Peggy Parsons at Prep School

rine and Peggy rode back into when they returned

t important gifts of the Foster family to the two girls had been two pairs of snow-shoes: not the poorly constructed, make-believe affairs that

rap on in their hands. After some grunting and much tugging the shoes were adjusted, and then the two expected to fairly sail over the white world, away, away, like ice-boats, as fast as the wind. But, oh, for the things that look so easy! There was a good crust over the snow, but at the first step-we

owdered over and caked with snow where they had plunged through th

lking ordinarily. I forgot that father said the foot must come down flat. I've seen peop

in the midst of cold, to glow from forehead to feet with life and heat and happiness, all this glorious new experience she was feeling for the first time. But Katherine could not put her foot down correctly and failed to get into the rhythm of the

sudden Peggy pointed ahead. There, gleaming on before them, straight ahead and over the crest of a bit of rising ground, were the glistening snow-shoe marks of another e

u can't get the swing of it, Peggy, you can't keep warm, and while I want to learn, sometime, I think it wasn't born in me as it was in you, and

out over the barren fields in their whiteness, new and untouched save for the gle

she said, a hint of

get about as much more of this as I want going back, but I hope you hav

alled after her. "I won't be long, but I

-shoe tracks, and with a little gay

re the good man Friday's. And we are the only two people that there a

w-shoes and Peggy wondered which one

tall girl she must be! These footprints are so far apart I can't possibly take such long steps. She must be a wonderful sn

ued her way until at last she had climbed the hill where the tracks had

hing of the past, and she could not have found her way back except for the tracks she was making now. And then all of a sudden she noticed something was different. The footprints no longer gleamed in h

promptly, "I guess I

came rushing in her face and took

en storm, too. And if I could only find you I wouldn't feel as lost and shaky as I do now. Misery loves comp

h Friday was a very comforting one, she plodded on, winking the sno

ing them, and her own steps were made with increasing difficulty. Anyone who has ever

swing forward to its next step.-Paralyzed! The horror of her situation, there all alone in the cold and snow, out

Dear, dear, if I could only find that girl, maybe she would try to drag me to some farm house, or something. If she's one of the A

e was no answer and the sound of her own voice, so hollow and l

to move the stubborn left foot. It was useles

ng to run down her cheeks to mingle w

mediately ahead. There was the jar of a collision. Peggy clutched

s that of a very red-faced young ma

e illuminating instant that this was the t

with it. I'm awfully afraid I hurt you, bumping into you like that, but I never dreamed there was a

. Here am I a perfectly strong girl and yet even I can't go any farther. I-can't-go-anothe

just a minute till I get a deep breath and I'll carry you. The extra weight will make us si

ully hard to carry in snow-shoes, they'd hang down and flop about so. And I'm sorry about your poor litt

e," said

just won't-won't work, you know, I can't get it to snow-

aralyzed foot but was it any subject for such wild fits of mirth as he immediately went into? Was it right t

ctly horrid," cried Peggy sha

look back at your snow-shoe, please," a

screwed her cold face over her

ut of breath, with astonish

you please a plump puppy, his head cocked interestedly on one side, and his wide mouth open in an inqui

. "There he was, being a parasite, while I was supposed to d

, stooping and sweeping the quivering, frisking body into his arms. "And the rascal was going to take it easy as s

t that funny? There I was dying all by myself a m

hot and then you'll feel a lot better and I don't mind saying that I will too. Come on, I know the way

ding along by her side and cheering her with laughing remarks that ignored the wild storm about them, Peggy foun

to eat. Peggy was familiar with many of them, but she had never happened to come here before. So she knew that they must be a greater distance from the school than she had s

boys called out to Peggy's com

table by a roaring open fire. Then he took her sw

?" inquired Peggy. "It looks like

over visiting some of my friends to-day. Most of the fellows are having exams right now, you know, and there were two hours thi

ht over to a girls' s

going to do, too. I don't know a soul at Andrews-or didn't until I almost ran over you in the storm. B

