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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Dorothy Dainty at Glenmore, by Amy Brooks
+#3 in our series by Amy Brooks
+
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+
+
+Title: Dorothy Dainty at Glenmore
+
+Author: Amy Brooks
+
+Release Date: February, 2005 [EBook #7479]
+[Yes, we are more than one year ahead of schedule]
+[This file was first posted on May 8, 2003]
+
+Edition: 10
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK DOROTHY DAINTY AT GLENMORE ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Charles Franks and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team
+
+
+
+
+DOROTHY DAINTY AT GLENMORE
+
+BY
+
+AMY BROOKS
+
+_WITH ILLUSTRATIONS BY THE AUTHOR_
+
+[Illustration: "A letter from Vera!" answered Dorothy.]
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS
+
+   I Off to Glenmore
+
+  II The First Social
+
+ III Mischief
+
+  IV A Wonderful Tonic
+
+   V A Sleighing Party
+
+  VI The Lost Necklace
+
+ VII When Nancy Danced
+
+VIII A Bit of Spite
+
+  IX The Wishing-Well
+
+   X A Lively Week
+
+  XI An Innocent Sneak-Thief
+
+ XII A Glad Return
+
+
+
+
+ILLUSTRATIONS
+
+"A letter from Vera!" answered Dorothy _Frontispiece_
+
+She wished that she might know what they were saying
+
+"Oh, what a fright!" she cried
+
+"This necklace is mine!" returned the accused girl excitedly
+
+At the end of the wall Betty and Valerie waited
+
+Drawing closer, Nancy whispered a rare bit of news
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I
+
+OFF TO GLENMORE
+
+
+The Stone House looked as fine, and its gardens as gay with flowers,
+as when the members of the household were to be at home for a season,
+for it always seemed at those times as if the blossoming plants did
+their best, because sure of loving admiration.
+
+But something entirely new was about to happen; something that made
+Dorothy Dainty catch her breath, while her dearest friend, Nancy
+Ferris, declared that she was wildly happy, except that the whole
+thing seemed so like a dream that she could hardly believe it.
+
+"That's just it, Nancy," said Dorothy. "It surely does seem like a
+dream."
+
+Yet it was true, and not a dream that Mr. Dainty was to be away from
+home for some months, that Mrs. Dainty was to accompany him, and that
+Aunt Charlotte would be with them, and that Dorothy and Nancy were
+to spend those months at a fine school for girls, and Vera Vane,
+merry, mischief-loving Vera, would be eagerly looking for them on
+the day of their arrival. One would almost wonder that the thought
+of being away at school should appeal to Dorothy and Nancy, but it
+was the novelty that charmed them.
+
+It was always delightful at the Stone House, and there had been summer
+seasons at shore and country that they had greatly enjoyed, but here
+was a new experience, and the "newness" was delightful.
+
+A letter from Vera had just arrived, and Dorothy, out in the garden
+when the postman had handed it to her, stood reading it.
+
+"Her letters are just like herself," she whispered.
+
+She looked up. Nancy was calling to her.
+
+"A letter from Vera!" answered Dorothy.
+
+"We shall have to hurry a bit," Nancy said, "James is strapping the
+two trunks, the suit-cases are out in the hall, and we must be ready
+in twenty minutes."
+
+"All right!" cried Dorothy. "Give me your hand and we'll run to the
+house."
+
+She tucked the letter into the front of her blouse, and then promptly
+forgot all about it.
+
+The "twenty minutes" sped on wings, and when at last Dorothy and Nancy
+sat side by side in the car, their trunks checked, their suit-cases,
+and umbrellas on the seat that had been turned over for them, they
+turned, each to look into the other's eyes.
+
+Dorothy's lip quivered, but she spoke bravely.
+
+"It is hard, this first trip away from home without mother or Aunt
+Charlotte with us," she said. Then quickly she added:
+
+"But it will be fine when we get used to being away from home."
+
+"Oh, yes, it will be _fine_!" Nancy said in a firm voice, but she
+looked down, lest her eyes show a suspicious moisture.
+
+As the journey progressed, their spirits rose. After all, it was not
+really "good-by," yet.
+
+Mrs. Dainty had postponed the actual "good-by" until a week after
+Dorothy and Nancy should have begun the school year at Glenmore.
+
+She knew that Vera Vane was a host in herself, her friend and chum,
+Elfreda was nearly her equal in active wit, and high spirits, and
+at least a few of the other pupils would have already formed a
+speaking acquaintance with the two new girls.
+
+The girls would have been assigned places in the classes for which
+they were fitted, and thus the school work would be planned, and their
+time closely occupied.
+
+Mrs. Dainty and Aunt Charlotte were also eager to know if the two
+who were so dear to them were comfortable, satisfied with their
+surroundings, and looking forward to a pleasant school year. Until
+thus assured, they could not set out on the journey, for the trip
+had been planned as a means of rest and recuperation for Mrs. Dainty.
+How could she rest, or enjoy the trip unless she were sure that
+Dorothy was absolutely content and happy? If Dorothy were happy, Nancy
+was sure to be, because the two were inseparable, and their tastes
+nearly identical.
+
+The two girls were a bit tired of looking from the window at the
+flying scenery, and Nancy expressed the wish that they had brought
+something with them to read.
+
+"I did," Dorothy said, with a laugh, and she drew Vera's letter from
+her blouse.
+
+She read it aloud, while Nancy leaned against her shoulder, enjoying
+it with her.
+
+"I wish you had come the first day that school opened, but I'll be
+on the lookout for you and Nancy. My! But we'll have fun and a plenty
+of it this year at Glenmore," she concluded, signed her name, and
+then added a postscript.
+
+"Patricia, and Arabella are here, both--no, _each_--oh, which _should_
+I say? Anyway, they're acting just outrageous, and already they've
+earned the name that the girls have given them. They call them 'The
+Freaks,' and truly the name fits. They speak of Patricia as 'the one
+with the queer clothes,' and of Arabella as 'the medicine-chest.'
+
+"She's taking more pills, I do believe, than she ever did at home,
+and she wants folks to notice that.
+
+"The idea! I'm glad there are two _nice_ girls coming from Merrivale,
+although you'd never think Patricia ever _saw_ the place, for she
+talks of nothing but 'N'York.' My brother Bob always laughs about
+my long postscripts. It's lucky he can't see this one!
+
+  "Lovingly,
+
+    "VERA."
+
+Dorothy folded the letter, again placing it in her blouse, and then
+for a time they watched the passengers.
+
+Opposite them was a big woman, who possessed three bird-cages, two
+holding birds, and the third imprisoning a kitten.
+
+There was a lean man with a fat little girl beside him, who ate
+countless lunches, which were packed in a big basket, that seemed
+a veritable horn of plenty.
+
+Yet a bit farther up the aisle was a small boy with a large cage that
+he watched closely.
+
+A thick cloth covered it, but once, when the boy was not looking,
+a long brown furry arm reached out, and snatched mischievously at
+his sleeve.
+
+"It's a monkey," whispered Nancy, and the boy turned and grinned.
+
+"'F _he_ knew there was a monkey in that cage he'd make me put it
+in the baggage car," he said.
+
+Dorothy was tired with the long ride, and just as she was thinking
+that she could not bear much more of it, the brakeman shouted,
+"Glenmore! Glenmore!" and the two girls were glad enough to get out
+upon the platform.
+
+Glenmore, the village, was a lovely little country place, quiet, and
+evidently content with itself.
+
+Glenmore, the school, was a rambling, picturesque home for the pupils
+who came there.
+
+Once it had been a private mansion, but its interior had been
+remodeled to meet the requirements of a small, and select school
+for girls.
+
+A bit old-fashioned in that it was more genuinely homelike than other
+private schools, it held itself proudly aloof from neighboring
+buildings.
+
+It claimed that its home atmosphere was the only old-fashioned thing
+about it, and that was not an idle boast, for the old house had been
+equipped with every modern convenience. Its instructors were the best
+that a generous salary could tempt to Glenmore, and Mrs. Marvin,
+owner, promoter, and manager of the school, was an exceedingly clever
+woman for the position.
+
+As assistant, Miss Fenler, small, and wiry, did all that was required
+of her, and more. She had never been appointed as a monitor, but she
+chose to do considerable spying, so that the pupils had come to speak
+of her as the "detective."
+
+One of her many duties was to see that the carryall was at the station
+when new pupils were to arrive.
+
+Accordingly when Dorothy and Nancy left the train, and found
+themselves on the platform, Miss Fenler was looking for them, and
+she stowed them away in the carryall much as if they had been only
+ordinary baggage.
+
+Then, seating herself beside the driver, she ordered him to return.
+
+"Home," she said, and "home" they were driven, for "home" meant
+Glenmore to the colored man, who considered himself a prominent
+official of the school.
+
+Classes were in session when they reached Glenmore, so Miss Fenler
+went with them to the pretty room that was to be theirs, a maid
+following with suit-cases, the colored man bringing up the rear with
+one trunk, and a promise to return on the next trip with the other.
+
+A class-room door, half open, allowed a glimpse of the new arrivals.
+
+"See the procession with the 'Fender' ahead," whispered a saucy miss.
+
+"Her name's 'Fenler,'" corrected her chum.
+
+"I know that, but I choose to call her 'Fender,' because she's like
+those they have on engines to scoop up any one who is on the tracks.
+She's just been down to the station to 'scoop' two new pupils, and
+I guess--"
+
+A tap of a ruler left the sentence unfinished.
+
+Arabella Correyville, without an idea as to what was whispered, had
+seen the broad smile, and had heard the giggle.
+
+"Who was out there?" she wrote on a bit of paper, and cautiously
+passed it to Patricia Levine.
+
+"I don't know. I didn't see them, but they must be _swell_. They had
+ever so much luggage." That was just like Patricia. She judged every
+one thus.
+
+That a girl could be every inch a lady, and at the same time, possess
+a small, well chosen wardrobe was past understanding; but any girl,
+however coarse in appearance and manner, could, with a display of
+many gaudy costumes, convince Patricia that she was a young person
+of great importance.
+
+Miss Fenler talked with them for a few moments, and then left them
+to unpack their belongings, saying that later, when they felt rested,
+they might come down to the reception hall and meet some of the girls
+who would be their classmates during the year.
+
+It was the custom, she said, for the pupils to meet for a social
+half-hour before dinner, to talk over the happenings of the day,
+their triumphs or failures in class-room, or at sports, or to tell
+what had interested those who had been out for a tramp.
+
+There had been an afternoon session that day for the purpose of
+choosing from the list of non-compulsory studies.
+
+"Usually," Miss Fenler explained, "the classes meet for recitations
+in the forenoon only, the afternoons being reserved for study, and
+when lessons were prepared, for recreation."
+
+Miss Fenler left them, closing the door softly behind her.
+
+Dorothy turned to look at Nancy.
+
+"What do you think of her?" Nancy said, asking the question that she
+knew was puzzling Dorothy.
+
+After a second's thought Dorothy said:
+
+"We shall get on with her, I believe, but I can't think Arabella or
+Patricia would be very comfortable here. Really, they will be obliged
+to study here, and Arabella won't want to, and I don't think Patricia
+could. If they don't study, how can they remain?"
+
+Nancy laughed outright.
+
+"Don't worry about those two funny girls," she said, "for if they
+_won't_ study, or _can't_ study, and so are not allowed to remain,
+you'll be just as happy, Dorothy dear, and for that matter, so will
+they."
+
+Later, when together they descended the quaint stairway, they found
+the ever-present Miss Fenler, waiting to present them.
+
+Vera Vane, and Elfreda Carleton, each with an arm about the other's
+waist, hastened forward to greet them.
+
+"Oh, we're so glad you and Nancy have--"
+
+"Just a moment Miss Vane, until you have been properly presented,"
+Miss Fenler said, in a cold, precise manner.
+
+"But I've always known Dorothy--"
+
+"That makes no difference," the assistant said, and she presented
+them in formal manner.
+
+Vera raised her eyebrows, presented the tips of her fingers, and told
+Dorothy in a high, squeaky voice that she was _very_ glad to know
+her. Elf did the same in an exact copy of Vera's manner.
+
+Several of the pupils giggled, but to their credit, Dorothy and Nancy
+managed not to laugh.
+
+When a half-dozen girls had been presented, some one told Miss Fenler
+that Mrs. Marvin wished to see her, and what had begun in a stilted
+manner, became a genuine girl's social.
+
+When the clock in the hall chimed six, and they turned toward the
+long dining-room, the two new pupils had already made the acquaintance
+of several girls, who sat beside, and opposite them at the table.
+
+From a distant table Patricia and Arabella were turning to attract
+their attention.
+
+It had happened that Arabella had chosen to remain in her room during
+the half-hour reunion.
+
+"I don't feel like talking to a crowd of girls to-night," she had
+said.
+
+"My! If you don't care to talk to girls, it must be you'd rather talk
+to boys!" Patricia said, laughing.
+
+"I would _not_!" Arabella remarked, with a flash in her eyes that
+one rarely saw.
+
+"Oh, _do_ excuse me!" Patricia said, "but that's all right, for I'll
+stay right here and talk to you."
+
+Arabella was not in much of a mood for listening, either, but she
+thought it best not to say so. At any other time, Arabella would have
+listened for hours to whatever Patricia might care to say, but
+to-night she was in a contrary mood.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II
+
+THE FIRST SOCIAL
+
+
+Two weeks at Glenmore, and Dorothy and Nancy were content. Letters
+from Mrs. Dainty and Aunt Charlotte assured them that the dear
+travelers were well, and that already Mrs. Dainty was feeling the
+benefit of the change of scene.
+
+Mrs. Dainty had engaged a large, front room at Glenmore for the two
+girls to enjoy as a sitting-room and study, from which led a
+tastefully furnished chamber, and already they called it their "school
+home."
+
+Patricia and Arabella had a fair-sized room farther down the corridor.
+Vera Vane and Elfreda Carleton were snugly settled in cozy quarters
+a few doors beyond the one that bore Dorothy's and Nancy's names.
+
+Patricia Levine had ordered a large card, elaborately lettered in
+red and green, announcing that:
+
+  THIS SUITE IS OCCUPIED
+    BY
+  MISS P. LEVINE
+    AND
+  MISS A. CORREYVILLE
+
+A small card was all that was necessary, indeed only a small card
+was permitted, but Patricia did not know that. After her usual manner
+of doing things, she had ordered a veritable placard of the village
+sign painter, and when she had tacked it upon the door, it fairly
+_shouted_, in red and green ink.
+
+"There!" she exclaimed, "I guess when the other girls see that,
+they'll think the two who have this room are pretty swell."
+
+"Isn't it,--rather--loud?" ventured Arabella timidly.
+
+Patricia's eyes blazed.
+
+"_Loud_?" she cried. "Well, what do you want? A card that will
+whisper?"
+
+"Maybe it's all right," Arabella said quickly, to which Patricia
+responded:
+
+"Of course it's all right. It's more than all right! It's very
+el'gant!"
+
+Arabella was no match for her room-mate, and whenever a question arose
+regarding any matter of mutual interest, it was always Patricia who
+settled it, and Arabella who meekly agreed that she was probably
+right.
+
+Arabella was not gentle, indeed she possessed a decidedly contrary
+streak, but she always feared offending Patricia, because Patricia
+could be very disagreeable when opposed.
+
+Patricia was still admiring the gaudy lettering when a door at the
+far end of the corridor opened.
+
+She sprang back into her room, closed the door and standing close
+to it waited to hear if the big card provoked admiring comment.
+
+Nearer came the footsteps.
+
+Could they pass without seeing it? They paused--then:
+
+"Well, just look at that!"
+
+"A regular sign-board!"
+
+A few moments the two outside the door stood whispering, then one
+giggled, and together they walked to the stairway and descended,
+laughing all the way.
+
+Patricia opened the door and peeped out. "It was that red-haired girl,
+and the black-haired one that are always together," she reported to
+Arabella.
+
+"Now, what in the world were they laughing at?"
+
+"Laughing at the big card, I suppose," Arabella said.
+
+"Well, there's nothing funny about that," Patricia said, hotly. "It
+cost ever so much more than the _teenty_ little cards on the other
+doors did." Patricia rated everything by its cost.
+
+"They knew that big card looked fine, and they certainly could see
+that the lettering was showy," she continued; "so why did they stand
+outside the door giggling?"
+
+"How do I know?" Arabella said.
+
+"Open the door, and we'll look at it again, and see if--"
+
+A smart tap upon the door caused Arabella to stop in the middle of
+the sentence.
+
+"S'pose it's those same girls?" whispered Patricia. "If I thought
+it was I wouldn't stir a step."
+
+A second rap, louder, and more insistent than the first brought both
+girls to their feet, and Patricia flew to open the door.
+
+Miss Fenler glared at them through her glasses.
+
+"Why did you not answer my first rap?" she asked.
+
+"We didn't know it was you," said Patricia.
+
+Ignoring the excuse, Miss Fenler continued: "I called to tell you
+to remove that great card, and put a small one in its place with only
+your names upon it, and in regard to your efforts to obtain work,
+you can not have any such notice upon your door. Instead you must
+leave your names at the office and I will see if any of the pupils
+will patronize you."
+
+"I don't know what you mean!" cried Patricia, flushed and angry.
+
+For answer Miss Fenler pointed to a line penciled on the lower edge
+of the placard which read:
+
+  _Patching and mending done
+       at reasonable prices_.
+
+"We never wrote that!" cried Arabella, "and we don't want to be
+patronized."
+
+"The red-haired girl, and the black-haired girl that are always
+together, stopped at the door and did something, and then went down
+stairs laughing all the way," screamed Patricia. "'Twas one of those
+two who wrote that."
+
+"I must ask you to talk quietly," Miss Fenler said, "and as to the
+writing, I'll look into that. In the meantime I'll get a small card
+for you to put in place of that large one."
+
+She left the room, and as soon as she was well out of hearing,
+Patricia vowed vengeance upon the two girls who had written the
+provoking legend.
+
+"I'll get even with them!" she said.
+
+"How will you?" Arabella asked.
+
+"I don't know yet, but you'd better believe I'll watch for a chance!"
+
+"I'll watch, too!" cried Arabella.
+
+It was the custom at Glenmore to hold a little informal reception
+on an evening of the third week after the school had opened.
+
+Its purpose was to have pupils of all the classes present so that
+those who never met in the recitation-rooms might become acquainted.
+
+When the announcement appeared upon the bulletin board it caused a
+flurry of excitement.
+
+Dorothy and Nancy had already found new friends, and were eager to
+meet others whose agreeable ways had interested them.
+
+"It's such a pleasant place," Dorothy said one morning as she stood
+brushing her hair, "and so many pleasant faces in the big class-room.
+I saw at least a dozen I'd like to know, when we were having the
+morning exercises, and there's ever so many more that we have yet
+to meet."
+
+"And Tuesday evening is sure to be jolly. There'll be a crowd to talk
+with, and one of the girls told me to-day that there's almost sure
+to be some music, either vocal or instrumental, and she said that
+last year they often had fine readers at the receptions," Nancy
+concluded.
+
+They were on their way to the class-room, when Patricia and Arabella
+joined them.
+
+"Is the social to be a dressy affair?" Patricia asked, adding: "I
+hope it is, because _I_ shall be dressy, whether any one else is or
+not."
+
+They had reached the class-room door so that there was no time for
+either Dorothy or Nancy to reply to the silly remark if they had cared
+to do so.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+At eight o'clock nearly all the pupils had assembled in the big
+reception-room, and the hum of voices told that each was doing her
+best to outdo her neighbor. Near the center of the room a group of
+girls stood talking. It was evident that the theme of their
+conversation was not engrossing, for twice their leader, Betty Chase,
+had replied at random while her eyes roved toward the door, and
+Valerie Dare remarked that her chum had been reading such a romantic
+story, that she was eagerly looking for a knight in full armor to
+appear.
+
+"Be still!" cried Betty. "You know very well what I'm looking for."
+
+"I do indeed," Valerie admitted. "Say, girls! You all know the two
+that are always together, the one with goggles that we've dubbed the
+'medicine chest,' and her chum who wears all the rainbow colors
+whenever and wherever she appears?"
