + + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's What Katy Did At School, by Susan Coolidge + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK WHAT KATY DID AT SCHOOL *** + +This file should be named 5141.txt or 5141.zip + +This E-text was created by Doug Levy, _littera scripta manet_ + +Project Gutenberg eBooks are often created from several printed +editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the US +unless a copyright notice is included. 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