. "Are you a carpenter and did

taunt brought

tion to this part of the country, where I used to go to school. The last time I was around here I came up for the game, early in the fall. And-well, you know how it is with glee club fel

ose-tree in its heavy jardinière down onto his head as if she were firing on him from a Zeppelin? So he was one of the young men she had nearly killed! What a mercy that he had not died, after all. With a crushing wave of memory, the whole moonlit scene

ng in pleasant interest.

in consternation

"I mean I didn't hear it," she rushed headlong into the fib in her distress. "I didn't and my rose-tree is still all

l envelope a tiny withered rose bud, quite browned and crumply. He held

the corners of her mouth crinkled up, and that flickering dimple ca

she reminded, "and I nev

ho dropped them to us, we could only see just the fluff of your light hai

ht the only thing I could do to atone would be to go and be a R

aughed until the boys at the other tabl

er attention to her so

chocolate, too, she glanced out a

said. "I suppose we'd better start. The

ir radiant cheer and that of the dancing flames in the fireplace, the outsid

r not that only,-it must be f

ow could it be? We won't

ti

lenty of time to dress for dinner at six. And the rule is partly to m

that it had worn when she first saw him out there in the whipping winds. This time it was not the wind that had sent that flame

ve now," he was ob

ll of self-accusation, and with an effort of w

to see another half-past five in all this world. I guess having one's life saved will be suffic

favor of punishment, not all the king's horses or all the king's men could change her mind. And, oddly enough, it was the small faults that she scored

ls were none of the vapid little Miss Foolishnesses sometimes sent away to school because their parents or guardians can't manage them at home. All her students were bright, eager, typical American girls like Peggy and Katherine and Florence, most of whom had a definite idea and plan for their lives after graduation, the majority

ing comfortably before the fire he held the door open for her. The storm blew in to meet them as they stood there, and with a shiver of determination they strapped on t

ious of the friendly stares of the passengers they congratulated e

heir consequences. On the wide porch Peggy turned to her friend and said, "You must go, now, and be introduced to Mrs. Forest at some other time. Th

ments of her meeting with the Forest were

airs to her room. As always happens at a time like that, the gay roar of voices in the dining-room died down as she came

lowing in a pink evening dress, Mrs. Fore

y of hot soup and chocolate, had gone back to her room amid the sympathetic glances of the dining-room full of gi

stigation into her conduct first. Mrs. Forest had a way of making the girls cry in a homesick fashion at these affairs and perhaps it is hardly doing her an injustice to say that sh

and brought her down, showing no further marks of perturba

mmanded Mrs. Forest as soon

satin slippers daintily. Mrs. Forest could not know how t

the rules are to be obeyed. Now I want to ask each one of you what you think the rules are for? D

hat she should even be questioned on such a subject whe

ow-" she sa

led disagreeably, "I will ask

contemplation of the carp

," she replied, with an entirely maddening smile of deprecation. Her dimple flashe

ot be taken to Annapolis in the spring when all the other girls are going!" M

oon I never expected to go to Annapolis an

her voice and leaned forward interestedly, excit

ariness that was in every limb showing forth in her voice, "I gave up expecting to come back.

es when I saw it coming up, but I didn't want to start a search party-and someway

ed to turn in a new direction. A man saved me and-got me some hot chocolate,

o great lenience. If you had thought more of getting home on time you wouldn

d she ever have been a girl on snow-shoes, and have known the cold that gleamed in the frosty air and the hunger that comes

unbent as to say at parting, "that you thought you were lost and had a fright, but discipline above

her room-mate's neck and danced her this way and that, in a

kins," she shouted. "Oh, listen, li

exhausted to sit up another minute. But she talked as she slipped on her kim

st, "who do you suppose he was? One of the people we t

hands together and screamed out: "The fortune teller, the fortune teller! She spoke of that-quick, Peggy, hurr

ession in her face. As Katherine finished she

know his nam