+
+"Surely, but what are their names?" inquired a pale, sickly-looking
+girl who had joined the group.
+
+"Don't know their names," said Betty, "but I heard Miss Rainbow
+telling her friend that she intended to wear 'something very dressy'
+to-night, so I'm eager to see her. My! Here she comes now."
+
+"Good gracious!" gasped Valerie, under her breath.
+
+With head very high, Patricia rushed, rather than walked across the
+room, until she reached the center, when she stopped as if to permit
+every one to obtain a good view of her costume. Her bold manner made
+her more absurd even than her dress which was, as Betty Chase
+declared, "_surprising_!"
+
+Turning slowly around to the right, then deliberately to the left,
+she appeared to feel herself a paragon of fashion, a model dressed
+to give the pupils of Glenmore a chance to observe something a bit
+finer than they had ever seen before.
+
+As Patricia slowly turned, Arabella, like a satellite, as slowly
+revolved about her.
+
+Who could wonder that a wave of soft laughter swept over the room.
+It was evident that vanity equalling that of the peacock moved
+Patricia to turn about that every one might see both front and back
+of her dress, but no one could have guessed why Arabella in a plain
+brown woolen dress kept pace with her silly friend.
+
+It was not vanity that kept droll little Arabella moving. No, indeed.
+
+Thus far, Arabella had made no new acquaintances.
+
+As she entered the reception-room with Patricia she saw only a sea
+of strange faces, and with a wild determination at least to have
+Patricia to speak to, she trotted around her, that she might not,
+at any moment, find herself talking to Patricia's back.
+
+That surely would be awkward, she thought.
+
+Patricia's dress was a light gray silk, tastefully made, and had she
+been content to wear it as it had been sent to her from New York,
+she would have looked well-dressed, and no one would have made
+comments upon her appearance.
+
+The soft red girdle gave a touch of color, but not nearly enough to
+please Patricia.
+
+At the village store she had purchased ribbons of many colors, from
+which she had made bows or rosettes of every hue, and these she had
+tacked upon her slippers. Her hair was tied with a bright blue ribbon,
+and over the shoulders of her blouse she had sewed pink and yellow
+ribbons. Narrow green edged her red girdle.
+
+Blue and buff, rose and orange, straw-color and lavender, surely not
+a tint was missing, and the result was absolutely comical! One would
+have thought that a lunatic had designed the costume.
+
+And when she believed that her dress had been seen from all angles,
+Patricia left the reception-room, passing to a larger room beyond,
+where she seated herself, and at once assumed a bored expression.
+Not the least interest in other pupils had she. She had come to the
+little social to be gazed at, and as soon as she believed that all
+must have seen her, the party held no further interest for her.
+
+She heard the buzz of whispered conversation in the room that she
+had left, and she wished that she might know what they were saying.
+It was well that she could not.
+
+"What an unpleasant-looking girl!" said one.
+
+"Wasn't that dress a regular rainbow?" whispered another.
+
+"Oh, but she was funny, turning around for us to see her, just like
+a wax dummy in a store window," said a third.
+
+[Illustration: She wished that she might know what they were saying.]
+
+"She's queer to go off by herself!" remarked the first one who had
+spoken.
+
+"We're not very nice," said Betty Chase, who thus far had not spoken,
+"that is not very kind, to be so busily talking about her."
+
+"Well, I declare, Betty, who'd ever dream that you, who are always
+getting into scrapes would boldly give us a lecture."
+
+Betty's black eyes flashed.
+
+"I know I get into funny scrapes," she snapped, "but whatever I do,
+I don't talk about people, Ida Mayo."
+
+"You don't have time to," exclaimed her chum, Valerie Dare. "It takes
+all your spare time to plan mischief."
+
+In the laugh that followed, Betty forgot that she was vexed.
+
+Patricia began to find it rather dull sitting alone in a room back
+of the reception-hall.
+
+She felt that she had entered the hall in a burst of glory; had fairly
+dazzled all beholders!
+
+She had believed that the girls would be so entranced with her
+appearance that they would follow her that they might again inspect
+her costume.
+
+She was amazed that she had been permitted to sit alone if she chose.
+
+The other pupils thought it strange that she should choose to remain
+alone instead of becoming acquainted with those who were to be her
+schoolmates for the year, but believing that she was determined to
+be unsocial, they made no effort to disturb her.
+
+Arabella, who had followed her, became curious as to what was going
+on in the hall, and from time to time, crept to the wide doorway,
+peeped out to get a better view, then returned to report what she
+had seen.
+
+"Everybody is talking to Dorothy and Nancy," she said in a stage
+whisper, then:
+
+"Vera Vane seems to know almost every one already, and Elf Carleton
+is telling a funny story, and making all the girls around her laugh.
+
+"And, Patricia, you _ought_ to come here and see Betty Chase. She
+has a long straw, and she's tickling Valerie's neck with it. Valerie
+doesn't dream what it is, and while she's talking, keeps trying to
+brush off the tickly thing. Come and see her!"
+
+Patricia did not stir. She longed to see the fun, but she felt rather
+abashed to come out from her corner.
+
+The sound of a violin being tuned proved too tempting, however, and
+she joined Arabella in the doorway.
+
+One of the youngest pupils stood, violin in hand, while, at the piano,
+Betty Chase was playing the prelude. Lina Danford handled the bow
+cleverly, and played her little solo with evident ease.
+
+Her audience was delighted, and gayly their hands clapped their
+approval. The two in the doorway stood quite still, and gave no
+evidence of pleasure. Arabella was too spunkless to applaud; Patricia
+was too jealous.
+
+Arabella, after her own dull fashion, had enjoyed the music.
+
+Patricia surely had not.
+
+Patricia never could bear to see or hear _any one_ do _anything_!
+
+"Let's go up to our room," she whispered.
+
+"P'rhaps some of the others will play or sing," ventured Arabella,
+who wished to remain.
+
+"_Let_ 'em!" Patricia said, even her whisper showing that she was
+vexed.
+
+"'_Let_ 'em?'" Arabella drawled. "Why I'll have to let 'em. I couldn't
+stop them, and I don't want to. I'd like to hear them."
+
+"Then stay and hear them!" snapped Patricia, and she rushed out into
+the midst of the groups of listeners, and dashed up the stairway
+before Miss Fenler could stop her.
+
+What could have been more rude and ill-bred than to leave in such
+haste, thereby disturbing those who were enjoying the music?
+
+Arabella's first thought was to follow Patricia lest she be angry,
+but she saw Miss Fenler's effort to stay Patricia, and she dared not
+leave the room.
+
+Arabella felt as if she were between two desperate people.
+
+She feared Miss Fenler, as did every pupil at Glenmore, and by
+remaining where she was, she certainly was not offending her, but
+she could not forget Patricia. What a temper she would be in when,
+after the concert was over, Arabella, cautiously, would turn the
+latch, and enter their chamber!
+
+Patricia was wide awake, and listening, when at last Arabella reached
+their door. Softly she tried to open it so carefully that if Patricia
+were asleep she might remain so.
+
+Patricia had turned the key in the lock, and she fully enjoyed lying
+comfortably on the bed, and listening while on the other side of the
+door her chum was turning the knob first one way and then the other.
+
+There's no knowing how long she would have permitted Arabella to stand
+out in the hall, but suddenly she remembered that Miss Fenler strode
+down the corridors every night after lights were supposed to be out,
+just to learn if any one of the girls were defying the rule.
+
+With a rather loud "O _dear_!" Patricia flounced out of bed, went
+to the door, pretended to be so sleepy that she could not at once
+find the key, and then, as the door opened, gave an exaggerated yawn.
+
+For once Arabella was quick-witted.
+
+"Miss Fenler is just coming up the stairs," she said.
+
+Patricia forgot the scolding that she had been preparing for Arabella,
+and instead she said:
+
+"Hurry! Put out the light. You can undress in the dark, but for
+goodness' sake, don't stumble over anything!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III
+
+MISCHIEF
+
+
+A few days later, Dorothy stood at the window looking out upon a
+windswept road, where not even so much as a dry leaf remained to tell
+of the vanished Autumn.
+
+The sky was cloud-covered, and the gaunt trees bent and swayed as
+if a giant arm were shaking them.
+
+"We missed our afternoon trip down to the village," she said, "but
+no one would care to walk in this gale, and even--why, who--? Nancy,
+come here! _Isn't_ that Patricia?"
+
+Nancy ran to the window.
+
+"Why, no--yes,--Well, it certainly is Patricia," she said.
+
+"And just look at the parcel she's carrying!"
+
+"Whatever it is, she must have wanted it, to go out such day as this,"
+said Nancy, "and look! Miss Fenler is out on the porch,--why, she's
+actually feeling of it to see what's in the parcel. Really, I don't
+see why it's all right for her to do that."
+
+"It does seem queer," agreed Dorothy, "but you know it is the rule
+that the girls must not bring large parcels into this house, unless
+they're willing to show what is in them."
+
+"There! The paper has burst open, and,--Well, did you see that?"
+
+Miss Fenler was actually thrusting a long bony finger into the opening
+with the hope of learning if anything that had been forbidden, was
+being smuggled into the house inside the folds of gayly flowered goods
+that Patricia had declared was a tea-gown. After a moment, Miss Fenler
+nodded as if dismissing the matter, and Patricia, her chin very high,
+passed into the hall. Miss Fenler turned to look after her, as if
+not sure if she had done wisely in permitting Patricia to enter with
+so large a bundle, without first compelling her to open it, and spread
+its contents for inspection.
+
+Patricia's eyes had flashed when questioned about her parcel, but
+once inside the hall, her anger increased, and she mounted the stairs,
+tramping along the upper hall so noisily that several pupils looked
+out to learn who had arrived. Farther down the hall a door opened,
+and Betty Chase's laughing face looked out. She, too, had seen
+Patricia and Miss Fenler on the porch and, while she did not like
+Patricia, she detested the woman who seemed to enjoy spying, so her
+sympathy was, of course, with the pupil.
+
+"Had a scrap with the 'Fender'? I'd half a mind to say 'cow-catcher,'"
+she said.
+
+"Well, what if I did?" Patricia said, rudely, and walked on toward
+her room.
+
+Betty looked after her.
+
+"Well, of all things!" she whispered, then said, "The next time you
+need sympathy, try to buy some at the grocer's. Don't look to me!"
+
+Patricia had done a rude, and foolish thing. Betty Chase was a
+favorite, and Patricia had longed to be one of her friends, but thus
+far Betty had been surrounded by her classmates, who hovered about
+her so persistently that the pupils from Merrivale had not yet become
+acquainted with her. Betty had hailed Patricia pleasantly, and she
+really might have paused for a little chat, but she was one of those
+unpleasant persons who, when some one person has annoyed her, is vexed
+with the whole world. She took little heed as to where she was going,
+and stamped along, muttering some of the many wrathful thoughts that
+filled her mind.
+
+Reaching a door that stood ajar, she pushed it open, and rushed in
+exclaiming:
+
+"The horrid old thing tried to pick open my parcel, but I wouldn't
+let her. I guess Miss Sharp-eyes won't try again to--Why, where are
+you, Arabella?"
+
+A tall, thin girl with a pale face and colorless hair emerged from
+the closet where she had been hanging some garments.
+
+"Do you rush into people's rooms, and call them names?" she asked
+in a peculiar drawl.
+
+Patricia for once, was too surprised to speak.
+
+"My name is not Arabella, nor Miss Sharp-eyes," concluded the girl.
+
+"I--I beg your pardon. I thought this was my own room," gasped
+Patricia, and rushing from the room, opened the next door on which
+her own name and Arabella's appeared. She flew in, banging the door
+behind her.
+
+Arabella sprang to her feet, dropped her glasses, picked them up,
+and setting them upon her nose, stared through them at Patricia.
+
+"Don't you speak a single word!" commanded Patricia, "for I'm 'bout
+as mad as I can be now, and if I get any madder--"
+
+She stopped in sheer amazement, for Arabella had put on her hat, and
+was now getting into her coat.
+
+"Where are you going?" demanded Patricia, but Arabella put her left
+hand over her lips, while with her right she slipped another button
+into its buttonhole, and sidled toward the door.
+
+Patricia sprang forward, locked the door, took Arabella by the
+shoulder, and pushed her toward a chair. Surprised, and calmed by
+Arabella's silence, and her attempt to leave the room, Patricia now
+spoke in an injured tone.
+
+"I'd never believe you'd start to go out, when I'd just come in so
+vexed, and with loads of things to tell you. For goodness' sake, can't
+you answer?"
+
+"You told me not to say a word," said Arabella, "and you looked so
+cross that I just didn't dare to, and I was going out so I'd be sure
+not to."
+
+Patricia was flattered to learn that Arabella had actually been afraid
+of her. "Goosie!" she cried, "when will you learn that I don't always
+mean all that I say! Old Sharp-eyes didn't really open my bundle.
+Come over here and see what was hidden in it."
+
+She opened the parcel of gaily-flowered cotton, and began to unfold
+the goods.
+
+"There!" she cried when the last fold was loosed, and six packages
+were proudly displayed.
+
+"Good gracious!" cried Arabella, "I don't see how you got inside the
+door with all those things, for I saw her pinching your bundle, and
+you'd think that she must have felt those little parcels even if they
+were wrapped inside that cloth."
+
+"Well, you may be very sure she didn't feel them, for if she had,
+I'd never had them to show you."
+
+It was, indeed, a fixed rule at Glenmore that pupils, except by
+special permission, should bring no food into the building, the reason
+being that plenty of good food was provided at meal times, and eating
+between meals was forbidden.
+
+Patricia's idea of a "treat" was a variety of all sorts, but never
+a thought had she as to whether the articles that she chose would
+combine well.
+
+Arabella, often annoyed with indigestion, gazed at the "treat" that
+Patricia had placed upon the little table, and wondered how she would
+feel when she had eaten her share.
+
+And eat it she must, for Patricia never would forgive her if she did
+not. More than that, she must not refuse anything, because Patricia
+would consider that a sure sign that her "treat" had failed to please,
+and for a week at least, would talk of Arabella as ungrateful.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+In a room farther up the corridor, Vera and Elf were laughing and
+chuckling over much the same trick as that which Patricia had played,
+only that Vera and Elf had brought a huge parcel into the house, and
+had not been questioned regarding it.
+
+It was late afternoon when Vera had returned from the village. Dorothy
+saw her far up the road, and wondered why she walked so slowly, but
+as she neared the gateway, it was evident that she carried a heavy
+parcel. Her storm-coat had a deep cape, but it only partly hid the
+bundle.
+
+She looked up toward the window where Dorothy stood, laughed, and
+made a gesture to indicate that she was going around to the rear of
+the house.
+
+"Nancy, what do you suppose the girls are up to?"
+
+"Vera has just come from the village with a bundle twice as big as
+the one Miss Fenler found Patricia bringing in, and she has gone
+around toward the back door with it."
+
+"She's trying to dodge Miss Fenler," Nancy said.
+
+"But, Nancy, she can't get to her room from the back way. The back
+door leads into the kitchen. There's no back stairway."
+
+"I know that," Nancy said, "but Vera isn't going around the house
+for the sake of a walk. She's intending to get in the back way I do
+believe. I wonder if she has coaxed one of the maids to help her.
+Come on, down the hall to the big window that has a balcony under
+it. We'll see if she really gets in."
+
+Dorothy clasped Nancy's outstretched hand and they ran softly along
+the hall, reaching the window just in time to see a bulky-looking
+bundle swinging from a rope, and occasionally bumping against the
+house as it made its way slowly upward.
+
+On the ground stood Vera eagerly looking up, while, from the window
+of their room Elf reached out, desperately struggling to draw the
+heavy bundle up to the window sill.
+
+"Don't stand there looking up at me!" she said in a voice hardly above
+a whisper. "Come up here before somebody sees you." Vera lost no time
+in doing as Elf said, while Dorothy and Nancy wasted not a moment,
+but sped down the hall, and once safely in their room, sat down,
+laughing at what they had seen.
+
+Meanwhile, Vera raced along the hall, and into her room, flew to the
+window and soon the precious bundle lay on the floor, the two girls
+bending over it.
+
+"Oo-oo! Cream-cakes! A box of fudge, frosted cake!" cried Elf, then.
+"What's in this tin can?"
+
+"Oysters," said Vera, "and we'll have a hot stew to-night after every
+one is in bed!"
+
+"My! But how can we cook it?" Elf asked.
+
+"In the can," said Vera. "That's easy 'nough. There's a pint of
+oysters, and three pints of milk all shaken up together in that
+two-quart can. We can heat it over the gas jet. I'm sure they'll cook
+all right."
+
+"Why, Vera Vane! It will take _hours_ to make it boil over that gas
+jet. I guess we'll enjoy taking turns holding it, while we wait for
+it to cook!"
+
+"Pooh! It'll taste so good we'll forget our arms ache when we get
+the very first spoonful!"
+
+Elf was not sure about that, but Vera had a way of speaking as if
+what she said settled the matter, so although not convinced, Elf made
+no reply. "Come! Help me put these things away," cried Vera. "We don't
+want any one to know about our fine little after-bedtime party, and
+we ought to hide our treat before some one comes to our door."
+
+So the cakes and fudge were placed on the shelf in the closet, where
+with the big can full of oysters and milk they became close neighbors
+with the hat-boxes.
+
+Then Vera and Elf sat down to prepare their lessons for the next day.
+
+They had invited Betty Chase and her chum, Valerie Dare, to spend
+the evening with them, and enjoy the treat.
+
+They were to go to bed at the usual time, have their light out at
+nine o'clock, and as soon as they heard Miss Fenler pass down the
+hall, and then descend the stairs, they were to open their door
+softly, close it behind them, and then, with greatest caution, make
+their way along the hall to Vera's room.
+
+Night came, their lessons were prepared for the morrow, their lights
+were out, when they heard Miss Fenler pass their door, then,--why
+did she return and pass the door a second time?
+
+Was it imagination, or did she pause before going on?
+
+Their hearts beat faster, and Valerie laid her hand over hers, she
+afterward said, to hush it so that the dreaded Miss Fenler might not
+hear it.
+
+"Has she gone?" whispered Betty, to which Valerie, who was nearest
+the door, replied with a low, "Sh--!"
+
+Farther up the corridor two others listened. Not a sound was heard
+in the hall, and Betty Chase cautiously opened the door a few inches.
+A board in the floor creaked, and she shut the door so quickly that
+she forgot to be careful, and one might have heard it the length of
+the hall.
+
+"Oo-oo!" whispered Valerie. "You let me manage that door, please,
+the next time it's opened."
+
+"When'll the next time be?" whispered Betty with a chuckle.
+
+"Now!" whispered Valerie, and stepping out into the hall, they
+carefully closed the door, then ran softly along to Vera's door, and
+tapped upon the panel with a hat-pin for a knocker. The door opened
+and they were only too glad to have it close behind them. Yet a bit
+longer they waited before lighting up, and while they waited, they
+sat upon the bed and talked in whispers.
+
+The street lamp threw a band of light across the room.
+
+Five minutes later, the blankets were taken from the bed and hung
+over the door, that no ray of light from the room might be visible
+in the hall, through either crack or keyhole.
+
+A second blanket was pinned to the curtains, that neither coachman
+nor maid returning from the town might catch a glimpse of light.
+
+Then the fun began.
+
+They had become bolder, and forgetting to whisper, talked in
+undertones. Vera, mounted on a cushioned stool, was holding the can
+over the gas jet, and watching eagerly for some sign of boiling.
+
+"The milk is steaming," she announced. "S'pose it's done?"
+
+"Not yet, goosie!" Elf replied, "and I _know_," she continued, "'cause
+I remember hearing our cook say that the stew was ready when the
+oysters looked all puckered around their edges."
+
+"O gracious! If that's true, somebody'll have to come and hold this
+old can a while. My arm is about broken!"
+
+Betty seized the can, and mounted the stool, and Vera, thus relieved,
+ran to the closet, returning with the cream-cakes and the fudge.
+
+The white counterpane stripped from the bed, and spread upon the
+floor, served as a lunch-cloth, and when the "goodies" were set upon
+it, the big can in the center, steaming, if not boiling, the four
+sat cross-legged around the feast, and prepared to enjoy it.
