Polly's First Year at Boarding School Part 16

"Very well, if you will put them on my table, please." Then as she turned to leave the room the demon in the Spartan prompted her to add: "Have you nothing to say? You know it is customary when one has thrown books about, to-"

"Oh, an apology," interrupted Polly. "I suppose Mrs. Baird would wish it." And looking straight into Miss Hale's watery blue eyes, she said: "I apologize."

It was insolence, of course, but, after all, an entire afternoon of Latin demands some outlet.

As Polly reached the corridor, Lois and Betty met her.

"Poor darling, are you awfully tired?" Lois asked. "We did miss you so; the coasting was-" but Polly interrupted her.

"Lois, if you dare tell me what a good time you had I'll never speak to you again." Then as she saw her surprised look, she added, laughing: "Don't get worried, I'm just awfully cranky and my head is splitting."

"Better wash your face in cold water," suggested Betty, "and stop thinking of Latin. For instance, contemplate the joys of this evening in the arms of Miss Tilden-Brown and anatomy."

"What!" yelled Polly. "A lecture tonight. Oh, that's too much. I'm going to cut," she announced.

There was silence for a full minute. They had reached Polly's room by now. Then Lois said very solemnly:

"I've never cut before, but if you're determined to do it, I'll go with you."

"So will I," echoed Betty, springing up from the window seat. "I'd brave anything-lions, Caesar's ghost, or the whale that swallowed Jonah-rather than listen to that lecture. Besides, I couldn't desert you, Polly.

Where will we go?"

"Coasting, of course," Polly answered. "There's a gorgeous moon."

"We will be caught," remarked Lois, "but then we're all willing to face the consequences."

That evening at 8:15 when the girls were all seated in a.s.sembly Hall and Miss Tilden-Brown was expatiating on the evil results of tight lacing, three figures, standing on top of the hill, were silhouetted against the sky.

The moon was there, as Polly had predicted, making the snow sparkle with its blue-white rays. The silence was broken only by the crunch, crunch of the snow, as the three girls pulled their sleds into place.

"You go first, Polly," said Bet. "It's your party, and we'll follow close behind so the goblins won't get you."

"I'm off, then," and Polly threw herself flat on her sled.

It was great sport. The track was so icy that the runners made sparks as the sleds whizzed down the steep hill.

About nine o'clock Mrs. Baird stole from the a.s.sembly Hall and sought the rest of her own room. She had grown fearfully tired of Miss Tilden-Brown's endless talk, and heartily sorry for the girls.

As she reached her dainty chintz-hung sitting-room, she lifted the window and stood looking at the big full moon and breathing the cool night air. Presently a joyous laugh rang out, followed by another. Mrs.

Baird looked puzzled and leaned farther out of the window.

The laugh had been caused by Betty forgetting to steer and tumbling into a snow bank, thereby blocking the way for Polly and Lois, who were following close behind, so that they all landed in the drift.

"Somebody pull me out," sang Polly.

"Sorry, can't oblige," came Lois' m.u.f.fled tones. "I'm on my way to China."

"Betty to the rescue. Whose foot is this?"

"Ouch! Oh, let go!"

"That was a mix-up."

"Where are the sleds?"

After much scrambling they managed to regain the track.

"Lucky thing we were not all killed," Betty reflected.

"Serve us right for cutting," commented Lois.

"'Bout time to go in, isn't it?" Polly inquired regretfully.

"Yes, it's all over," replied Betty. "And now the consequences. Wonder what part of the anatomy Miss Tilden-Brown is discussing now?" And she chuckled gleefully.

Mrs. Baird smiled broadly and closed the window. A few minutes later she met the girls in the lower hall.

"Why, girls, where have you been?" she inquired.

"Out coasting, Mrs. Baird," Lois answered. "We cut the lecture," she added, nervously twisting the third finger of her red mitten.

"Perhaps you had better come into my office and tell me about it,"

suggested Mrs. Baird, and she led the way down the hall.

They were in the office just ten minutes, but in that time Mrs. Baird found out all she wanted to know. Polly's afternoon in the study hall, Betty's dislike for lectures, and Lois' love for adventure. She finished the interview with these words:

"I did not expect it of you girls in the past, and I am not going to expect it of you in the future. I look to you as holding the position of wholesome examples in the school. Your fault tonight was not very great, but it was a step in the wrong direction. Pull yourselves up, and now, good-night."

As the girls turned to go, she added with a smile:

"I promise you all, there will be no more lectures on anatomy."

They walked thoughtfully back to the corridor. As Betty opened her door she said:

"For two years I've been trying to find an adjective to describe Mrs.

Baird and the nearest I can come to one is 'saint,' and that doesn't suit her at all. Good-night."

"Good-night," answered Polly. "I suppose there will be no more cutting."

"No, I suppose not," agreed Lois, "but, cricky, I wouldn't have missed tonight."

They all laughed guiltily, and then as they heard the rest of the girls trooping out of a.s.sembly Hall, stole quietly into their rooms.

An hour later Miss Hale and Mrs. Baird were alone in the faculty room, finis.h.i.+ng a conversation.

"I can't understand," Mrs. Baird was saying, "why, when you bend a girl to the breaking point, you are surprised that she breaks. You know it is near Christmas and they are all tired."

"Our ideas of discipline are very different," Miss Hale returned stiffly.