GRESHAM.
Gresham at last after a very pleasant trip! We had picked up blue-coated
girls all along the road, and by the time we reached the little town on
the outskirts of which our school was situated, the train seemed to be
running over with girls.
"There must be a million of them," I thought; but as Gresham could only
accommodate one hundred and twenty-five, I was wrong. Some of them had
mothers or fathers with them, and some of them big brothers or sisters.
Most of them had some one; at least, most of the new girls.
The old pupils hugged and kissed one another and all seemed to be glad
to get back to school. The new girls looked sad and miserable, even the
ones who had their mothers with them. And a few lonesome ones who had
brought themselves, like "Orphan Annie" (there, I slipped again and
called Annie Pore by that obnoxious name!) or me, looked like scared
rabbits. I wasn't scared a bit, and when I saw the old girls hugging and
loving one another, flaunting their intimacies, as it were, I said:
"Don't you mind, Page Allison. You are going to know all of those girls
and like a lot of them, and a lot of them are going to like you; and
they are just a few of the million friends you are going to make."
In the crowded confusion at the little station, I was separated from the
Tuckers and noticed that poor Annie was put in a bus filled with
Seniors, who looked at her rather askance. Her ungainly telescope was
piled up with the natty suitcases by the driver's seat, and I saw him
point at it and wink at the driver of the bus where I had found a seat.
The girls in the bus with me were very kind and friendly. There were
several mothers along and they looked at me cordially, and in a few
minutes I knew the names of all the passengers and they knew mine. By
the time the straining horses had pulled the heavy bus through the
crooked streets of the quaint little town, up and down the many hills
and finally up the last long hill to Gresham School, the whole load of
girls and mothers had been jolted into an enforced intimacy.
Bracken, my home, was situated in what persons from the mountains call a
flat country but which we call rolling, as it is when compared to the
tidewater counties. So the hills of Gresham seemed wonderfully steep to
me, and as we pulled to the top and stopped in front of the school, and
I realized we could actually see the mountains, I gave voice to a
long-drawn "O--h!" of delight.
We piled out of the bus, and for a moment I stood looking at the
wonderful view before I even noticed the school building.
"I am so glad you like it," said a soft voice at my side. It belonged to
a quiet-looking girl who had come up with us. She looked a little older
than the rest of the girls and certainly was much more dignified. "I
find if a new pupil notices the mountains first, she is pretty apt not
to kick because they have dessert only twice a week. One can't have
everything in this world, and a mountain view is more filling in the big
end than dessert."
"It is splendid! You have been here a long time?" I asked.
"Yes, many years; and now I am a pupil teacher. This place seems more
like home than any other in the world to me," and she took me by the
arm. "Come on with me, Page. I am going to call you Page and I do wish
you could call me Margaret, but now that I am a near teacher I have to
be called Miss Sayre. I am going to introduce you to Miss Peyton, the
principal."
"Oh, you are kind to me and I am so much obliged!"
"Give the bus driver your trunk check and in his good time he will
deliver your trunk. Come on, so you can get into the office before the
rush of Seniors."
Just then the vehicle with Annie Pore in it, looking too forlorn for
words, came rattling up. Her hat was knocked over one eye and she had
lost all of the cheerfulness that she had gained on the train with the
delightful Tuckers. No one had paid any attention to her on the ride,
except to look her up and down and make whispered jokes at her expense.
I have found out that girls can be the most cruel creatures in the
world, just from pure thoughtlessness and lack of imagination. They
don't know how to "Put yourself in his place." They don't mean to hurt,
but they do hurt all the same. I found during the ensuing year that that
same busload of Seniors included many a fine character, but not one of
them seemed to have imagination enough to know what Annie Pore was
suffering.
"Miss Sayre," I said impulsively, "please take this girl with you. I met
her on the train and she seems so forlorn."
"We'll miss our chance to reach Miss Peyton ahead of the others, unless
we hurry," she said, looking a little impatient at my request.
"I'm sorry. I think I ought to wait for her, but don't let me detain
you," and I went forward to meet poor Annie.
Of course, Miss Sayre came, too. "I might have known that a girl who
noticed the mountains first thing would have character enough to do
what she thought was right," she whispered as she followed me.