+
+Salt and pepper in abundance had been thrown into the can, so that
+while it lacked sufficient cooking, it surely did not lack seasoning.
+
+Bravely each tried to eat her share, but so salt was it, that it
+almost brought the tears.
+
+The cream-cakes were fine, and the girls were laughing softly over
+Betty's remark that no one knew of their little "party," when a knock
+upon the door caused Valerie to drop her cream-cake. In an instant
+she had rolled over, crawled under the bed, Betty following, while
+Vera and Elf sprang into bed, drawing the coverings to their chins
+to hide that they were fully dressed. It was one of Miss Fenler's
+rules that pupils should never lock their doors.
+
+Now in a harsh voice she called: "Open this door _at once_!"
+
+Vera sprang to the floor, shut off the gas, softly turned the key
+in the lock, and was back in bed and covered up to her eyes, in a
+second.
+
+Upon opening the door, Miss Fenler stumbled into the blanket that
+hung from the door-frame. Crossing the room to light the gas, she
+put her right foot directly upon a cream-cake, while with her left
+she upset the can of stew.
+
+An angry exclamation, properly stifled, caused the two under the bed
+to nudge each other, while struggling not to laugh.
+
+Vera and Elf lay quite still, the puff drawn up to their closely shut
+eyes.
+
+Miss Fenler lit the gas, and it was just as well that the culprits
+dared not open their eyes, for the face that she turned toward them
+was not pleasant to see.
+
+She was desperately angry.
+
+"What does this mean?" she cried shrilly.
+
+Vera and Elf breathed heavily, as if soundly sleeping.
+
+"You're not asleep!" she declared, "and I insist that you answer me.
+Again I ask, what does this mean?"
+
+Vera and Elf breathed harder than before, Vera adding a soft little
+snore.
+
+"Oh, very well!" cried Miss Fenler. "If you are determined not to
+reply to-night, I will report you to Mrs. Marvin, and you may make
+your explanations to her to-morrow."
+
+She left the room, her anger increased by their obstinate pretense
+of slumber.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV
+
+A WONDERFUL TONIC
+
+
+Vera awoke long before daylight, and lay thinking.
+
+"That's just the way I do things," she said in a voice barely above
+a whisper.
+
+"I plan the fun, and always have a good time, that is '_most_' always,
+but it's sure to wind up in a scrape. I plan how to get into mischief.
+Why don't I ever plan how to get out?"
+
+Elf stirred uneasily, and Vera gave her shoulder a vigorous shake.
+
+"Wake up!" she commanded. "Wake up, and help me plan what we'd better
+say when we have to face Mrs. Marvin."
+
+"Oh, I'm sleepy," drawled Elf. "We're smart enough to say something
+when she stares at us over her spectacles. We'll say we--"
+
+A wee snore finished the sentence, and Vera turned over with a lurch
+that shook the bed.
+
+She thought it very hard that she must lie awake and worry, while
+Elf could sleep; in short, she wanted some one to worry with her.
+
+"It's like the way I climb trees when we're away in the summer," she
+muttered.
+
+"It's fine climbing up, but I'm always afraid to climb down. If Bob
+is near, I can always make him get me down, but Bob isn't here to
+get me out of this mess, and Elf won't even try to keep awake to help
+me think."
+
+She concluded that it was very unfeeling for Elf to be so sleepy.
+Her cheeks were flushed, and her head ached.
+
+"O dear!" she whispered, softly, "Dorothy Dainty and Nancy Ferris
+are full of fun, but they never get into a regular fix such as I'm
+in now. I don't see how they manage to have such good times without
+ever getting mixed up in something that's hard to explain. And Betty
+and Valerie will get off Scot free, for 'The Fender' couldn't see
+them under the bed, and of course we'll not tell that they were
+there."
+
+She did not know that when Betty and Valerie had reached their own
+room they found that in their haste to arrive at the "feast" they
+had left the light burning in their room!
+
+Oh, indeed Miss Fenler had seen that, and she had opened the door.
+She had found no one there. She had seen that four had been enjoying
+the feast, because at each of the four sides of the spread were
+fragments of partly eaten cream-cakes, or bits of fruitcakes. Her
+sharp eyes had seen enough to assure her that two other girls were
+in hiding somewhere in the room, doubtless the two whose light had
+been left burning. She thought it clever to let them think that they
+had escaped notice. Their surprise would be greater when she sent
+them to Mrs. Marvin the next morning. Daylight found Vera tossing
+and turning, while Elf was dreaming. It was not that Vera could not
+bear reproof. She could listen for a half-hour to a description of
+her faults, and look like a cheerful flaxen-haired sprite all the
+while. That which now worried her was the thought that Mrs. Marvin
+might send her home.
+
+It was the fifth time during the month that she had been reprimanded,
+and even gentle Mrs. Marvin _might_ reach the limit of her patience.
+
+Her father, she knew, would speak reprovingly, and then laugh at her.
+Her mother, always weak-willed, would say: "Vera, dear, I wonder if
+you were really naughty, or if it was that they didn't _quite_
+understand you."
+
+Oh, there was nothing to fear about being sent home, but the fact
+that thus she would lose a deal of fun that she could so enjoy with
+a lot of lively girls of her own age.
+
+She resolved to appear as off-hand as usual, unless Mrs. Marvin should
+say that she must not remain at Glenmore, when she would throw pride
+to the winds, and plead, yes, even beg to continue as a pupil of the
+school. She turned and looked at Elf, still soundly sleeping.
+
+"O dear! I'm the only girl in school who has anything to fret over,"
+she whispered.
+
+It happened, however, that at the far end of the building, another
+girl was quite as worried as Vera, but it was a very different matter
+that had caused her to wake, as Vera had, before daybreak.
+
+She had entered Glenmore a few weeks after school had opened, and
+was rather a quiet girl, as yet acquainted with but few of the pupils.
+
+Some one circulated the story that she was being educated by an uncle
+who was a very rich man. Patricia Levine had added that as he lived
+in "N'York," and as her mother also lived there, she, of course, knew
+him, and she had told Patricia that old Mr. Mayo was more than rich,
+that he was many, many times a millionaire.
+
+"Ida Mayo is to be an heiress, and have all that money. Just think
+of that!" Patricia had said, and immediately began to be very friendly
+with her.
+
+Betty Chase boldly asked Patricia why it followed that because Mrs.
+Levine and old Mr. Mayo lived in New York they must, of course, be
+acquainted, to which Patricia snapped.
+
+"I didn't say they _must_ be acquainted. I said 'they _are_'!"
+
+Ida Mayo seemed not to notice that Patricia sought to be friendly,
+nor did she make any effort to become acquainted with any of the other
+pupils.
+
+She seemed content to stand apart and watch the others in their games.
+It was Dorothy Dainty who seemed to hold her attention, and once Betty
+Chase asked boldly: "I wonder why you watch Dorothy so much."
+
+"I don't know," Ida had said, then added, "I guess it's because she's
+worth looking at?"
+
+Secretly she envied Dorothy's lovely color, and wished that her own
+cheeks were as fresh and fair. That evening in her little room, she
+looked in disgust at her reflection in the mirror. A pale face
+returned her gaze, and she made a grimace.
+
+"It's bad enough to be pale without having a few of last summer's
+freckles left to make it worse," she cried.
+
+There were lessons to be prepared for the morrow, but the reflection
+in the mirror had so disturbed her that she cast lessons aside and
+commenced reading a story in a new magazine. The heroine was described
+as having a wonderful complexion, as fair, as pink and white, as
+perfect in coloring as a sea-shell.
+
+"Of course!" said Ida, "and that's the sort I wish I had."
+
+Her eyes strayed from the story of the beautiful heroine to the
+advertising column.
+
+"Raise mushrooms," read one advertisement, next: "Try our patent
+collar-button," then: "Write poems for us."
+
+"How stupid!" she said. "Who'd want to raise mushrooms, I'd like to
+know? Who wants their old collar-buttons? And for mercy's sake, how
+many people who read those advertising columns can write poetry?"
+
+She was about to toss the magazine upon the couch, when two words
+in large print caught her attention.
+
+"Banish freckles--"
+
+"What's that?" she whispered.
+
+"Banish freckles and have a perfect complexion," she read. "Send fifty
+cents to us, or obtain our tonic at any drug-store. Directions inside
+package."
+
+It must have been the best of good luck that had prompted her to
+neglect her lessons, and spend the evening hours with the magazine,
+she thought.
+
+She was far too impatient to wait to receive the tonic by mail.
+
+She had never been to the local drug-store, so the clerks would not
+know her, but if any of the Glenmore girls were there, she would buy
+some candy, and wait until another day to obtain the tonic.
+
+She drew a long breath when she saw, upon entering, that she was the
+only customer.
+
+The clerk thought it odd that a little girl should be buying a
+complexion-beautifier, but concluded that she, doubtless, was doing
+the errand for some older person.
+
+Night came, and at the hour when Vera and Elf with Betty and Valerie
+were tasting their goodies, and listening to every sound that might
+be approaching footsteps, Ida Mayo, not a whit less excited, was
+breathlessly reading the directions for applying the tonic.
+
+"Spread the tonic over the face, rubbing it thoroughly into the skin.
+Let it remain all night. You will be astonished at the result."
+
+A dozen times during the night she had been awakened with the
+scalding, burning of her face. The directions had said that the skin
+would probably burn, but the result in the morning would fully repay
+the user, by the extreme loveliness of the radiant complexion!
+
+Ida bore the burning bravely, but when the first faint light appeared
+she sat up in bed, pressing her hands to her smarting cheeks.
+
+"If the freckles are gone, and my skin is fair, I won't say a word
+about this burning," she said. "But how," she continued, "can my face
+look even half-way decent, when it is smarting so furiously?"
+
+At last, she could bear it no longer, and springing out of bed, she
+ran to the dresser, and gasped as she looked at her reflection. Even
+in the dim light of the dawn of a cloudy day, she saw that her cheeks,
+her forehead, her chin, were all very red.
+
+Were they spotty as well?
+
+"O dear! If it was only light enough for me to really see!" she
+whispered.
+
+She looked at the tiny clock. At that early hour no one was stirring
+at Glenmore.
+
+No one would see her if she went down to the door, and it would be
+lighter there. A gable shaded the window, and made her room less
+light.
+
+Thrusting her tangled locks up under the elastic of her muslin cap,
+and throwing on a loose sack, she snatched the hand-mirror from her
+dresser, and softly yet swiftly went out into the hall and down the
+stairs.
+
+She paused in the lower hall, there thinking that she heard some one
+coming, she rushed out on the piazza, down the steps, and across the
+lawn to an open space where nothing could obscure the light. Already
+it was growing lighter, and she lifted the hand mirror. A look of
+horror swept over her little face.
+
+"Oh, what a fright!" she cried, as she stood staring at the
+reflection.
+
+Her face was scarlet, and if the freckles had disappeared, it was
+because they had taken the skin with them when they went!
+
+For a moment she stood as if rooted to the spot, then realizing that
+some restless pupil might be up and chance to see her from the window,
+she turned and ran at top speed toward the house. The big door stood
+open as she had left it, and she raced across the hall and up the
+stairway, entering her room just as footsteps echoed along the hall.
+
+She closed the door and sat down.
+
+"Why _did_ I see that horrid old advertisement?" she exclaimed. Her
+smarting, burning cheeks were enough to bear, but worse than that
+was the thought that she would be compelled to appear in the
+classroom.
+
+How the girls would stare at her! What would they say among
+themselves?
+
+[Illustration: "O, what a fright!" she cried.]
+
+Vera believed herself to be the only girl at Glenmore who had even
+the slightest reason for worrying. Ida Mayo possessed the same idea.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Mrs. Marvin listened to all that Miss Fenler had to say about the
+feast, the two who had planned it, and the other two who beyond a
+doubt had been invited guests.
+
+"And _I_ should send them home, and at the same time mail a tart
+letter to their parents telling them that their room was better than
+their company."
+
+Mrs. Marvin looked up at the thin, harsh face of her assistant.
+
+"Mercy is sometimes as valuable in a case like this, as extreme
+severity," she said.
+
+"They have broken a well-known rule here, and must be dealt with
+accordingly. They must be made clearly to understand that a repetition
+would not be overlooked."
+
+"I am only an assistant," Miss Fenler said, "but I have my opinions,
+and I can't help thinking that you are too gentle with them."
+
+"They have been mischievous, surely, but had their mischief been such
+as would harm, or annoy their classmates, I should have been more
+severe.
+
+"You may send them to me. I will see them before the school opens
+for the morning session."
+
+"There is another pupil that I must speak of, and that is the Mayo
+girl. It has been her habit to keep apart from the other girls. She
+seems to prefer to spend much of her leisure time not only indoors,
+but in her room.
+
+"Lina Danford, the little girl whose room is next hers told me that
+Ida Mayo had been crying ever since daybreak. Lina thought that she
+must be ill, and she knocked at the door, but while for a moment the
+crying ceased, there was no answer, even when the knock was several
+times repeated."
+
+"Have you tried to rouse her?" Mrs. Marvin said, her fine face showing
+genuine alarm.
+
+"I knocked three times, but received no reply, and the door is
+locked."
+
+"I will go to her," Mrs. Marvin said. "You may open school for me.
+Say nothing to the other girls. I will talk with them at the noon
+recess."
+
+Mrs. Marvin hurried up the stairway, and along the upper hall to the
+corner room. She paused before tapping. If Ida Mayo had been crying,
+she was not crying now.
+
+She knocked and waited. Knocked again, and again she waited.
+
+"Ida, you must open your door for me. This is Mrs. Marvin."
+
+The morning session had opened, and fresh young voices could be
+plainly heard. They were singing Ida's favorite, an old song, "All
+hail, pleasant morning."
+
+Mrs. Marvin heard a faint sob.
+
+"Ida, I am your friend. Let me in, and tell me what troubles you."
+No response.
+
+"Open the door quickly, or I shall call Marcus to force it open."
+
+Ida opened the door with a jerk.
+
+"There!" she cried, angrily. "I don't see why I could not stay alone
+in my room until I looked fit to be seen!"
+
+Mrs. Marvin thought the raw, scarlet face denoted some desperate
+illness, but chancing to look toward the dresser, she caught sight
+of the bottle, uncorked, and with its showy label bearing the legend:
+
+  "Tonic. Twelve-Hour Beautifier."
+
+Mrs. Marvin sat down upon a low seat, and drew Ida down beside her,
+and patiently she listened to the story of the longing for beauty,
+the reading of the advertisement.
+
+"I s'pose I put on too much," Ida concluded. "They said, 'Just a bit
+on the tip of the fingers rubbed into the skin each night for two
+weeks would work wonders.'
+
+"They said used generously you'd be surprised at the result! I guess
+I was.
+
+"I thought if a little would do so much, a lot of it would do more,
+so I put it on thick, and went to bed.
+
+"O dear! It has been a comfort to tell you, but I can't face those
+girls while I look like this!"
+
+"I shall not ask you to," Mrs. Marvin said. "I will bring you some
+cooling ointment to heal your face, and I'll send old Judy up with
+your meals.
+
+"I will tell her to say to any pupils who may question her, 'Miss
+Mayo feels so miserable that she'll not come down to her meals for
+a few days.' Judy is absolutely trustworthy."
+
+Judy proved herself quick-witted, for when an inquisitive pupil tried
+to peep into the room as she entered with the tray, Judy turned
+sharply, remarking:
+
+"Ah don' s'pose yo wants ter ketch anythin' what's 'tagious, does
+ya?"
+
+The pupil backed away from the door, when at a distance she said:
+"You don't seem to be much afraid."
+
+"Ah isn't 'fraid, 'cause I's had dis same ting."
+
+She had indeed suffered in the same way. True it was not freckles
+that annoyed her. It was a longing to rid herself of her black skin
+that had tempted her to purchase a bottle of a so-called beautifier,
+warranted to produce a new skin.
+
+That was some years before, but Judy remembered it.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V
+
+A SLEIGHING PARTY
+
+
+Dorothy was never inclined toward mischief, and now, when her mother
+was away traveling for change of scene, and much-needed rest, she
+felt very eager to send each month, a fine report of her progress.
+Dorothy was full of life, and loved a good time, if Nancy, her dearest
+friend might enjoy it with her.
+
+When the news was circulated that the great sleigh at the livery
+stable had been chartered by Mrs. Marvin, and that sleigh-rides would
+be in order as long as the snow lasted, none was more eager for the
+pleasure than Dorothy.
+
+To be sure, she had always enjoyed plenty of sleigh-rides when at
+home at the Stone House, but here was a novelty! The big sleigh at
+Glenmore would hold twenty girls, while the beautiful Russian sleigh
+at the Stone House held four, and the pony sleigh two. Mrs. Marvin,
+in making out the list for each party, was careful to place those
+already acquainted together. Thus, the list that was headed with
+Dorothy's name included Nancy Ferris, of course, then Vera, Elf,
+Patricia, Arabella, Betty, Valerie, and twelve others, who were at
+least slightly acquainted with those already named.
+
+They were about evenly divided in another way. Ten were exceedingly
+lively, while the other half of the list were pleasant girls of
+quieter type.
+
+Mrs. Marvin well knew that twenty lively girls would be likely to
+be a bit too gay for the steady-going inhabitants of the town of
+Glenmore, while the school must keep up its reputation for being
+cheerful, but surely not noisy nor flighty!
+
+The day for the first sleigh-ride dawned clear and cold, and Marcus
+informed Judy that it was cold enough "ter freeze de bronze statoo
+down in de square."
+
+They were to start at three, and promptly at that hour Marcus drew
+up at the door.
+
+Eager to start, the girls were all waiting in the hall, when Arabella
+drawled:
+
+"Every one wait while I go and get my shawls."
+
+She darted up the stairs, Patricia calling after her: "Your shawls,
+goosie! Why you're wearing two coats and a sweater now."
+
+"What did Arabella say?" asked Betty Chase.
+
+"I thought she said she wanted the shawl to put over her _ears_!"
+
+"She did say that," declared Patricia, "and won't she look fine;
+besides, how could she get them on when twenty of us are packed into
+that sleigh?"
+
+"Oh, I'll help her with them," cried Betty Chase, with a laugh.
+
+"So will I," chimed in Valerie.
+
+"Here she comes now. Well, as I live, she _has_ brought two shawls,"
+said Betty.
+
+"One for each ear," said Valerie.
+
+Laughing and chattering they ran down the path, and soon were
+comfortably seated, very close to be sure, but very warm.
+
+Arabella said that the two shawls were to wear later if it became
+colder, whereat, Betty begged her to sit upon them.
+
+"You take up room enough for three with a big shawl under each arm,"
+said Betty.
+
+"Stand up and I'll fold them so you can sit on them."
+
+Arabella meekly did as she was told. If any other girl had done the
+same thing, she would have obstinately rebelled, but Betty had a way
+that was compelling, and Arabella, after she was seated, wondered
+why she had been so meek.
+
+Patricia Levine had brought a big box of fudge, and she now passed
+it around. Arabella said she knew it would make her sick, but she
+took two pieces instead of one, lest the box might not come around
+again.
+
+The route took them over a long roadway that had been cut through
+a forest, and on either side the great trees towered above them, their
+branches heaped with snow. The underbrush was beautified with what
+looked like patches of swan's-down, and a tiny, ice-bound brook wound
+its way in among the giant trees, disappearing behind a clump of
+evergreens.
+
+It had been possible to see all these things because the road had
+been so rough that Marcus had been obliged to drive rather slowly.
+
+Now, as they emerged from the wood-road, he touched the whip to the
+flank of one of his horses, and with one accord they sprang forward,
+giving the chattering occupants of the sleigh a decided "bounce,"
+and stopping Elf Carleton in the middle of the story that she was
+telling.
+
+"O dear! Where was I when that jolt came?" she asked.
+
+"I don't know what you were telling," said Vera, "but it's my turn
+now, and I'm going to tell how awfully you acted this morning.
