Polly's First Year at Boarding School

. It had been an exciting week for everybody getti

welcome dance to the new girls. All week there had been whisperings a

olding out her arms in welcome to a shy little lass with her finger in her mouth.

NCE TO THE

8 P. M., IN

her ears-she hadn't grown accustomed to the risi

ed on either side with doors leading into tiled bathrooms with sunken porcelain tubs. They had been built only two years, and

eps at a jump, she ran bang i

to you that you should want to see my poor nose any flatter

olly. "I was in such a hurry to get a tub. Some one a

But you're all right this morning," and Betty pointed to the

ddled up on the bottom step, while th

going with toni

who has asked me?

h new girl would receive a written invitation from one of t

was there and I heard you bid for; also I was with her whe

ll me, please,

e next year than you do now-I will tell you that we will have pancakes for breakfast-or that tomorrow's s

e caught the warning gurgle that water gives i

girls dashed for their tubs, and in a minute there cam

t, both a little out of breath, and true

girls were free for the rest of the day. Polly could hardly wait to get to h

schoolroom Miss Hale held

you and Angela and Elizabeth" (she meant Betty, of

into a murmur as she s

iss Hale, but she adored Latin. As for Polly-well, you can fancy how furious she was. There was that note in her desk and Mi

our bell had rung. Polly, followed by Angela and Betty, started for Study Hall. At t

s morning, Polly?" asked Dot

d Grace Wright, a long lanky new girl who always agreed wit

he basket-ball practice in the gym," Betty in

epped up and put a

n," she said, "but I knew you were crazy to get this, and th

you ever so much." And opening

r Po

save me numbers one, three, five, and the l

mad

oi

ith Connie or Angela or Betty; she knew them all, perhaps, better than Lois, but then it was easy to know them. It was

iven Lois time to make her bed, fix her room, and go to the gym. She had left

hed the corridor,

for Lois, she's in the gym

started for their

bout your beds

etty threw her ar

ck," agreed Polly.

nd her door for safety. "She only did it so she woul

wretch," C

minutes all four girls were racing for the gym, a low,

as they had expected, but in sweater

e Spartan?" (A nickname for Miss Hale.) "Did yo

ly tickled to go with you. Yo

ice was ve

Florence Guile and Louise Preston asked me to get some branches for them. They are decorating Assembly H

o was dramaticall

expect to make the big team you want to tr

ou have the most discouraging habit of telling the tru

ough one of the French windows

lmost knee-deep and the crisp wind in their faces, did more to establish the

the New England town, of the quaint old house, and l

, her mother-no one was quite as adorably precious and young as Lois' mot

up in a city, and as he has to live in Albany in th

d," Polly replied, giving

have been, but for these confidences. Still what do greens matter

a parting gift from Uncle Roddy, exclaimed: "Lois, it's after twel

me to scrub their hands and joi

iors get the Assembly Hall ready for the dance, and before going to their room

nd it seemed hard for her to realize that she h

. Ethel Brown and Marjorie Dean almost upset things at the beginning of the fifth dance by getting out handkerchief

form, were just starting their fifth dance whe

groaned as she dropped her

y lo

I suppose that means

o Marjorie, and as they danced, they listened patiently to a tale o

od-night bell" rang at ten o'clock, just in the middle of the Virginia reel, but Mrs. Baird, who was on the platform, beckoned to one of th

e leaving the room, M

. I want to tell you that I saw and appreciated your kindness tonight. I am proud of it in you as an old girl," she

to find that same s

good-night a few minute

she won

smiling. "I wondered how long it