+
+"Girls, Mrs. Marvin was perfectly lovely. She just talked and talked
+about how good I _ought_ to be, but I didn't mind that, so long as
+she didn't say she was going to send me home. She never said a single
+word about that, but I didn't know she was going to be such a perfect
+dear. I woke before daylight, and much comfort Elf was to me! I tell
+you truly, girls, I poked her, I called to her, I shook her, but
+couldn't get her enough awake to say a word.
+
+"Well, we're about even, for one morning last week when I kept telling
+her my tooth was aching, she paid no attention until I gave her an
+outrageous poke, and shouted into her ear, 'My tooth aches!'
+
+"She didn't open her eyes, but what she said was a great comfort."
+
+"What did she say?" questioned Betty.
+
+"She said it might stop aching if I kept my mouth closed," said Vera,
+"and it took me five minutes to realize that her advice was more for
+her benefit than mine. She wanted another nap, and closing my mouth
+to shield my aching tooth would also prevent my talking. Trust Elf
+for making sure--Oh, look, girls!"
+
+Every head turned.
+
+A big red pung was coming toward them at top speed. It was crowded
+with more boys than could be seated, and those who stood carried long
+poles. From the top of each pole a broad, gayly colored streamer
+waved. As the pung passed a big boy in the center shouted: "Three
+cheers for the Glenmore girls!" and they were given with a will.
+
+"How do they know that we are Glenmore girls?" said Elf.
+
+"Three cheers for the 'What-you-call 'em' boys!" screamed Betty, and
+even Arabella added a faint "Hurrah!" to the general clamor.
+
+Two of the boys produced a pair of cymbals, but while they were
+clashing Betty brought forth a huge gong and nearly stunned those
+near her with the noise that she made as with all her might she smote
+it.
+
+"Hoo_ray_!" shouted a small boy.
+
+"Hoo_raw_!" howled Valerie Dare, and no one could have decided which
+laughed the harder, the pung-load of boys, or the lively girls in
+the Glenmore sleigh.
+
+"Yo'-all behave like tomboys," commented Marcus. "Lor', but Mis'
+Marvin would 'a' been some s'prised ef she'd been here ter hear ye
+carry on."
+
+"Well, if Miss Fenler had been here she'd have had forty fits," cried
+Vera Vane, "but, Marcus, what they don't know won't worry them, and
+you needn't tell them."
+
+"And Marcus, you can forget all about the racket before you get home,"
+said Elf.
+
+"Shore, Miss, I's got a powerful short mem'ry. Gid 'ap!"
+
+"Dorothy Dainty cheered as loud as any of us," said Arabella
+Correyville.
+
+"Well, why shouldn't she?" Patricia asked.
+
+"Oh, she's always so--oh, I don't know,--correct, I guess is what
+I meant to say," responded Arabella.
+
+"I like fun as well as any one does," said Dorothy who had overheard
+the remark.
+
+"Oh, but Dorothy, you aren't even the least bit rude," declared
+Valerie.
+
+"It's not rude to cheer," Dorothy said with a laugh. "I think we were
+very polite to return their salute."
+
+"Nancy Ferris cheered, too," said a girl who had been very quiet
+during the hubbub.
+
+Nancy laughed.
+
+"I cheered because Dorothy did," she said, "but, Betty, how did you
+get that gong in here without any one noticing it?"
+
+"It was under this long coat," said Betty, "and I'll tell you all
+how I happened to bring it.
+
+"Monday, when I was down in the village, I met a boy that I know,
+and he told me that over at the boys' private school in the next town
+they'd heard about our sleigh-rides, and he told me that one of the
+boys, Bob Chandler, had bought a pair of old cymbals at an antique
+shop. They were planning their first sleigh-ride for the same day
+as ours, and they thought we'd have no noise-maker with us. I meant
+to get even with them, so I brought the big gong that hung in my room,
+and I guess we made as much noise as they did. I've a number of curios
+that my uncle brought home from abroad. Why didn't I think to bring
+along that funny little horn? You could have tooted on that, Valerie."
+
+"Oh, I'm satisfied. We had noise enough," said Hilda Fenton.
+
+At that moment there was a commotion on the rear seat.
+
+Some one was twisting around so persistently that many were made quite
+uncomfortable.
+
+Dorothy turned to see what it was all about. She laughed softly, and
+touched Nancy's arm.
+
+"It's Arabella," whispered Dorothy.
+
+"Yes, and she's trying to put both shawls on at once," said Nancy.
+
+"Oh, quick! See what Patricia is doing."
+
+Completely out of patience with Arabella's wriggling, Patricia was
+taking a vigorous hand.
+
+In a manner anything but gentle she was pulling the heavy shawls up
+around Arabella's head and shoulders.
+
+Betty Chase said that she was "yanking" them, and the word, if not
+elegant, was truthfully descriptive.
+
+"_Don't_ knock my hat off!" whimpered Arabella.
+
+"I don't care what I do if only I get those old shawls onto you so
+you'll sit still!" declared Patricia.
+
+When Arabella settled herself in her place she took a third more room
+than before, and looked like a little old woman rolled up in many
+blankets.
+
+Arabella sat firm and immovable, staring through her spectacles. She
+did not turn to the right or the left, and one would say that she
+did not know that the girls were laughing at her.
+
+"Don't you wish you had just one more shawl?" said Patricia.
+
+"Not if I had to have you put it on," drawled Arabella. "You shoved
+my hat on one side of my head, and it's felt queer ever since."
+
+"How do you know that the hat has felt queer?" Valerie asked,
+smothering a laugh.
+
+"I guess you'd feel queer if Patricia Levine had once taken hold of
+you," was the quick response, and Valerie ceased teasing.
+
+"Dorothy knows a jolly sleighing song," said Nancy.
+
+"Sing it! Sing it!"
+
+"Oh, please sing it, Dorothy," clamored eager voices.
+
+"Sing it with me, Nancy," Dorothy said. "Your alto makes it fine."
+
+Their voices blended sweetly, and the melody floated out on the crisp
+air, so that a tall, dark man left a wood road, and stood listening
+as the sleigh sped past.
+
+  "Over the ice and snow we fly,
+  Oh, but our steeds have wings!
+  And their hoofs keep time
+  With the glad bells chime,
+  For sleigh bells are merry things,
+  Never a thought or care have we,
+  Lessons are laid aside,
+  And we laugh and sing,
+  Adding mirth and din
+  To the joy of a winter's ride."
+
+"Oh, don't stop!" cried an eager voice. "Isn't there another verse?"
+
+"There are two other verses," said Dorothy, "but--I've forgotten
+them."
+
+"Then sing the one you do know. It's worth hearing again!"
+
+Again she sang it, as gayly as before, but for some reason, Nancy's
+voice trembled, and Dorothy turned to glance at her.
+
+She saw that Nancy's cheeks were white, and her eyes wide as if with
+fear. A moment before her cheeks had been rosy red where the sharp
+wind had kissed them.
+
+"What is it, Nancy?" Dorothy whispered.
+
+Nancy shook her head, but the hand that held Dorothy's tightened with
+a nervous grip.
+
+When the girls were once more chattering together, Nancy, leaning
+toward Dorothy, whispered softly: "That dark man that stood near the
+woods watching us as we passed,--did you see him?"
+
+"Why, yes," whispered Dorothy, "but--" then she understood Nancy's
+fear. "Why, Nancy dear, your old Uncle Steve, who stole you from us
+once, is not living. Don't you remember that, and besides, that man
+didn't look the least bit like him."
+
+"That man looked just like Bonfanti!"
+
+"Oh,--oo," burst softly from Dorothy's lips, then she tried to comfort
+Nancy. "But why should he be wandering through the woods here? You've
+always said that he was a busy man, and once you heard him say that
+he had never been out of New York City."
+
+"I know I did," Nancy said, "but I s'pose he _could_ go somewhere
+else, and oh, Dorothy that man looked just like him!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI
+
+THE LOST NECKLACE
+
+
+Nancy strove to be as gay as before. She told herself that the man
+certainly looked just like the old ballet-master, Bonfanti, but that
+he might have been a very different person. She did not wish the other
+girls to know that she had been uneasy or frightened, and so busy
+had they been in watching people whom they passed, laughing and
+talking, that Nancy's fright had passed unnoticed by all save one,
+and that one was Patricia Levine, Patricia, who seemed to see
+everything. She delighted in seeing something not intended for her
+eyes, and then how she would run to tell some one all about it!
+
+Patricia had noticed Nancy's cheeks when they suddenly went white,
+she had seen the look of fear in her eyes, and she was wild with
+curiosity to know what it meant.
+
+When they had started out Nancy had thought that the ride could not
+last too long, but the sight of the tall, dark man at the edge of
+the forest had changed all that, and when Marcus drove in at the
+gateway of Glenmore, and drew up at the steps, Nancy was the first
+to spring out. Without stopping in the hall to talk over the ride
+with the others who had enjoyed it, she bounded up the stairs, and
+soon was in her room.
+
+Vera stopped Dorothy to ask if Nancy was ill.
+
+"No, oh, no!" Dorothy answered, as she followed Nancy up the stairway.
+
+Vera's question, and Dorothy's hasty reply reached Patricia's ears.
+
+"I'd like to know what it's all about," she whispered, "and I mean
+to find out, no matter how long it takes me."
+
+It was strange how eagerly interested Patricia always was in anything
+that did not concern her. She did not know that a newsmonger is never
+respected, nor did she know that no girl whose nature was refined
+would care to know other people's business. Nothing so delighted
+Patricia, as a bit of news that she could, by hook or crook obtain,
+and the added joy of running off to repeat it, especially if she knew
+it should not be repeated, was greater than she could have described.
+
+Dorothy, when she reached their room, found Nancy sitting upon a low
+stool, her hands loosely clasped, her eyes downcast as if studying
+the pattern of the rug.
+
+Dorothy closed the door, and then, tossing her wraps upon the couch,
+sat down, Turkish fashion, on the rug beside her.
+
+"Now, Nancy," she said, "you're not to let that man you saw this
+afternoon make you so uneasy. It couldn't have been Professor Bonfanti
+who taught you to dance, and was so harsh with you. Why should he
+be out here, walking through the woods at Glenmore? And even if really
+it had been Bonfanti, why would you be so frightened? It was your old
+uncle who stole you from us, and made you dance at the theaters to
+earn money for him. Bonfanti just taught you because your old Uncle
+Steve hired him to."
+
+"But Dorothy, you don't know how often he said, while he was training
+me: 'Oh, if I had you in my hands, I could make you earn twice as much
+as Ferris does!'
+
+"When he said that he would look as eager as if he really _saw_ the
+heaps of money that he thought he could make me earn for him.
+
+"I don't know which would be the worse to work for, Professor Bonfanti
+or my old Uncle Steve, but this I _do_ know: I hope no one will ever
+take me away from you, Dorothy!"
+
+"And no one shall!" cried Dorothy, throwing her arms around Nancy,
+and holding her fast.
+
+"I wouldn't have been so frightened if it was just what I saw to-day,
+but don't you know that just before we left the Stone House, I had
+a dream of being stolen. I'd not thought of it for weeks, but--well,
+that man _did_ look like the ballet-master."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Patricia Levine had enjoyed the sleigh-ride. She had liked the clear,
+bracing air; she had liked being included in the list made out by
+Mrs. Marvin for the first ride of the season, but she had been annoyed
+by Arabella.
+
+She stood drumming on the window-pane, and wondering how to begin
+the lecture that she intended to give Arabella, that is, if Arabella
+would _ever_ get her wraps off, and sit down. She turned from the
+window.
+
+"Well, I never saw such a slowpoke!" she cried.
+
+Arabella blinked. Patricia thought she might as well begin, if she
+wished to say all that was in her mind before dinner.
+
+"I certainly was provoked with you, Arabella, this afternoon. You
+looked just umbrageous with all those coats and shawls on," said
+Patricia.
+
+"I looked what?" Arabella asked with a dull stare.
+
+"I _said_ um-bra-geous!" cried Patricia.
+
+"I don't know what that word means," drawled Arabella.
+
+"Neither do I," said Patricia, "but I know that's the way you looked."
+
+"I can't unbutton this top button of my coat," remarked Arabella.
+
+Patricia jerked the button from the buttonhole, and continued:
+
+"How do you s'pose I like to have you act so queer, and then have
+the girls call you my 'chum'?"
+
+Arabella instead of replying to the question remarked:
+
+"And the fringe on this shawl has caught on a hook on my dress so
+I can't get it off."
+
+Patricia's eyes were blazing. She was so angry that she hardly knew
+what she was saying.
+
+"The idea! You had on two coats and a sweater, and as if that wasn't
+enough for any one girl to wear you went after two shawls. When you
+got all those duds on you looked as big as an _elegant_!"
+
+"A _what_!" gasped Arabella.
+
+"I'm too tired to say it over again," said Patricia, who now knew
+that she had made a funny error.
+
+"But," persisted Arabella, "you said I looked as--"
+
+It was no use to talk to the walls, and Patricia had rushed from the
+room, banging the door behind her.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+There were weeks at Glenmore when everything went smoothly. Then there
+would come a week when it certainly seemed as if every one were doing
+her best to cause disturbance.
+
+Usually the fault might easily be traced to the pupils, but there
+were times when Miss Fenler seemed as contrary as the most perverse
+pupil. On those days no one could please her.
+
+Dorothy had little difficulty, but Vera, Elf, Betty, and Valerie were
+forever vexing her, and Patricia was never able to win her full
+approval. As for Arabella Correyville, Miss Fenler did not understand
+her, and Betty Chase said that "The Fender" fixed her sharp eyes upon
+Arabella, and appeared to be studying her as if she were a very small,
+but very peculiar bug that she was unable to classify.
+
+There was yet another pupil who puzzled her, and, for that matter,
+puzzled the other pupils.
+
+She was an old-fashioned little girl, who was letter-perfect in all
+her studies, but never brilliant, more quiet than any other girl at
+Glenmore, and so silent that one marveled that a little girl could
+be so still. Always neatly, but very plainly dressed, she looked like
+a little Puritan, and acted like one, as well.
+
+And what a name the child possessed! Patience Little, and she lived
+up to it.
+
+"Do you think she'd jump if a fire-cracker went off behind her?"
+questioned Valerie, one day.
+
+"No, indeed, she would not," said Elf, who stood near. "I don't
+believe she would so much as turn around to look at it. She's
+spunkless."
+
+But they were mistaken.
+
+Among themselves they spoke of her as "Little Patience."
+
+Once Betty Chase told her that she knew a girl whose name was
+"Patience," who was always called "Patty."
+
+"My family does not like nicknames," was the reply in a low voice,
+as she turned away.
+
+The day after the sleigh-ride, Lina Danford, one of the youngest
+pupils, came rushing down the stairway in great excitement.
+
+"My amber necklace has been stolen! Girls! Do you hear? My amber beads
+are gone! Some one has been in my room and stolen them! Somebody ought
+to catch the burglar!"
+
+Dorothy, standing near, put an arm around her, and tried to comfort
+her.
+
+"Don't say it is gone, Lina, dear! It may be just mislaid. If you
+like, Nancy and I will go up with you, and help you hunt," but Lina
+was not easily to be comforted.
+
+She insisted that the beads had been stolen, and that, therefore,
+it was idle to search.
+
+Patience Little, for the first time, showed a bit of interest. She
+was crossing the hall when Lina raced down the stairs, and she
+actually paused to listen to what the little girl had to say. She
+said nothing, and after a moment, she went up-stairs.
+
+She forgot to close her door, and going over to her dresser, opened
+its upper drawer. From a velvet case she drew forth a smaller velvet
+case, which, when she touched a clasp, sprang open, displaying a
+handsome string of amber beads. She held them up so that the light
+might play through them.
+
+"I never wear them," she said softly, "but I've liked looking at them.
+Aunt Millicent gave them to me, and maybe I'd like to wear them
+sometime, but," she continued, "I'll not be selfish and keep them
+for _some time_. I'll give them to Lina, in place of those that she
+has lost."
+
+Hurrying along the upper hall, Lina was surprised to see that the
+next door that she would pass, stood open. She was about to pass it,
+when on glancing toward it, she saw Patience standing before the
+glass, turning this way and that so as to get a better light on the
+amber necklace that she wore.
+
+With a little cry, Lina sprang into the room. Patience turned, and
+was about to speak, but before she could say a word, Lina shouted:
+
+"That's my necklace! I _knew_ somebody had taken it, but I never
+dreamed it was a Glenmore girl who did it. I thought it was a burglar.
+Give it to me this minute!"
+
+"This necklace is mine!" returned the accused girl excitedly.
+
+Her eyes flashed, she quivered with anger. No one would have believed
+that the girl who always appeared calm, and rarely spoke, unless
+spoken to, could show such fire. One could not guess how the scene
+would have ended, but just at that moment a slight sound made both
+girls turn.
+
+There in the doorway stood Mrs. Marvin.
+
+"I am very sorry to see anything so rude, so unkind, and so unjust,"
+she said.
+
+"You were hopelessly rude to rush into another girl's room and accuse
+her, even if she were at fault.
+
+"You were unkind, because you spoke as harshly as possible, and you
+were unjust, because here in my hand I have your own amber beads that
+one of the maids has just found.
+
+"You must apologize at once, ask Patience if she will forgive you,
+and in your own room, try to think of some kind way to make amends."
+
+Lina was crying now.
+
+[Illustration: "This necklace is mine!" returned the accused girl
+excitedly.]
+
+"Oh, I'm so sorry. Why do I never think before I say horrid things?
+Forgive me, Patience, if you can. I'll gladly do anything for you."
+
+Then the surprise came.
+
+Patience, the silent, shy girl, threw her arms about the younger girl,
+and held her close.
+
+"The necklace that I have on was given to me by Aunt Millicent. I've
+never worn it. It is beautiful, but I like quiet colors. The showy
+things are prettier for other girls, I think. I heard Lina say that
+she had lost hers, and I was just thinking that I would give mine
+to her, when she rushed in, and--I hadn't a chance to tell her. That's
+all," she said simply.
+
+"Oh, I was worse even than I thought," cried Lina, "and to think,
+Mrs. Marvin, that she was planning to give her necklace to me!"
+
+"Promise me, Lina, that after this you will be less quick to accuse."
+
+"Indeed I will, and Patience, if you'll let me, I'd like to be your
+friend."
+
+"I'm sometimes lonely. I need you, Lina," Patience said, gently.
+
+Lina never did anything by halves. She told her classmates how just
+at the time that Patience had been planning to give her own necklace
+to make up for Lina's loss, she had been harshly accused. She told
+how sweetly forgiving Patience had been, and wound up by stating that
+hereafter they were to be chums.
+
+Mrs. Marvin, on the way to her own apartment, vaguely wondered what
+the next happening would be.
+
+"I wonder if the entire week is to be a series of disturbances," she
+thought. "To be sure, there are but two days more, Friday and
+Saturday, but I should not be surprised if some one started something,
+so as to make the week complete."
+
+It certainly had been a record week for petty annoyances, and to cap
+the climax on Friday, after lunch, Miss Fenler waited in the hall,
+near the door that led from the dining-room. She felt that she must
+speak to Patricia.
+
+As a rule pupils were, of course, permitted to dress as they chose,
+but it seemed as if Patricia was actually trying to see how strange
+a rig she could wear and yet go unreproved.
+
+On this day, she had done the oddest thing of all. She had tied her
+hair on the crown of her head with a yellow ribbon. The ribbon was
+very wide, and the bow was enormous. As if that were not enough she
+had taken equally wide ribbon, of pink, and of blue, had tied a large
+bow of each and then had pinned the pink bow to the right loop of
+the yellow bow, the blue bow to the left loop, and when she entered
+the dining-room the effect was, to say the least, _amazing_!
+
+The bows were about eight inches wide. Really, Patricia was a droll
+sight!
+
+Unless she were spoken to she would wear her freakish ribbons at the
+afternoon session.
+
+When lunch was over, and the pupils came trooping out into the hall,
+Miss Fenler spoke to Patricia. When they at last stood alone in one
+corner of the hall, Miss Fenler mentioned the gaudy colors, and said
+that while the girls were permitted to wear as bright ribbons as they
+chose, they would certainly not be allowed to wear three huge bows
+at a time.
+
+"The idea!" said Patricia. "Well, I guess I'll not agree to wear
+little stingy-looking bows for any one."
+
+"You would obstruct the view of the large blackboard," said Miss
+Fenler. "No one could see around your head."
+
+"I shall wear these bows I have on or none at all!" said Patricia.
+
+"Don't be obstinate," said Miss Fenler. "Mrs. Marvin told me to speak
+to you."
+
+"Did _she_ say I couldn't wear these big bows?" Patricia asked, her
+eyes black with anger.
+
+"She certainly did," declared Miss Fenler.
+
+"Well, you can tell her I wear these or none at all," Patricia said,
+stoutly.
+
+"None at all!" repeated Miss Fenler.
+
+"Don't attempt to come into the classroom with your long hair untidy.
+Without a ribbon it would look slovenly."
+
+Patricia's smile was broad, and her eyes actually impish as she left
+the hall.
+
+"She's equal to pinning on a half-dozen extra bows if she chooses,"
+Miss Fenler said, under her breath.
+
+Glenmore, once a private estate, looked like an old castle, and the
+dwellings that were its nearest neighbors were owned by old and
+wealthy residents. No stores had ever broken the charm of the
+locality, and the sleepy old town had supposed that they never would,
+yet around the corner of a little back street, an enterprising Italian
+had purchased a wee cottage. After three days a sign appeared in his
+front window. It stunned the residents. It read:
+
+    Antonio Carana,
+  Barber and Hairdresser.
+
+Already small boys and girls might be seen, in charge of maids,
+trotting up his steps with long curls, and after a few minutes,
+appearing with a "Dutch cut."
+
+Patricia, buttoning her coat as she ran, appeared at his door
+breathless, but eager.
+
+"I want my hair bobbed, and I must have it done right off, or I'll
+be late to school," she cried, rushing past the astonished Tony, and
+mounting his big chair.
+
+"_Dutch cut_!" she demanded, thinking that he had not understood her.
+
+"Cutta da long hair?" he asked, lifting the strands.
+
+"Sure," cried Patricia, "What else would I want cut off? Certainly
+not my _nose_."
+
+"Alla right," said Tony, but he thought it strange, and wondered if
+the little girl's mother would appear at any moment, angry, and
+vengeful.
+
+Patricia's temper had been gradually cooling, and now, as she saw
+the long locks that Tony had clipped, she was desperately sorry that
+she had come. It was half done, however, so she could not "back out."
+One does not care to appear with the right side of one's head with
+short hair, and the left side with hair half-way toward one's girdle!
+
+Patricia sighed, and allowed him to continue. What else could she
+do? She had been proud of her hair, but when she saw herself in the
+mirror, her vanity came to her aid.
+
+She had given up her fine head of hair, but look! Here was another
+chance to make a sensation. Not a girl at school had her hair
+"bobbed."
+
+"Probably they'll tell me that only very little girls have their hair
+like this, but I don't care. They'll be surprised, and it's the only
+way I can go without ribbons, and I said I'd wear big bows or
+nothing."
+
+Of course the pupils stared when Patricia appeared in the class-room,
+and that delighted her.
+
+"I guess my Dutch cut made more show than my ribbons would have,"
+she whispered.
+
+Making a show was about all that Patricia cared for, the only other
+thing that she appeared to think worth while was meddling in other
+people's affairs.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII
+
+WHEN NANCY DANCED
+
+
+Mrs. Marvin decided to make the weekly socials very different from
+what they had been.
+
+It had been her custom to hire musicians from the city to give a
+little recital, and then serve light refreshments, and allow the
+latter part of the evening to be spent in indoor games, or dancing.
+
+The social part of the evening was always enjoyed, but many of the
+musicians, both vocal and instrumental, had given selections of so
+strictly classical character that some of the pupils complained that
+they did not care for it.
+
+She determined to ask three pupils to arrange a program for each
+evening, each of the three being expected to take part in the
+entertainment.
+
+One Monday morning she unfolded her plan, and announced that on Friday
+of that week would occur the first social having a pupils' program.
+
+"I have asked Dorothy Dainty to take charge of the little recital,
+and I believe we shall enjoy it."
+
+When the eager applause had subsided, Mrs. Marvin continued:
+
+"The girl in charge of the entertainment must not be annoyed with
+questions as to the program because I wish the entertainment each
+week to be a surprise.
+
+"Dorothy, herself must contribute one or two numbers, and I have
+appointed Nancy Ferris, and Patricia Levine to help her."
+
+The pupils were wild with curiosity as to what the numbers were to
+be, but while a few hinted that they were eager to know just what
+they were to hear and see, they did not ask Dorothy to tell them.
+They thought it would be more fun to be surprised.
+
+Dorothy found herself in an awkward place.
+
+She had decided to sing a pretty waltz song, for which Nancy played
+the accompaniment. Nancy had at first thought of playing a piano duet
+with Dorothy, but Dorothy pointed out that a number of the girls,
+when it came their turn to entertain, would surely play, and she urged
+Nancy to do a fine solo dance.
+
+"It will be more of a treat," she urged, and Nancy agreed.
+
+Patricia declared that she had studied with a fine vocal instructor
+since they had heard her, and she also stated that she would sing
+a solo, or nothing.
+
+Patricia, when at Merrivale private school with Dorothy and Nancy,
+had done some very funny singing, and Dorothy felt a bit nervous as
+to what she would do now, but Patricia insisted that she had rapidly
+improved, and there seemed to be no choice but to let her sing.
+
+"Do make her tell you what she's going to sing," Nancy said, one
+morning, "because if she has chosen something you wouldn't like to
+have her sing, you _might_ be able to coax her to change it."
+
+Dorothy promised to question Patricia, but she laughed at the idea
+of being able to make Patricia change her mind after she had decided
+what she should do.
+
+"What am I to sing?" said Patricia, when at recess Dorothy questioned
+her. "I'm going to sing something from grand opera. It's called:
+
+  'I dreampt that I dwelt in marble halls,'
+
+and my teacher coached me on it, and he said I sang it just as it
+should be sung."
+
+"If her teacher said that she sang it well, perhaps it will be all
+right," Dorothy said, but even as she said it she wondered just what
+Patricia would do. Patricia _might_ do anything.
+
+Dorothy took the time to practice when all of the pupils were out
+of doors at recess. She did not wish them to hear her song until she
+should sing it for them at the social.
+
+Nancy practiced her solo at early morning. Mrs. Marvin had given her
+permission to practice in their reception hall when she learned at
+what an early hour Nancy was willing to rise in order to do it.
+
+Patricia declared it entirely needless for her to practice, thus
+making Dorothy still more uneasy as to her performance.
+
+At last the evening arrived.
+
+Dorothy had told herself that if, after all, Patricia did anything
+as "queer" as she had been known to do, worrying beforehand would
+not mend matters. She knew if she became nervous regarding Patricia,
+she could not do her own solo well. Patricia had asked that her number
+might be the last on the program, and Dorothy had agreed.
+
+As Patricia usually wished to be first in anything, and was offended
+if not given precedence, it certainly looked as if she were planning
+to have her solo the crowning event of the evening.
+
+Soon after seven a buzz of voices told Dorothy that the pupils had
+assembled early, and she would have joined them, but Mrs. Marvin had
+said that each of the soloists must be announced, and must come onto
+the stage, and greet her audience as if she were a professional.
+
+All had been carefully arranged, and Vera Vane was to announce each
+performer.
+
+Dorothy had chosen a light-blue dress, her pumps and hose of the same
+shade. The dress was charming, because of its lovely coloring, and
+its graceful lines.
+
+Very clearly Vera announced:
+
+"The first number to-night will be a waltz song by Dorothy Dainty."
+
+Dorothy's voice had been carefully trained, and very sweetly she sang,
+one especial charm being that every word could be clearly heard, which
+is more than can be said of many singers who have studied for years.
+
+She had chosen "Asphodel's Song."
+
+How sweet was the voice, how happy her smile as she sang:
+
+  "Oh, how lovely are my flowers
+  In the morning wet with dew,
+  Ah, they courtesy to the morning
+  Off'ring gifts of fragrance new.
+  Then the sound of bird wings whirring
+  Wake again the drowsy trees,
+  And the tiny brooks are stirring,
+  Running onward to the sea.
+  Oh, how lovely are my flowers
+  When the twilight shadows creep,
+  Hosts of fairy folks come trooping,
+  Where my flowers lie asleep."
+
+Surely no singer was ever more graciously received.
+
+There were to be no encores because of limited time.
+
+Lights were usually out at nine-thirty, but the socials were from
+eight to ten. The concert must be brief to allow sufficient time
+afterward for games.
+
+"The next number will be a dance by Nancy Ferris."
+
+Nancy had stood in the upper hall, ready, when she heard her name
+called to enter. Here and there a tiny spangle caught the light, and
+the soft pink of her dress was repeated in her cheeks. She was happy.
+She was going to give pleasure.
+
+As she heard her name called, she bounded down the stairway, across
+the hall, and up on the stage, looking far smaller than in her usual
+school dress. The pupils were spellbound.
+
+Nancy had said nothing of her dancing nor had she spoken of having
+been a tiny performer at the theaters.
+
+Now as they saw her whirling on the tips of her toes, dipping,
+swaying, doing steps of wondrous grace, they marveled at the skill
+with which she did it. At home, at the Stone House, Dorothy had often
+played for her, but to-night she seemed to out-do herself.
+
+Nancy swung forward, then with cunning steps retreated, crossed her
+feet and did the pretty rocking-step, whirled again, and yet again,
+did the pirouette to left, then to right, made a very low courtesy,
+and ran off the stage, followed by tremendous clapping.
+
+How they wished that she might have repeated the lovely dance!
+
+Mrs. Marvin closely watched the nimble feet and determined to know
+something more about the charming little dancer. And now--Dorothy
+wondered _just what_ the next number would be. She took a long breath
+when, as Vera announced her, Patricia entered simply attired, wearing
+a pretty white dress, with a pale yellow sash, no other color.
+
+It was remarkable to see Patricia without at least six colors.
+
+"Perhaps she'll sing well," Dorothy said to herself, "for the lovely
+song that she chose for her number _couldn't_ be twisted into anything
+funny."
+
+Was that really so, or was Dorothy trying to think so? Was there
+anything that Patricia could not "twist" if she chose?
+
+The charming old song is very sweet when properly sung, and the words
+fit the melody.
+
+  "I dreampt that I dwelt in marble halls,
+  With vassals and serfs at my side,
+  And of all who assembled within those walls,
+  That I was the joy and the pride.
+  I had riches too great to count, could boast
+  Of a high ancestral name,
+  But I also dreampt, and that charmed me most,
+  That you loved me just the same."
+
+So runs the first verse, but Patricia had never seen the music. She
+had heard the song a number of times, and felt competent to sing it.
+
+Dorothy had asked her to practice it, then had offered to loan her
+the music, but Patricia declared that she needed neither practice,
+nor the use of the music.
+
+"Are you sure you know the words?" Nancy had asked.
+
+"Of course!" Patricia had said sharply.
+
+Nancy played the prelude, and Patricia sang. Sang with all her might,
+one might say, but oh, the words as she sang them!
+
+She had caught them as they sounded, giving never a thought as to
+whether they made sense.
+
+  "I dre-eampt that I dwe-e-lt in mar-ar-ble halls
+  With _vessels_ and _safes_ at my side.
+  And of all who had stumbled within those walls
+  That I was the _joke_, and the _bride_,
+  I had _witches_ to _mate_ and count, could boast
+  Of a high and central name
+  But I also dreampt, and that jarred me most,
+  That Jew loved me just the same."
+
+Was it strange that roars of laughter greeted the song? Even Mrs.
+Marvin, a model of all that was well-bred, covered her eyes for a
+moment with her handkerchief, but when she removed it, the eyes were
+twinkling and it was evident that only her self-control kept her from
+laughing aloud.
+
+Dorothy's first thought was for Patricia. She knew it must be dreadful
+to be laughed at, and she was hoping that Patricia might not be too
+badly hurt. She would draw her into the games later in the evening,
+and thus cheer her.
+
+It happened that Patricia needed no cheering. She was disgusted, but
+not hurt. She believed herself to be a very fine singer, and thought
+that the only reason for laughter was that her audience was dull,
+so dull indeed that her romantic selection had been mistaken for a
+comic song.
+
+"The idea of thinking that song funny enough to laugh at! Why it is
+not a comic song at all. There's nothing funny about it!" she
+declared. "It really doesn't pay to sing for folks here. They can't
+understand what you are doing! The next time I sing, I'll sing for
+my friends in N'York."
+
+Dorothy was puzzled for a second, then, as she saw that Patricia
+really meant what she said, she was thankful that the laughter had
+not been understood by the silly little singer.
+
+Patricia had actually thought that they were foolishly amused by the
+song.
+
+It had been quite another thing that annoyed Patricia, and that was
+the evident pleasure that Nancy's dancing had given, and on the day
+after the social, she was vexed to have to hear the other girls
+talking about it.
+
+"I'd think you never saw any one dance before," she said, when Betty
+Chase said that Nancy's dancing was "simply lovely."
+
+"Well, I never did see a girl dance like that," said Betty.
+
+"Well, she _ought_ to dance. She's had enough training, besides she
+used to dance on the stage. Who couldn't dance if they had a chance
+like that?"
+
+"A whole lot of people couldn't," said Betty, sharply. "_I_ couldn't
+for one, and I guess there are a few others."
+
+"Do you mean me?" Patricia asked, sharply, her eyes flashing.
+
+"I mean any one silly enough to say that Nancy's dancing was anything
+but wonderful," Betty said, and she turned to Valerie, leaving
+Patricia to talk to herself, or to no one, if she chose.
+
+Patricia had hoped to lessen interest in Nancy, but what she had said
+had had an opposite effect.
+
+It had increased their already lively interest to such an extent that
+many who had not yet met her were wild to know her, and those who
+already were her friends were eager to question her as to her career.
+They longed to hear all about her training, her first appearance at
+the theater, and countless questions they wanted to ask her. Patricia
+had made Nancy more popular than before.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII
+
+A BIT OF SPITE
+
+
+For several days Patricia was so busy thinking, that Arabella felt
+rather lonely. Arabella had been writing a letter to her Aunt Matilda,
+and endeavoring to answer all the questions that that peculiar woman
+had asked. It had occupied her spare time for two days, and was not
+yet ready to mail.
+
+"O dear!" sighed Arabella, "I don't like to write letters."
+
+"Don't write them," Patricia advised.
+
+"Why, Patricia Levine! You know if I didn't answer Aunt Matilda's
+letter she'd pack her suit-case, and come right here!"
+
+"Good gracious! Hurry up and finish it," cried Patricia. "I wouldn't
+want her coming here."
+
+"I've got a cold, so I couldn't go out to mail it," drawled Arabella.
+
+"Don't let that stop you," cried Patricia, "for I'll gladly go out
+to mail it for you, if it'll keep your Aunt Matilda away."
+
+Later, when Patricia went down the hall on the way to post the letter,
+she saw that Dorothy's door was slightly ajar. Of course Patricia's
+sharp eyes saw it, and, because she never could resist the temptation
+to listen, where she might hear something not intended for her ears,
+she paused.
+
+Nancy was speaking of the man that she had seen standing at the edge
+of the forest, on the day of the sleigh-ride. Again she told Dorothy
+how it had frightened her, adding:
+
+"He looked just like Bonfanti, the ballet-teacher, and I believe if
+I should look from our window and see him out there, looking toward
+this house, I'd not dare to go out for days."
+
+Dorothy tried to comfort her, by saying:
+
+"But, Nancy dear, we've _not_ seen him since that day, and he's miles
+away from here by this time, as likely as not."
+
+Patricia needed to hear no more. She could not make Nancy less
+popular, but here was a fine chance for annoying her.
+
+It was strange what pleasure it afforded Patricia to make others
+unhappy! She never seemed to know that in striving to annoy others,
+she was constantly proving that she herself was disagreeable.
+
+She hastened out to the nearest mail box with the letter, and then
+returning to her room, sat down to think.
+
+"I wish you'd talk," said Arabella. "It's awful dull this cloudy
+afternoon."
+
+Patricia was in no mood for talking, and Arabella dared not insist.
+
+It was after dinner when the pupils met in the cheery reception-hall
+for a little chat before going to their rooms, that Patricia saw her
+chance, and took it.
+
+Some one asked Nancy if she and Dorothy had been out for their usual
+walk.
+
+"It seemed a bit raw," she replied, "so we remained in."
+
+Patricia, who had been moving nearer, now stood at Nancy's elbow.
+
+"Did you notice a big, dark man, this morning looking up toward your
+window?" she asked: "Do you know who he is? We saw him the day of
+the sleigh-ride, and that was weeks ago. I believe he is always right
+around here, for I don't know how many times I have seen him. He
+always simply _stares_ toward your windows. I thought perhaps you
+knew him."
+
+Nancy turned pale, and Mrs. Marvin, who was near them, saw Dorothy
+draw Nancy closer as if to protect her.
+
+"Is Nancy ill?" she asked kindly.
+
+Patricia had left the hall when she saw Mrs. Marvin speaking to
+Dorothy.
+
+Dorothy explained how frightened Nancy had been ever since the
+sleigh-ride, a few weeks before.
+
+"Come into my apartment and tell me all about this. I am greatly
+interested," she said.
+
+They were only too glad to escape the curious eyes that now were
+watching them, and together they told Mrs. Marvin the story of Nancy's
+career. When they reached the point where Patricia had told them of
+the man who had stood looking up at their windows that afternoon,
+a look of relief passed over her face, and she actually laughed.
+
+"You two dear little friends may rest easy to-night," she said, "for
+the man whom you saw at the edge of the woods, and the man who was
+here to-day, looking up at your windows, as Patricia said, are one
+and the same person. He is a man who has made a study of all plant
+life, and especially wise is he in regard to vines and trees.
+
+"To-day he was trying to decide just what sort of vine would thrive
+best on this sunny side of the house. His name is not nearly so
+picturesque as Bonfanti. It is Jonathan Scroggs. Not a fine name,
+surely, but his name has never hindered him in his profession. He
+is one of the best florists in the country, he knows all about
+beautiful vines and trees, and he is also a landscape gardener. He
+can take a plain little cottage, with a small piece of land, and plant
+just the right kind of trees on the place, train vines over the porch
+so as to render it charming, and make the bit of land into a tiny
+park, so dainty, so altogether lovely that people will come from far
+and near to see the 'beauty spot.' Now do you care in the least what
+his name is?"
+
+"Indeed I do not," Dorothy said, firmly.
+
+"And oh, how glad I am that he is not Professor Bonfanti!" Nancy said.
+"It was silly to be so frightened, but if only you knew how hard those
+months were when he was training me, and old Uncle Steve was
+threatening all sorts of things if I did not dance well! You see,
+I was really ill with fear, and homesickness, and Uncle Steve did
+not seem to see that the more he threatened, the more ill I became.
+Oh, if I should talk all day, I could not tell you half the misery
+of those days. Only yesterday one of the girls said that she would
+not have minded any of the harsh things if only she could have danced
+on the stage. That is what she thinks, but she doesn't know!"
+
+"Well, Nancy, to-day you are nervous and tired, but I have quieted
+all your fears, and assured you that you are safe here at Glenmore.
+Some day when we can arrange it, I would enjoy hearing more of your
+little career."
+
+"And I'd be willing to tell you, Mrs. Marvin; you've been so kind,
+and you've comforted me. I shall sleep to-night without any horrid
+dreams."
+
+Mrs. Marvin felt that Patricia had really intended to frighten Nancy,
+and she decided to have a quiet little talk with her, and if possible,
+learn what had prompted her to do so unkind a thing.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+It was an odd combination that "Glenmore," one of the best of schools
+for girls in the country, modern in every respect, and absolutely
+"up-to-date," should be situated in a town that was quaint, and
+picturesque, with inhabitants as fanciful, and superstitious as one
+would find if he had traveled back a century.
+
+True, there were residents who had recently come to the place for
+a summer home, but the old people of the place clung to their old
+time superstitions, their firm belief in "signs," their legends handed
+down from one generation to another, and the newcomers humored them,
+listened to their "yarns," and asked to hear more. Many of these
+stories were quite as interesting as any folk tales, and none could
+tell them with finer effect than old Cornelia Derby.
+
+It was Marcus who had pointed her out to several of the girls who,
+one morning, chanced to be standing near the gate as the old woman
+came up the street.
+
+"Oh, Marcus, do you really mean that she can tell all sorts of quaint
+stories about this old town?" cried Betty Chase.
+
+"I sure does," said Marcus, "and 'nuffin' pleases her like gittin'
+a chance ter tell 'em ter folks as is willin' ter listen."
+
+"Now, Valerie," said Betty, turning to her chum, "let's get her to
+tell us some of the stories she knows about the fine old houses, and
+the people that once lived in them."
+
+"Fine!" cried Valerie, "but where would we find her?"
+
+"She lives in a little old hut, 'round behin' the hill over there!"
+said Marcus, "an' all yo' has ter do is ter go up dis street, an'
+yo'll sure spot it, long 'fore yo' reach it, 'cause the top half er
+dat hut is red, an' the bottom half is whitewash. It sure looks mighty
+quare!"
+
+"Let's take a walk over there to-morrow, when our lessons are
+prepared," said Valerie, "but," she added, "I hope we find it."
+
+"Yo' couldn't miss it," said Marcus, "for all yo' has ter do is ter
+go up dis street, an' turn ter yo' left, den go a piece, an' turn
+ter yo' right, an' walk 'til yo' come ter a big yaller house, an'
+dat's 'bout half-way. Nex' yo' cross a field, skip over de place
+where de brook is in summer an' come ter a piece er wall, stone wall,
+'tis, an' it don't seem ter b'long ter no place 'tall, an' de hut
+is jes' a little ways beyond."
+
+The sound of a bell sent them hurrying toward the house.
+
+"Do you expect to remember all that?" Valerie asked on the way to
+the class-room.
+
+"If you do you'll be a wonder. I've forgotten it now."
+
+Betty nodded confidently.
+
+"We'll go over there to-morrow," she said.
+
+The next afternoon, Betty helped Valerie with some puzzling problems
+that must be solved before starting out.
+
+Then with confidence on Betty's part, and much doubt in Valerie's
+mind as to their ability to find the hut, they set off on the long
+walk. After twice enquiring of people whom they met, of taking a long
+walk in the wrong direction, and retracing their steps, they finally
+espied the piece of stone wall that seemed to belong to "no place
+at all," as Marcus had said.
+
+Glad to rest, they paused there to look about them, and to wait for
+Vera and Elf, who had promised to meet them. Neither was in sight,
+although they had said that they would be prompt. Snow and ice had
+fled, and now everywhere were signs of spring. Vera had declared that
+the long walk was what she needed, and Elf had said that she would
+endure the walk for the sake of hearing the quaint stories of the
+town and its people that old Cornelia would tell.
+
+At the end of the wall Betty and Valerie waited.
+
+"I'd not wait much longer," Valerie said.
+
+"I surely will _not_!" Betty replied, "for if they are coming, they'll
+be here in a few minutes."
+
+It was evident that the two girls had, for some reason, been detained,
+and Betty determined to wait no longer.
+
+[Illustration: At the end of the wall Betty and Valerie waited.]
+
+"Come!" she cried. "We'll go on now to the little hut, and if Vera
+and Elf come poking along a half-hour later, they can just sit on
+this wall, and see if they enjoy waiting as well as we did."
+
+It was but a short distance, and they ran part of the way to make
+up for lost time, but when they reached the gate they found, as
+Valerie glanced at her tiny watch, that it was later than they
+thought, and was already about time for them to turn toward Glenmore,
+if they did not wish to be late.
+
+Hours were strictly kept at the school, and all pupils must return
+from recreation in time to give themselves personal care, and be in
+the lower hall at five-thirty for a friendly chat before going to
+the dining-room at six.
+
+Mrs. Marvin insisted that every pupil look her best at all times.
+
+It was now four o'clock. It would take a half-hour to reach Glenmore.
+That meant that not more than a half-hour could be spent at the hut.
+
+There was no answer to their repeated knocking, but as they turned
+to go they saw old Cornelia coming toward them along the road, a big
+basket on her arm.
+
+"Well, well, two fine little callers I find waiting for me," she said.
+"And what can I do for you?"
+
+"We wanted you to tell us all about some of the old buildings and
+the interesting stories about the people who lived in them," said
+Betty, "but it's so late now that I don't believe there's time. We
+have to be back at Glenmore at five."
+
+"Then sit right down here on my garden-seat and I'll tell you the
+shortest tale I know, and some other day if you come when you have
+more time I'll tell you more."
+
+"Oh, that will be fine!" they cried, as with one voice.
+
+"How would you like to hear about the wishing-well?"
+
+"That sounds _great_!" declared Betty and then: "Could you begin it
+with 'Once upon a time?'"
+
+"Surely," was the quick response, "and now I think of it, I'm sure
+you must have passed the old wishing-well on your way here. The old
+well was supposed to have magic power, and long ago when the old
+Paxton House was standing, people came, for miles around, to be near
+the old well in the garden, and wish for their heart's desire, feeling
+sure that their wish would be granted.
+
+"Of course the idea was absurd, but the townspeople of those days
+were superstitious, so that if those things that they wished for
+beside the well never came to them, they thought that they must have
+forgotten to ask for them in the right way, and later they would try
+again.
+
+"If they obtained the thing that they had wished for, they laid their
+good fortune entirely to the fact that the old well must have approved
+of them."
+
+"And where is it?" Valerie asked. "You said that we must have passed
+it."
+
+"The old well has a flat wooden cover over it now, with an iron bar
+to keep it in place, lest some one be careless and fall in, though
+now the wild blackberry vines have nearly hidden it from sight. Even
+now when only young leaves are on the brambles, the thorny stems make
+a network over the cover. The old Paxton House was gone before my
+time," Mrs. Derby said, "but a part of its fine wall remains. It was
+upon that wall that the wishers sat.
+
+"Did you happen to notice a fine piece of wall that seemed to belong
+to no one at all, and ended in a broad field?"
+
+"The idea!" cried Betty. "Why we _sat_ on that piece of wall, and
+could have 'wished' just as well as not, if only we'd known it."
+
+"And it's almost half-past four now," said Valerie. "S'pose we run
+along toward Glenmore, and stop just long enough to sit on the wall
+and wish. We can be on time at five, if we do that. Then we could
+come over some day when we've more time, and hear all about the well,
+and other stories, too."
+
+It was a good idea, because it was already so late that they could
+remain but a few moments longer, so with an urgent invitation to come
+again, and a promise to do so, they ran back to the old wall, looking
+back to wave their hands to the little woman who waved in return.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX
+
+THE WISHING-WELL
+
+
+"Isn't it funny to think that we stopped at the very place to wish,
+and never knew it?" said Valerie, as they ran along the foot path
+that would take them back, the shortest way to the wall, and the
+wishing-well.
+
+"Not so 'funny' as that we'd take so much time and trouble to wish
+when we get there," said Betty.
+
+"Why is it odd?" Valerie asked, stopping squarely in front of Betty,
+and looking at her with round eyes.
+
+"Oh, because we're acting exactly as if we believed in the old well,"
+Betty said, looking a bit annoyed, yet keeping straight on toward
+the wall.
+
+"Well, of course we're not so silly as to _really_ and _truly_ believe
+it could grant our wishes, but it's no harm to try," responded
+Valerie.
+
+Betty laughed.
+
+  "Oh, we don't believe it all,
+  Yet we _must_ believe a little
+  We _b'lieve_ the water boils
+  When the steam comes from the _kittle_.
+
+  "It's dark inside the drum,
+  Yet we hear the drumming well,
+  But that we wished beside the wall
+  We'll never, never tell."
+
+"Where did you hear those verses?" Valerie asked.
+
+"That's a funny song my brother sings. I made the second verse to
+fit to-day."
+
+"Why, Betty Chase! Who'd think you could make poetry?" cried Valerie,
+looking Betty over, as if it were the first time she had ever seen
+her.
+
+Betty laughed gayly.
+
+"I guess Mrs. Marvin would tell you it wasn't poetry. Don't you
+remember she told us the other day that many people could write
+verses, but that verses were not always _poetry_?"
+
+"Well, all the same, I like the funny verses," Valerie said, "and
+here we are at the wall again."
+
+"And here's luck to us, and our wishing!" cried Betty.
+
+She sprang up on the wall beside Valerie, and for a moment the two
+sat thinking.
+
+It was Valerie who first spoke.
+
+"I've been trying to think what to wish for," she said, "and now all
+at once I know. Mother told me to work hard this year, so as to stand
+high in my class, and Aunt Phyllis said if I could finish in June with
+ninety per cent. average she'd give me a beautiful ring. Yes, that's
+what I'll wish for by the old well, and after I've wished it, I'll
+work harder than ever so that my wish will come true. Well, why do
+you laugh?" she asked, looking not only amazed, but rather vexed at
+Betty, who could not stop laughing even when she saw that Valerie
+was far from thinking it a joke.
+
+"Well, what have I said that is so awfully funny?" she asked sharply.
+
+"Don't be provoked, Valerie," Betty said, but her shoulders shook
+although she tried to check her laughter.
+
+"I was only thinking," she continued, "how generous you were to help
+the old well out so nicely. Just as soon as you've wished, you'll
+start right out to work hard enough to just _make_ the wish come true,
+well or no well, and I do believe, if your aunt gives you the ring,
+you'll forget how hard you worked, and you'll be saying: 'I do more
+than half believe in the wishing-well!'"
+
+Valerie was never long angry, and she laughed as she answered:
+
+"Well, Miss Wise-one, are you going to wish, and then sit back and
+wait to see if it 'comes true'?"
+
+"I'll wish just for fun, but I don't believe what she said about the
+old well any more than you do, Valerie Dare. We'd be silly to even
+think that an old well had any power to grant wishes," Betty said,
+but Valerie laughed again.
+
+"Then why did we bother to sit on this wall and wish?" she said.
+
+"We might just as well wish while we're walking along the road."
+
+"Come on!" cried Betty. "You wished on the wall beside the well, and
+I'll wish as we walk along, and we'll see which gets what she wished
+for."
+
+"All right," agreed Valerie, "but I _do_ hope you'll get yours,
+Betty."
+
+"I'm as likely to, as if I'd kept sitting by the well," Betty said,
+"for I wish for what just _couldn't_ happen."
+
+"Why Betty Chase! Why don't you wish for something that you've a
+_chance_ of getting," said Valerie, stopping squarely in front of
+Betty.
+
+"Because I have everything I want but one thing," was the quiet reply.
+
+"And that one thing is--what?" queried Valerie.
+
+"I love Dorothy Dainty, and I don't want to say 'good-by' to her when
+school closes. I'd like to be where she is this summer, but that
+_couldn't_ be. You see our summer home is lovely, and we go there
+every year. Father and mother like the country better than the shore,
+but I like the beach, and the water best. Dorothy and Nancy will go
+home to Merrivale, but whether they spend the summer there, or go
+away to some other place, it won't make much difference to me. It's
+not likely to happen that they'll come to the quiet little town where
+we are to spend the summer."
+
+Betty's merry face now wore such a sober expression that Valerie said:
+
+"Well, I still say I wish you'd wanted something that really could
+happen."
+
+At that moment some one appeared just around a bend of the road, some
+one wearing the gayest of colors, and with her a little old-fashioned
+figure in a dark brown dress.
+
+"Look! Patricia and Arabella are coming this way, and they look as
+if they were planning something great. Just see how close together
+their heads are! I don't know Arabella very well, but when Patricia
+is 'up to' anything, it's pretty sure to be mischief."
+
+"Oh, I don't know," Valerie. "It's just as likely to be some way she's
+planning for a chance to show off."
+
+Betty laughed.
+
+"Did you hear Vera Vane telling about the afternoon that Patricia
+knocked at her door, and said that she had come to 'make a call'?"
+
+"I didn't hear that," said Valerie. "What did she do?"
+
+"She was wearing all the rings and bangles that she owned, and in
+her hand was a card-case, just as if she were grown up. She sat on
+the tip edge of her chair, and she kept taking out her handkerchief,
+and shaking it because it was drenched with perfumery, and when she
+went, she emptied the card case on the table, and Vera counted the
+cards. Say, Patricia had left _fifty_. Wasn't that funny?"
+
+"Hush--sh!" breathed Valerie, "she might hear you."
+
+Patricia rushed forward, while Arabella, as usual, hung back,
+preferring to stare at Betty and Valerie through her spectacles,
+rather than have a little chat.
+
+She wanted to watch their faces, and see if they were greatly
+surprised with the news that Patricia had to tell.
+
+"Guess where we're going!" Patricia cried, "but you couldn't guess,
+so I'll tell you. We're going over to the well, the one that's called
+the wishing-well," she explained, "and we mustn't tell what we mean
+to wish for, 'cause if you tell, you wouldn't get your wish. Did you
+know that?"
+
+Betty said that she had not heard that.
+
+"I'll tell you to-morrow just how to find it, but we can't stop now.
+There isn't time."
+
+"Late!" cried Valerie. "I guess you two are late. We think we have
+to hurry to get to Glenmore on time, and you are going away from
+school every minute. Why don't you go to the well, if you want to,
+tomorrow."
+
+Arabella thought that they ought to turn back, but Patricia seized
+her hand, and the two commenced to run.
+
+"They'll be a half-hour late," said Valerie, looking after the flying
+figures.
+
+"And 'The Fender' will be waiting for a chance to scold them when
+they come in," said Betty.
+
+As they pushed the gate open, they saw a little figure disappearing
+around the corner of the house.
+
+"That was Ida Mayo," said Valerie.
+
+"I didn't see her face. Are you sure it was Ida?" Betty asked.
+
+"Oh, it was Ida," Valerie answered, "and I do wonder why she stays
+in her room all the time. If she happens to come down when the girls
+are out, she runs, the moment she sees any of us coming."
+
+"It's a long time ago that she was sick," Betty replied, "but she
+must be all right by this time. I wonder why she ran when she saw
+us? We don't know her well enough to stop her to talk. She's bigger
+than we are, and she's three classes above us."
+
+"Who told you she stayed in her own room all the time?" continued
+Betty.
+
+"Patricia Levine said so," Valerie said.
+
+"Why, Valerie Dare, you know Patricia tells--well--things that aren't
+_really_ true," said Betty.
+
+"Well, we don't see Ida, now, as we used to," Valerie said.
+
+"That might just happen," said Betty.
+
+It happened that what Patricia had said was true.
+
+The so-called "beautifier" had injured the skin so severely that it
+required time to heal it.
+
+Mrs. Marvin had said that Ida was feeling far from well, which was
+true.
+
+Her vanity had prompted her to do a foolish thing, and she had
+suffered for it, both because of her painful face, and because in
+her nervousness, she had cried until completely tired out.
+
+Mrs. Marvin had talked with her kindly and wisely, she had let old
+Judy take her meals up to her room, and she had personally given her
+private instruction, for she pitied the silly girl, and sought to
+keep curious ones from annoying her.
+
+Ida had hastened away when she had seen the two younger girls coming
+because there still were traces on her cheeks of the burning caused
+by the patent "beautifier," and she seemed more afraid of the comments
+of the younger girls, than of her own classmates.
+
+As the two girls entered the hall they saw that the tall clock marked
+the time as quarter-past five.
+
+"Fifteen minutes to fix up just a bit," said Betty. "Come on!"
+
+They raced up the stairs and soon reached their room.
+
+Valerie was ready first, because Betty had found a letter waiting
+for her, and promptly sat down to read it.
+
+"You'd better not stop to read it," cautioned Valerie, "for when we
+came in we had only fifteen minutes to--"
+
+But just then Betty gave a little cry of delight.
+
+"Oh-oo! Just listen to this!" she cried. "Father says we are to go
+to the shore this summer just for a change, and already he has rented
+the summer place." She clapped her hands, and laughed with sheer
+happiness.
+
+"Oh, I'm so glad to hear that to-night. I do believe I'll dream about
+it," she said.
+
+The half-hour for social chat was over, and dinner was half through
+when Patricia and Arabella entered the dining-room.
+
+All eyes were turned upon them.
+
+Patricia held her chin very high, and looked as if she were thinking:
+"I know I'm late, but what of that?" She was assuming a boldness that
+she did not feel, whereas Arabella was absolutely natural. She felt
+frightened, and looked--just as she felt.
+
+"Wouldn't you like to know what they wished?" whispered Valerie, to
+which Betty whispered in reply:
+
+"I'd like to know, but they wouldn't tell us."
+
+It was a fixed rule at Glenmore that the pupils must be present at
+the social half-hour, and then be sure of being prompt at six, the
+dinner hour. Patricia and Arabella were the first to break that rule.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+There was to be a week's vacation, and all but four of the pupils
+were to spend it at home.
+
+They were Patricia and Arabella, Dorothy, and Nancy.
+
+Mrs. Dainty and Aunt Charlotte were still traveling, and Mrs. Vane
+had asked Vera to bring Dorothy and Nancy home with her for the week.
+Already they had planned enough pleasure to last a month, and Vera
+was still racking her busy brain to think of other things that they
+might do.
+
+The pupils were welcome to remain at Glenmore if they wished, and
+Patricia had decided that that was just what she would do.
+
+Arabella had hesitated. She was fond of her father, and she had
+intended to go home for the week, but Patricia had declared that they
+would stay at Glenmore, and Arabella was no match for Patricia, so
+it was settled that they would remain at the school.
+
+The week at Vera's home opened charmingly.
+
+Mrs. Vane had given the week over to Vera and her three little guests.
+
+"It isn't quite a week," she said when she greeted them, "for you
+have arrived Monday afternoon, and you must leave Saturday morning.
+That gives us Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday, and we must
+make each day delightful."
+
+"It always is delightful here," said Dorothy, "and it seemed so good
+to come to you when mother was away."
+
+Mrs. Vane drew Dorothy closer. She knew that at heart, sweet Dorothy
+was a bit homesick.
+
+"We'll have a pleasant little home evening with music and games,"
+she said, "and you'll all feel rested by to-morrow. I'll not tell
+what I've in store for to-morrow. That is a secret," she said.
+
+Of course Vera coaxed, and the others tried to guess, but Mrs. Vane
+remained firm, only laughing as their guessing grew wilder.
+
+"Mother truly can keep a secret, but I can't," said Vera. "I mean
+to keep it but first thing I know, I'm telling it."
+
+"We all know that," said Elf, and Vera joined in the laughter of the
+others.
+
+Tuesday was fair, and Mrs. Vane, at lunch looked at the four bright
+faces before her, Vera, a small copy of herself; Elf, whose
+mischievous face was truly elfish; Nancy, whose gypsy beauty always
+pleased, and Dorothy, blue-eyed, fair-haired, whose lovable
+disposition shone from her eyes, and made her sweet to look upon.
+
+"We shall take a trip to Fairy-land this afternoon," she said, "and
+must start directly after lunch."
+
+That was all that she would tell, and as they motored up one busy
+street, and down another, she enjoyed watching their eager faces,
+and listening to their chatter.
+
+Fairy-land proved to be a wonderful play, depicting Elf-land with
+fairies, water nymphs, elves and witches, goblins, and gnomes, with
+exquisite scenery, beautiful costumes, and graceful dancing that held
+them entranced, from the time that the curtain went up until the grand
+march of the fairies at the finale.
+
+The "grown-ups" in the audience were delighted, so it was not strange
+that Mrs. Vane's party was spellbound.
+
+Of them all, Nancy best understood the perfect art of the dancing.
+She had been drilled in those dainty steps, and she saw how cleverly
+each did her part.
+
+It was an afternoon of enchantment, and when the play was over, the
+gay little party bowled along the broad thoroughfare toward home and
+they talked of the beautiful fairy play, and the graceful girls who
+had danced as nymphs.
+
+The four days passed so quickly that when Saturday dawned, it seemed
+hardly possible that it was time to return to Glenmore.
+
+There had been a wonderful exhibition of paintings for Wednesday,
+a huge fair for Thursday at which Mrs. Vane bought a lovely gift for
+each as a souvenir.
+
+Thursday they had motored out beyond the city where willows were
+showing their misty green, and gay little crocus beds were in bloom.
+They had stopped for lunch at a pretty restaurant that looked for
+all the world like a rustic cottage, and then had returned to find
+Rob Vane waiting to greet them, as they drew up to the house.
+
+"Hello!" he called to them before they had alighted.
+
+"How is this, that a fellow gets a week's vacation, and comes home
+from school to find only servants to greet him?"
+
+"Why, Robert, I am glad enough to have you home for a week. I thought
+you were to stay at school for extra coaching?"
+
+"That's what I wrote in my last letter," said Rob, "but I passed
+exams, with flying colors. I was nervous, and feared I wasn't
+prepared, but say! I was needlessly scared, for I not only 'passed,'
+but snatched the prize for mathematics."
+
+"I am proud of you, Robert, and your father will be pleased," Mrs.
+Vane said, her fine eyes shining.
+
+"And I'm proud of you, Rob," cried Vera, rushing at him, and clasping
+her arms about him.
+
+"Hi, Pussy Weather-vane, it's good to have a little sister," said
+Rob, swinging her around until she was dizzy.
+
+"Are you glad to see me, too?" he asked, laughing at her flushed
+cheeks, and touzled, flaxen hair.
+
+"Oh, Rob! _So_ glad, even if you do shake me up until I look wild,"
+Vera said, clinging to his arm, and dragging him toward the little
+guests.
+
+"I dare to say he's the best brother in the world because neither
+one of you has a brother, so you won't be offended."
+
+"Spare my blushes, Vera," cried Rob. "Say, girls, I'm mighty glad
+to see you. How long are you to stay? A week?"
+
+"We are going back to Glenmore Saturday," Dorothy said, "and we start
+at nine in the morning. There is no one at the Stone House but the
+servants, and it was so lovely to come home with Vera."
+
+"It surely was the best thing that you could do," Rob replied
+earnestly, for he knew by a slight quiver in her voice that Dorothy
+was a bit homesick.
+
+Nancy heard the odd little quiver when Dorothy was speaking, and she
+hastened to speak of cheery things.
+
+"We've had just the dearest visit, and we've been to the theater,
+to a big fair, to see a hall hung with beautiful pictures, and how
+we have enjoyed it all!" she said.
+
+"I'll do the entertaining to-morrow," said Bob. "I'll take you all
+to see something that will be no end of fun."
+
+"What will it be, Rob?" Vera asked, but Rob tweaked her curls, and
+laughed.
+
+"That's my secret," he said, and they had to be satisfied with that.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X
+
+A LIVELY WEEK
+
+
+Dorothy woke very early the next morning, and turned to look at Nancy,
+to find that Nancy was looking straight at her. They both laughed.
+
+"I was wondering if you were awake," Nancy said.
+
+"I turned to look at you, Nancy, to see if your eyes were open,"
+Dorothy said. "I was going to ask you if you knew that Patricia and
+Arabella were spending the week at Glenmore."
+
+"I knew it, because when I told Patricia that we were to spend the
+week at Vera's home, she looked, for just a second, as if she were
+provoked because she had not been invited, too. Then she hurried to
+say that she'd rather stay at Glenmore. That Arabella was to stay,
+too, and that she thought they would have a finer time than we."
+
+"I wonder how they amused themselves," Dorothy said. "Glenmore would
+be so quiet with all the girls away."
+
+"And Miss Fenler would have all the time to watch them, with none
+of the other pupils to care for," responded Nancy.
+
+"Dorothy, Nancy! Come down so I can tell you something!" called Vera.
+
+They heard Mrs. Vane say gently:
+
+"Don't hurry them, Vera."
+
+They were half-way down the stairs, however, and in the lower hall
+they saw Elf, already up, because she had shared Vera's room, and
+Vera had awakened her.
+
+"Rob has told me! Rob has told me!" Vera said, dancing around Dorothy
+and Nancy. "Rob has told me, and I couldn't wait to tell you. He's
+going to take us out into the country to our summer place, and there
+we'll go to a little country circus! Won't that be great? He came
+home just in time."
+
+"That will be great fun," said Dorothy, "and after we've seen it,
+we can talk it over, all the way back."
+
+"Let's get ready now!" cried Vera.
+
+"Why, Vera! It is only eight o'clock, and the circus begins at two,
+so Rob said," Elf remarked, with the thought of calming Vera, but
+that was not so easily done.
+
+"But it's a two-hour ride out there. Come up to my room, Elf, and
+help me choose a dress," Vera replied, as she caught Elf by the hand
+and rushed up the stairway. How they laughed.
+
+The morning sped on wings, and lunch was served early.
+
+Just as they were leaving the house, the postman brought a letter
+for Dorothy that had been remailed from Glenmore, and she took it
+with her to read, if there was an opportunity.
+
+The ride out from the city over fine roads, and along beautiful
+avenues, was delightful, and the jolly little party reached "Vane
+Villa," earlier than they had thought possible.
+
+"Dorothy is aching to read her letter," Vera said, "so sit out here
+and read it, Dorothy dear," she continued, "and Rob will take Elf
+around to see the kennels, and I'll tag along with them, for if I
+stay here, I'll talk and talk so you won't know what is in your letter
+after all."
+
+It was a kind thought, and a bit of tact that careless, flighty Vera
+often showed.
+
+Dorothy opened her letter, and commenced reading. After a few lines
+she looked up, her eyes shining.
+
+"Nancy, come here, and listen to this.
+
+"They are already on the homeward trip, and the first of May Mother
+and Aunt Charlotte will be at the Stone House, and we are to join
+them a week later. Already Mother has written to Mrs. Marvin, and
+we are to be excused for the last two weeks at Glenmore, and away
+we'll speed toward Merrivale and home."
+
+"Oh, I am _so_ glad!" Nancy cried as she pressed Dorothy closer.
+
+"And that isn't all," said Dorothy, "for hear this:
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+"I'm sure, dear, that you and Nancy will be delighted to know that,
+after a short stay at the Stone House, we shall go to Foam Ridge for
+the summer. You are both so fond of the shore, and the salt air."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Nancy's eyes were bright, and there was a droll twinkle in them.
+
+Drawing closer, Nancy whispered a rare bit of news.
+
+"Do you mean that?" Dorothy asked. "Are you _sure_?"
+
+Nancy laughed and nodded.
+
+"Perfectly sure," she said, "for only the day before vacation Betty
+told me that her mother had just written to say that for a change
+they were to spend the summer at the shore, and she said: 'Isn't "Foam
+Ridge" a pretty name.' I didn't think to tell you, because I never
+dreamed that we would be going to the same place. I knew you'd be
+pleased, for you like Betty Chase as well as I do."
+
+[Illustration: Drawing closer, Nancy whispered a rare bit of news.]
+
+"Oh, I am truly glad that we shall see Betty at the shore."
+
+"Hello!" shouted Rob. "Anybody thinking of going to the circus!"
+
+"Yes! Yes!" they cried, and ran to join Rob and Vera and Elf.
+
+For a small circus it proved to be quite a show. There were trained
+dogs that were really clever, there were trained elephants, but best
+of all there were some handsome horses, whose riders did wonderful
+vaulting, tumbling, and riding, springing over hurdles, and through
+covered hoops.
+
+When they left the tent the girls were delighted with the show, and
+Rob said it made him think of his early ambition to be a circus
+performer.
+
+"Why wouldn't you like to now?" asked Vera. "If I had ever wanted
+to, I'd want to now. I wouldn't change my mind. Well, I don't see
+why you all laugh!" she cried, looking in surprise from one to the
+other.
+
+It was small wonder that they laughed. Vera rarely held one opinion
+for more than half a day, and had been known to have a half-dozen
+minds inside of an hour!
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+It was a jolly party that took the train for Glenmore on Saturday
+morning. Rob had taken them to the station, bought a box of candy
+for each, and waited until the last moment to leave the train.
+
+"If Miss Fenler has been watching Patricia this week she has been
+busy," said Elf, when they had settled themselves for the long ride.
+
+"She could easily watch Arabella, she is so slow," Dorothy said.
+
+It happened that Mrs. Marvin had told Miss Fenler to closely watch
+both girls who had chosen to spend the week's vacation at the school.
+
+School without lessons would be fine, they thought.
+
+"I think Arabella Correyville, if she were here alone, would be very
+little care, but Patricia Levine is as full of queer notions as any
+girl could be, and she plans the oddest mischief, and then drags slow
+little Arabella into it. Patricia never tries to help her out, and
+she invariably laughs if Arabella is caught.
+
+"Arabella is so slow that she really doesn't know that Patricia rules
+her, while Patricia rules, and laughs at Arabella for obeying.
+
+"I promise to watch them, and I am likely to be more closely employed
+than during a regular school session," Miss Fenler said in reply.
+
+The first day passed without any especial happening, but the next
+day the two set out for a walk, soon after breakfast, and did not
+return until just before six.
+
+"You were not here at one o'clock for lunch," Miss Fenler said. "Where
+were you?"
+
+"I lunched with a friend," said Patricia, and Arabella drawled, "So
+did I."
+
+"I did not know that you had friends here in town," Miss Fenler said,
+in surprise. They were, of course friends, and they had lunched
+together. What they had said had been true, but surely not honest.
+
+Arabella stared stupidly at Miss Fenler, and Patricia imitated her
+stolid friend, too. It was easier to look dull than to answer more
+questions.
+
+On the third day Mrs. Marvin was absolutely amazed to glance toward
+her window just in time to see Patricia entering the house with a
+cat in her arms.
+
+Questioned as to where she obtained the cat she said that a boy gave
+it to her, that she didn't know his name, or where he lived.
+
+"Where do you expect to keep it?" asked Miss Fenler, who had been
+sent to meet her.
+
+"I thought I could keep her in the little shed that's next to the
+kitchen, and then Judy could feed her," was the answer, given as
+confidently as if the whole matter were settled.
+
+Mrs. Marvin came out into the hall in time to hear what Patricia said.
+
+"I think we can arrange to let puss remain if she is to be under
+Judy's care," she said, "for only yesterday she told me that the mice
+are becoming very bold, and they are too wise to go into the traps
+that she sets."
+
+A sound of falling pans, flat-irons, and other kitchen utensils made
+them start. Patricia clung to the cat, although it was making
+desperate efforts to get away.
+
+"Ow-oo-o! O massy sakes! Yow-hoo!" shouted Judy as she burst the door
+open, and tore out into the hall.
+
+"Dem mices'll kill me yit, I do b'liebe!" she yelled. "De windows,
+an' do's is shet, an' dey's prancin' on de kitchen' flo. Oh-oo!"
+
+"Hush, Judy, hush!" Mrs. Marvin said. "We've a cat with us, and she
+is just in time."
+
+"I sho' won't go nigh dat kitchen wid no cat, nor nuffin' else," Judy
+said, her eyes rolling in terror.
+
+"Pooh!" cried Patricia, "I'd be glad to put her out there before I
+get any more scratches," and going to the end of the hall, she opened
+the door, and dropped puss on the floor.
+
+In less time than it takes to tell it the cat had caught the two tiny
+mice, that had been far more afraid of the big colored woman, than
+she had been of them, and that is saying a great deal.
+
+Patricia was never inclined to be in any way obliging. She was one
+of those unpleasant girls who find no joy in being kind or helpful.
+
+Whatever she did, was done wholly for her own sake, and Judy eyed
+her with suspicion when she saw how promptly she took the big cat
+to the kitchen.
+
+Having given the cat over to the care of Judy, Patricia raced up the
+stairway to her room.
+
+Judy rolled her eyes to look after her.
+
+"Wha' fo' she done dat?" she asked of Miss Fenler, who stood near
+her.
+
+"Wha' fo'? I axes. Dat ar young miss done bring dat cat home ter hab
+in her room fo' a pet. How happen her to gib it up ter Judy?"
+
+"Nonsense, Judy. She knows, as all the pupils know, that it is a fixed
+rule at Glenmore, that no pupil can have a pet in her room."
+
+"All de same, Miss Patrichy _meant_ dat cat ter be up in her room,
+long o' dat ar _Carbale_ gal."
+
+Judy never could get Arabella's name correctly. Sometimes it was
+"Carbale," then it was "_Corbille_," but never once had she managed
+to call it Correyville.
+
+"Well, the cat is in the kitchen now, and you must look out for her.
+Keep her in for a few days until she feels that this is home, and
+then she will stay," Miss Fenler said, and returned to her
+account-books.
+
+Thursday the two girls were in their room all day, reading, and
+devouring a "treat" that Patricia had smuggled in. It was much the
+same menu that Patricia usually chose, without a thought as to how
+the different things would combine.
+
+Who but Patricia Levine would ever think of eating ice-cream, and
+big green pickles at the same time?
+
+The reason that she would have given for eating them at the same time
+would have been that she liked both.
+
+They ate the papers of ice-cream first before it could melt, and then,
+each took a huge green pickle, and a favorite book, and settled down
+to read.
+
+When the lunch hour arrived, Patricia felt a bit "queer," while
+Arabella felt decidedly "queerer."
+
+Neither cared to eat, but they dared not stay away from the
+dining-room, so both went down to the table, but they made only a
+pretense of eating.
+
+Early in the afternoon both felt hungry. Patricia rushed to the
+closet, and returned with some chocolate eclaires, and a bottle of
+olives.
+
+"I'll eat an eclaire," said Arabella, "but maybe I'd better not eat
+olives with it."
+
+"Well, of all things!" cried Patricia. "Let me tell you what you don't
+know. Eclaires and olives just _b'long_ together. Don't act funny,
+Arabella."
+
+Arabella, always afraid of being laughed at, ate not only one eclaire,
+but two, and a dozen olives, as well.
+
+During the afternoon, they ate four crullers, two pickled limes, two
+ham sandwiches, and a pound of fudge.
+
+Patricia could eat anything, and any amount of food without any ill
+effect, but Arabella was really sick when the hour for dinner arrived.
+
+When Mrs. Marvin questioned Patricia, she said that Arabella had a
+headache, and that she had said that she was not hungry.
+
+Mrs. Marvin sent a waitress up to their room with some toast and tea
+for Arabella. Arabella barely tasted it, and the girl returned to
+report that Miss Arabella looked sick, and really could not eat.
+
+The next day found her much like her usual self, and Patricia proposed
+a walk.
+
+"I'll go with you in a minute," said Arabella.
+
+"What _are_ you waiting for?" snapped Patricia. She turned, and saw
+that Arabella was shaking some green pills from a bottle.
+
+"It's hard work trying to mind two people who say different things,"
+complained Arabella. "Aunt Matilda told me to take these green pills
+every hour, wherever I happen to be, and Mrs. Marvin says I must not
+be continually taking medicine in the class-room. How can I do both?"
+
+"Don't take it at all!" cried Patricia.
+
+"But my health--"
+
+"Oh, bother your health," said Patricia. "I should think you'd be
+sick of hearing about it."
+
+"I am," confessed Arabella.
+
+"Then pitch every one of those bottles out, and see what happens!
+No wonder the girls here call you the 'medicine-chest.' The doses
+you take make me sick just to see them."
+
+Arabella looked sulky, and when Patricia started for a walk, Arabella
+refused to go. She was usually afraid of Patricia, and did as she
+directed, but when she became sulky, not even Patricia could move
+her, try as she might.
+
+Arabella was standing near the window when Patricia returned, and
+what she saw was anything but pleasing.
+
+At the end of a leash was a small, shaggy, yellow dog, of no especial
+breed!
+
+Arabella detested dogs, and was desperately afraid of them as well.
+
+She told herself that the dog would also be in Judy's care, and was
+wondering how he would get on with the cat, when she heard a loud
+whisper outside the door.
+
+"Let me in, quick!" it said, and when Arabella opened the door,
+Patricia stumbled over the dog who had run between her feet, and the
+two landed on the middle of the rug in a heap.
+
+"There! Isn't he a beauty?" Patricia asked and without waiting for
+an answer continued, "A man told me he was a valuable dog that
+_ought_ to bring fifty dollars, but because he was going to leave
+town, he let me have him, for two dollars, and threw in the leash.
+Wasn't that a bargain?"
+
+"What are you going to do with him?" Arabella asked. "Oh, take him
+away! I don't want him sniffing at me!"
+
+Patricia made an outrageous face, and tugged at the leash.
+
+"Keep him in this room until I go home, and then take him with me,"
+she said.
+
+"I'll not sleep in this room if that dog is kept in here!" declared
+Arabella.
+
+"Where will you sleep?" Patricia asked, coolly. "They wouldn't let
+you sleep out in the hall, and if I put the dog out there, 'The
+Fender' will take him."
+
+By extreme care, Patricia managed not to do anything that would make
+him bark.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI
+
+AN INNOCENT SNEAK-THIEF
+
+
+The little dog had slept all night, but when morning came he wanted
+to go out for a romp. Patricia tied him to the leg of the bed, gave
+him some breakfast and sat on the floor beside him to stop him if
+he began to bark.
+
+Thus far he had been very quiet, only softly growling, and stopping
+that when Patricia held up her finger and told him he must "keep
+still."
+
+"Why do we have to review?" Patricia said as Arabella took up a book.
+
+"The idea of looking into my history to see when Virginia was settled
+at Jamestown when any one _knows_ it was in fourteen ninety-two!"
+
+"O my, Patricia! That's wrong," Arabella said, "That's when Columbus
+discovered America."
+
+"Well, for goodness' sake! Couldn't he have landed in Virginia, and
+settled it at the same time?" demanded Patricia. She was desperately
+angry, but Arabella persisted.
+
+"Don't you _know_, Patricia, it _couldn't_ have been settled in
+fourteen ninety-two?"
+
+"Oh, don't bother me about that!" said Patricia, and Arabella, peering
+at her through her goggles decided that it would be wise to do no
+more correcting.
+
+"I don't think Miss Fenler is fair," said Patricia, "for she marked
+my history paper only forty-two, and I just _know_ it ought to have
+been higher than that. And my spelling she marked only thirty-eight
+last month, and all because I put an r in water, spelling it 'warter,'
+and I'm sure that's not bad."
+
+"You put two t's in it, too," said Arabella.
+
+"I will again if I want to," snapped Patricia.
+
+"There's the breakfast-bell. He's sure to bark while we're
+down-stairs," Arabella said. She hoped that he would, so that he
+might be given other quarters. He looked up as the door closed, and
+was about to bark when he saw one of Arabella's slippers, and grabbing
+it, retired under the bed to chew it.
+
+It was a rule that the maids should make the beds, and put the rooms
+in order while the pupils were at breakfast, and on that morning it
+fell to Maggie's share of the work to care for the only room now
+occupied.
+
+She was a good-natured Irish girl, and she entered the room singing:
+
+  "'Now, Rory, be aisy, don't tase me no more,
+  'Tis the--'"
+
+"Och, murther! Murther! There's a man under the bed, an' he grabbed
+me by me shoe,--oh! oh!"
+
+Down-stairs she ran, screaming all the way, declaring that there was
+a man upstairs, and calling for some one brave enough to "dhrive him
+out."
+
+Her terror was very real, and Marcus was called in to oust the
+intruder.
+
+"It must be a sneak-thief," said Miss Fenler.
+
+"It _am_ a sneak-thief," said Marcus, appearing with the small dog
+in his arms.
+
+"He stole a slipper, an den sneaked under der bed ter chew on it.
+Sure, he am a sneak-thief, but I knows a cullud gemman what wants
+a dog, an' I guess he's 'bout the right size. Dey has a pow'ful small
+house, an' him an' his wife, an' seben chilluns lib in dem two rooms,
+so he couldn't want no bigger dog dan dis yar."
+
+"Why nobody can give that dog away!" shrieked Patricia. "I bought
+him yesterday, and paid the man two dollars for him. He's mine!"
+
+"Do you mean to tell me, Patricia, that you bought that dog and
+deliberately brought him here, when you knew that it was against the
+rules of the school?" Mrs. Marvin asked.
+
+"You kept the cat," said Patricia.
+
+"Because I let the cat remain, you decided that it would be safe to
+do practically the same thing again, did you?" Mrs. Marvin's usually
+kind voice sounded very cold now.
+
+"He isn't a cat, so 'tisn't the same," Patricia said with a pout.
+
+"We must find an owner for him, Marcus," Mrs. Marvin said.
+
+"I _won't_ let him go!" screamed Patricia.
+
+"You cannot keep him here."
+
+"Then I'll go back to my aunt's house at Merrivale, and take him with
+me," said Patricia.
+
+"Do as you like about that," Mrs. Marvin said quietly, "but you must
+choose."
+
+"I've _choosed_, I mean 'chosen,'" said Patricia. "I'll go right
+straight off, and take the dog with me."
+
+It looked like haste and anger, but for weeks Patricia had been so
+far behind the others of her class, that she believed that any day
+Mrs. Marvin would send her home with a letter stating that she had
+been neglecting study, and must give up her place to some ambitious
+pupil. Patricia preferred to go of her own choice, so she rushed to
+her room, and began to pack her belongings.
+
+Arabella stood watching her as if not fully realizing that she was
+losing her chum.
+
+She was not quite so dull as she appeared. She was sorry to have
+Patricia go, and she was not at all sure that she would like her room
+all to herself. At the same time she was comforting herself with the
+thought that there would be no one to make her eat things that she
+ate for the sake of peace and that nearly always made her ill, or
+to drag her into mischief that she, herself would never have thought
+of. When Patricia's trunk was strapped to the back of the carriage,
+and she stood on the porch, her suitcase in one hand, her other hand
+holding the dog's leash, she turned to Arabella.
+
+"Well, aren't you going to say something, now I'm ready to start"
+she asked.
+
+"Do'no' what to say," drawled Arabella.
+
+Arabella had spoken the truth, which, however, was not complimentary,
+and Patricia was offended.
+
+Arabella, looking after her tried to decide just how she felt. She
+would miss Patricia, because at times she was a lively chum, but she
+was quick to take offense, and Arabella was always doing something
+that displeased her.
+
+Then, too, Arabella had a very small allowance, while Patricia spent
+money with a free hand, and always "shared" with Arabella. But what
+joy was there in eating the oddly chosen "treats"?
+
+Arabella decided that as there was but a short time before the closing
+of school, it was, perhaps, the best thing that could have happened,
+that Patricia had decided to go back to Merrivale. It seemed strange
+that she should prefer to be with her aunt in Merrivale, rather than
+with her mother, at their home in New York, but those who knew were
+not surprised.
+
+Mrs. Levine was as strange in some respects, as her little daughter
+was in others. If Patricia enjoyed being away from home, Mrs. Levine,
+flighty, and weak-willed, was glad to be free from the care of
+Patricia.
+
+The aunt was very glad of the money paid for Patricia's board, so
+every one concerned seemed satisfied.
+
+Surely Patricia was having but little training, but who was there
+to complain?
+
+Being away from home had one decided advantage, Patricia thought.
+
+She could ask for money when she needed clothing, and when she
+received it she could make her own choice of hats, coats, or dresses,
+and what a lively choice it was!
+
+She had rightly earned the title of the "Human Rainbow."
+
+She had heard the name, and she liked it. She thought that it implied
+that her costumes were gay, rather than dull colored.
+
+Mrs. Marvin breathed a sigh of relief when Patricia had actually left
+Glenmore, and Miss Fenler remarked that Arabella was really too slow
+to get into mischief, now that she had no one to assist her.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+The ride had been a long one, and the car had been hot after the early
+morning. Vera complained that she was fairly roasted, while Elf
+declared that she had breathed smoke from the open windows until she
+believed that she would smell smoke for a week. Dorothy and Nancy
+made little fuss about either smoke or heat, bearing the discomforts
+of the trip patiently, and laughing when Vera fumed.
+
+"Well, I know, if I were a man," said Vera, "I could make some kind
+of an engine that would go like lightning, and have neither smoke
+nor cinders. I told Rob that, and he said, 'Oh, don't let it stop
+you because you're not a man. Just go ahead, Pussy Weather-vane, and
+plan it. The companies won't refuse to use it because it wasn't
+invented by a man!'
+
+"Now, isn't that just like a boy? What time do I have to do things
+like that? Doesn't he know that I have lessons, and all sorts of
+things that hinder me?
+
+"Why do you girls laugh at everything I say, just as Rob does?" she
+concluded, looking in surprise, from one merry face to the other.
+
+"Oh, but Vera, you are funny when you sputter," said Elf.
+
+"I s'pose I am," agreed Vera, "and I don't much care. I'm sure I'd
+rather make you laugh, than make you look sober."
+
+"Look! Look!" cried Dorothy.
+
+"We're almost to Glenmore!"
+
+"Not yet," said Vera.
+
+"Oh, but Dorothy is right," said Nancy, "for look there where the
+river glistens in the sun."
+
+"And see that big Club House right over there," Dorothy said, pointing
+toward a handsome building of which the town of Glenmore was justly
+proud.
+
+"But it doesn't seem quite like--"
+
+Vera's remark was interrupted by the trainman, who opened the door
+and shouted, "Glenmore! Glenmore!"
+
+"I guess it did look like it," Vera said, as she sprang out on the
+platform, followed by her three laughing companions. Marcus was
+waiting for them.
+
+"Yo'-all git in, an' we'll git dar as quick as we kin. Mis' Marvin,
+she say all the other pupils is arriv, an' she hopes you fo' will
+be some prompt."
+
+"We came as soon as the train would bring us," said Elf.
+
+"But dat train am an hour later dan de time-table say."
+
+"Do you believe that?" Elf asked of the others, as they rode along.
+
+"They must have changed the time-table," Nancy said.
+
+Marcus turned his head to shout:
+
+"No, miss, no. Nobody doesn't neber chane nuffin' in Glenmore!"
+
+Mrs. Marvin was on the porch, as the carriage turned in at the
+gateway, and she stepped forward to greet them as they sprang out
+on the walk.
+
+"I was beginning to wonder what had detained you, when I was delighted
+to see the carriage coming around the bend of the road. You are just
+in time to go to your rooms and 'freshen up' a bit before dinner,
+and--Why, Arabella Correyville! What does this mean?"
+
+A drenched and bedraggled figure was mounting the steps. Her hair,
+and garments were dripping, she had lost her goggles, and without
+them her eyes had a frightened stare.
+
+"I didn't mean to look like this," she said, "but I lost the key to
+my room. I'd locked the door when I went out, and I wanted to study
+some before dinner. I climbed up onto the edge of that hogshead that
+the workmen had left right beside the trellis that runs up by my
+window. I meant to get in at my window, but I fell and got into a
+hogshead of dirty water. 'Twasn't very pleasant," she drawled.
+
+One might have thought, from the manner in which she said it that
+most people would have enjoyed the "ducking"!
+
+Mrs. Marvin looked discouraged. This was the girl that _could not_
+get into a scrape, now that she had no one to drag her in!
+
+"Miss Fenler, will you assist Arabella in making herself presentable
+before six? It is after five-thirty now."
+
+Miss Fenler looked anything but pleased, but she dared not refuse.
+Arabella seemed quieter than ever when she came down the stairway,
+her wet garments exchanged for dry ones, and her straight hair primly
+braided, thanks to Miss Fenler.
+
+Doubtless she had not recovered from her surprise when she found
+herself in the hogshead. It always required time for Arabella to
+recover from any new idea, or unusual happening.
+
+The other girls were giving the four who had just returned a gay
+welcome, and Dorothy slipped her arm around Betty Chase, and told
+her the fine news that during the summer they were both to be at
+Foam Ridge.
+
+"Oh, Dorothy!" cried Betty, her dark eyes shining, "I was delighted
+when mother wrote that we were going there, just because I so love
+to be at the shore, and now to think that you and Nancy are to spend
+the summer there,--oh, it is such a dear surprise."
+
+"But listen, every one!" cried Valerie Dare. "That's all very fine
+for Betty, but the other bit of news isn't quite so nice. Dorothy
+Dainty and Nancy Ferris are to leave Glenmore two weeks earlier than
+the rest of us. Say! Do you think we'll miss them?"
+
+"Oh, Dorothy Dainty! Why do you go so soon?"
+
+"And take Nancy with you, too! Say, do you have to?"
+
+"Can't you stay longer?"
+
+These and many more were the queries called forth by Valerie's
+statement.
+
+It was small comfort for them to listen when Dorothy explained.
+
+The fact remained, that they did not want to have her leave before
+school closed. She had endeared herself to her classmates, and to
+many others whom she met at socials, and after school sessions. Nancy
+shared her popularity, and both prized the loving friendship that
+had made their stay at Glenmore so pleasant.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII
+
+A GLAD RETURN
+
+
+"We're glad to think that to-night we shall be at home at the Stone
+House, and that we'll be with Mother and Aunt Charlotte again, and
+we're really sorry to say 'good-by' to Glenmore and the pleasant
+friends that we have found here," Dorothy said, as she stood on the
+porch with Nancy, waiting for Marcus, who was to take them to the
+station.
+
+"That's just the way we feel," said Nancy. "Glad and sorry at the
+same time."
+
+"Well, let me tell you, _I_ don't feel two ways at once," cried Vera.
+"I feel just one way. I'm just _fearfully_ sorry!"
+
+Mrs. Marvin had bidden them "good-by," after having expressed her
+approval of their work as pupils, and her regret that they must leave
+too early to have a part in the program at the final exhibition. On
+the train that they were to take, there was no stop long enough to
+obtain anything to eat, so Judy had put up a tempting lunch of
+sandwiches, cake, and fruit.
+
+Betty and Valerie had a box of chocolates for each, and Ida Mayo,
+now wholly recovered, came in at the gate just in time to offer each
+a lovely rose from a cluster that she carried.
+
+Arabella came slowly out to join the group on the porch, and seeing
+Ida Mayo offering her roses, she decided not to be outdone.
+
+"Here, wait 'til I find something," she said, thrusting her hand deep
+into her pocket. After a moment's search she produced two bottles
+of pills, one pink and the other green.
+
+"Take 'em with you," she said, offering one to Dorothy, and the other
+to Nancy. "One is for a 'tired feeling,' and the other is for feeling
+too good. I've forgotten which is which, but if you take them both,
+you're sure to feel all right during the long car-ride."
+
+There were stifled giggles, for surely bottles of medicine were
+curious gifts to offer, and the group of girls thought it the drollest
+thing that Arabella had yet done.
+
+For only a second did Dorothy hesitate. She did not, of course, want
+to accept the funny gift, but she saw Arabella's cheek flush, as
+little Lina Danford laughed softly, and she did the kindest thing
+that she could have done.
+
+"Thank you," she said, gently, then to the others she added: "Arabella
+is eager to have us both feel fine when we reach Merrivale."
+
+The soft laughter ceased, and Ida Mayo said to a girl who stood near
+her: "Isn't that just like Dorothy Dainty! She doesn't want those
+pills any more than you or I would, but she won't let Arabella feel
+hurt."
+
+"She is dear, and sweet," was the whispered reply, "and so is Nancy."
+
+At last Marcus arrived, and as they rode along the avenue, they waved
+their handkerchiefs to the group on the porch until they turned the
+corner, and were out of sight.
+
+The long car-ride was much like any all-day ride. Rather pleasant
+at first, a bit tedious on the last hour, but oh, the joy of the
+home-coming!
+
+Mrs. Dainty had felt the first separation from Dorothy keenly, and
+she could not school herself to be calm when for the first time in
+months she would see her sweet face again, so she sent the limousine
+over to the station, and with a desperate effort at patience, waited
+at home for the sound of its return.
+
+Aunt Charlotte was more calm, but so long had Nancy been under her
+care that she seemed like a little daughter, and now, with Mrs. Dainty
+she sat waiting, and each smiled when she caught the other watching
+the clock.
+
+Of course the train was late in arriving at Merrivale, and Mrs. Dainty
+was just beginning to be anxious when the limousine whirled up the
+driveway, and stopped. John opened the door, and in an instant Dorothy
+found herself held close in loving arms.
+
+"Dorothy, my darling, I can never be parted from you again. If it
+is a question of travel, I will not go unless you go with me, and
+if it is education, then you must have private tutors at home."
+
+"Oh, yes, yes!" agreed Dorothy.
+
+"At first the newness amused me, but the last half of the time grew
+harder and harder to bear. I knew you needed the rest and change and
+I did my best. When I found that you had come home two weeks earlier,
+I could hardly wait till this morning to start."
+
+"We've tried to be cheerful for each other," Nancy said, looking out
+from her shelter in Aunt Charlotte's arms, "but oh, how good it is
+to be at home!"
+
+Mollie Merton, and Flossie Barnet had waved to them as they turned
+in at the great gate, and Uncle Harry had swung his cap gayly, and
+looked the genuine pleasure that he felt at seeing them again.
+
+"Let's go over to see Dorothy and Nancy," Flossie said, but Uncle
+Harry laid his hand gently on her arm.
+
+"Not just now, Flossie dear," he said. "My little niece is truly glad
+to see them, but I think there will be things to talk over, and they
+have been apart for months, so they should have this evening
+uninterrupted by any friends."
+
+"I guess that's so," said Flossie, "but it's hard to wait until
+to-morrow to tell them how glad we are to see them,"
+
+"I love dat Dorothy girl, _myself_," said Uncle Harry's small
+daughter, "and I love dat Nancy girl, too. Dat Dorothy girl always
+has candy for me, and dat Nancy girl makes hats for my dolly."
+
+Uncle Harry swung the tiny girl up to a seat on his shoulder, and
+his blue eyes twinkled as he looked into the little, eager face.
+
+"Don't you love them when they aren't giving you something?" he asked.
+
+"Oh, yes!" said the little maid, "but I love them _harder_ when they
+do."
+
+"Then you'll love me 'harder' than you do now if I give you a ride
+up to the house?" he asked.
+
+"Oh, yes, yes!" she cried, and she laughed gayly as she rode in
+triumph up the driveway, and into the house.
+
+The evening was spent in the big living-room, with a small fire
+blazing in the fireplace. It had been warm and sunny all day, but
+when evening came, an east wind had risen, and the happy little party
+was glad to sit cosily in doors. Dorothy and Nancy listened entranced
+while Mrs. Dainty and Aunt Charlotte told of their travels. They had
+been south, they had been west, and they had brought home beautiful
+souvenirs of every place at which they had stayed.
+
+Then Dorothy and Nancy told of the life at Glenmore, of the new
+friends that they had met, and of Arabella and Patricia.
+
+It was a happy evening.
+
+Mr. Dainty had found it impossible to reach home until a week later,
+but he had written a longer letter than usual, and had sent one
+especially to Dorothy, and it seemed almost as if he were really
+talking to her as she read it.
+
+Bright and early next morning Mollie and Flossie raced over to the
+Stone House, and the four chattered so fast, that the old gardener
+at work near the fountain, took off his hat, and for a moment stood
+listening. He was not near enough to know what they were saying, but
+he heard their happy voices, now talking, now laughing, and he spoke
+his thoughts.
+
+"Hear that now, hear that! An' will any man tell me that a garding
+is a reel garding widout the sound o' merry voices? Sure, it's been
+so still here the past few weeks that I begun ter talk ter meself,
+just ter break the stillness, but it didn't do the trick, fer me voice
+ain't what yo calls 'moosicle.' Oh, hear them now! It does me good,
+so it does."
+
+There was news, and a plenty of it to tell, and when Dorothy and Nancy
+had told the happenings at Glenmore, Mollie and Flossie took their
+turn, and related all the Merrivale news.
+
+"You know Sidney Merrington used to be so lazy last winter that he
+didn't get on at all at school," said Flossie. "Arithmetic was all
+that really vexed him, but because he had low marking for that, he
+wouldn't try hard to do anything else.
+
+"Well, Molly promised to help him, (you needn't bother to poke me,
+Mollie, for I _will_ tell) and she did help him every day, and after
+a while he began to help himself, and last week his average on the
+exam, was ninety-three. Wasn't that fine? He never would have got
+that if Molly hadn't helped him."
+
+"Molly, you were dear," said Dorothy.
+
+"And Tess Haughton is ever so much nicer than she was," Molly said,
+"for she doesn't do anything now that seems,--why not quite true.
+That doesn't sound just as I mean it. I know how to say it now. I
+mean that she isn't sly. She is a good playmate, and a good friend."
+
+"Oh, that's fine!" Dorothy and Nancy cried, as if with one voice.
+
+"There's another fine thing to tell," said Flossie. "Reginald Dean,
+with the help of his big dog saved a little boy from drowning.
+Reginald saw him fall from the bridge, and he never stopped to think
+that he isn't very big himself, but jumped right in, and was doing
+his best to save him, when all at once his strength gave out, and
+he called for help. He never dreamed that his dog had followed him,
+until with a splash he jumped into the water close beside him, grabbed
+his clothes, and dragged the two boys out."
+
+"Wasn't that great?" said Dorothy, her hands tightly clasped, her
+eyes shining. "Reginald has the new bicycle that he so wanted. His
+father gave it to him, because he had been brave enough to forget
+danger, and rush to aid the other boy," said Mollie, "and the dog
+is wearing a new collar with a brass plate on it, engraved, 'I'm a
+Life-Saver.'"
+
+"Katie Dean said she was almost sure that she saw Patricia Levine
+yesterday," said Flossie, "but I said I thought she must still be
+away at school. Do you know where she is now?"
+
+"She might have seen her, for she left Glenmore before we did,"
+Dorothy said, and she was just in the midst of telling how Patricia
+had brought the big cat home, and next had appeared with a little
+dog, when Mollie said:
+
+"Here she comes now. Why, she has a dog with her!"
+
+"That's the one," said Nancy, "and she has him on a leash now, just
+as she did at Glenmore. I wonder if her aunt likes him. He tears and
+chews everything he can get hold of."
+
+"Hello!" called Patricia, as soon as she saw them, then, "My! What
+did you and Nancy get sent home for?"
+
+"We weren't sent home," Nancy said, indignantly.
+
+"Now, Nancy Ferris, Glenmore doesn't close until next week, and here
+are you two at home."
+
+"That is no sign that we were sent," said Dorothy. "Mother sent for
+us."
+
+"Oh, was that it?" Patricia said saucily, and then turning to Molly
+she asked:
+
+"How do you like my dog? He isn't a pretty dog, but he knows
+everything, and he _always_ minds. My friends think it is just
+wonderful the way he minds me. I taught him to. Stop!" she cried.
+"Stop, I tell you. I won't let you chew the edge of my skirt. Will
+you stop? Oh, well I don't care if you do chew it. It's an old dress,
+anyway."
+
+She saw that he would not stop.
+
+"I've named him Diogenes. I don't know who Diogenes was, but I liked
+the name and he's such a hand to dodge, I thought I'd call him 'Dodgy'
+for short. Well, I'm sure I don't see why you look so amused. _I_
+think I've chosen a grand name for him. Come on, Dodgy!" but the small
+dog lay down.
+
+"Well, well, how you do act! Come on! Up the street! Come!"
+
+The dog got up, yawned, and then, taking a good hold on the leash,
+he snatched it from Patricia's hand, and made off with it, as fast
+as he could scamper, Patricia after him at top speed.
+
+"He minded me that time," she turned to say, then resumed her chase.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+The next few days were filled with preparation for the trip to Foam
+Ridge, and Dorothy and Nancy could think of little else.
+
+Both had felt the constraint at Glenmore which was really necessary
+at so large a school.
+
+The freedom from study, with its fixed hours would be refreshing.
+
+There would be fine surf at Foam Ridge, and the two had "tried on"
+their new bathing-suits at least a dozen times. They had studied the
+elaborate booklet that showed in colors, the beauty-spots of the
+place, and Dorothy had received a letter from Betty Chase, saying
+that in a short time she would be there to join them in their sports.
+
+They were wondering what new friends they would make during the
+summer. Betty, they knew, would be a lively companion.
+
+Of the gay summer at the shore, of the fun and frolic, of the
+unexpected things that happened, one may read in
+
+  "Dorothy Dainty at Foam Ridge."
+
+
+
+
+
+End of Project Gutenberg's Dorothy Dainty at Glenmore, by Amy Brooks
+
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