"This is Annie Pore, Miss Sayre," I said, as I helped the cramped girl
out of her uncomfortably small quarters. Miss Sayre shook her hand
cordially and I hoped Annie did not hear the titter as one of the
Seniors nudged another and said in an audible whisper: "Annie Pore, poor
Orphan Annie." I hated myself for having had the same thought.
"Where is your trunk check, Annie? Give it to the bus driver," said Miss
Sayre, kindly.
"I haven't a trunk," said Annie faintly, "just a telescope."
"By their luggage ye shall know them," said a stylish girl who was
clambering out of the vehicle. She spoke in a rasping tone with a nasal
touch.
Annie Pore made a ten strike right then and there with me and with all
of the girls who heard what she said, and those girls who did not hear
it soon heard about it. She drew herself up, no longer timid but with
what Dum Tucker afterwards called "Annie's stage presence," and in her
singularly clear, full voice, that voice that we were all to be so proud
of, said:
"Not by their luggage ye shall know them, but by their voices." And with
a dignity that a sagging skirt and crooked-seamed jacket could not
lessen, Annie Pore walked to the front of the carry-all and demanded
from the grinning driver her bursting telescope.
A shout went up from the Seniors. "Annie, Annie, 'rah, 'rah, 'rah!"
"So, Mabel Binks, she got your goat that time," laughed a
bright-looking, auburn-haired Senior.
"I don't know what you mean, Sally Coles. Orphan Annie's remark seemed
to me to be without point," and Mabel Binks haughtily demanded a very
swell new alligator bag from the front seat.
"Well, if you don't know that your voice needs greasing, it is not for
me to break it to you, Mabel." Mabel flounced off, and all her stylish
clothes, beautifully-hanging skirt, well-cut jacket, and jaunty velvet
sailor hat, did not give dignity to her.
Pandemonium reigned as we entered the spacious hall of the main
building. Girls, girls, girls! Little and big; fat and thin; pretty and
plain; laughing and crying; alone and attended, they swarmed over
everything.
"We have lost our chance to get first at the principal, but I wouldn't
have missed seeing Annie Pore take down that common, purse-proud Mabel
Binks for a million, as poor as I am," whispered Miss Sayre. "You girls
sit here and wait for me, and as soon as there is an opening we'll slip
in."
"Oh, how could I ever have made up my mind to leave my Father and come
here?" wailed Annie, crumpling up into an ignominious heap, all her
dignity gone.
"Now look here, Annie Pore," I scolded, "anyone who could jaw back at a
Senior as you did just a moment ago has got backbone, and you have just
got to get a brace on you and cheer up."
"Oh, but you are different. You make friends so readily. I am so easily
embarrassed," and the poor thing wept anew.
"I don't make friends a bit more easily than you do. I just want to make
them, that's the difference. Haven't you made friends with me?"
"Oh, have I really?"
"Of course you have. Would I be ragging you this way if I didn't
consider myself your friend? Haven't you made friends with all three of
the Tuckers, and now with Miss Sayre?"
Annie was somewhat consoled and tried to take a more cheerful view of
life. We had completely lost sight of our traveling companions. They had
evidently been admitted among the first to the principal's office. All
of the girls who were accompanied by their parents or guardians were
given preference in having their rooms assigned them, so that their
loved ones could see where the daughters were to be placed and then take
their departure on the outgoing trains.
We were so hidden by the swarming girls, we despaired of ever being
found again by Miss Sayre; but I persuaded Annie that we would certainly
be placed by bedtime as both of us had been registered during the
summer; and in the meantime, it was rather fun to watch the girls and
try to guess where they came from and if any of them were to be in our
classes.
Mabel Binks backed up against us, talking to an overdressed girl of
about nineteen. Both were dressed in the latest style. I knew what those
styles were from the fashion books that Cousin Sue Lee had bought when
we were planning my modest wardrobe.
"I am thankful to say this is my last year at Gresham," said Mabel. "The
place has lost tone so. We came up in the bus with a most
remarkable-looking person. I am sure Mamma would not permit me to remain
if she knew Miss Peyton was allowing such ordinary girls to come here."
Annie Pore's face was crimson and she looked ready to burst into tears,
but the overdressed girl, whose name, I afterwards learned, was
Josephine Barr, and who was a thoroughly kindly person, remarked:
"Oh, yes, I heard about that girl. Sally Coles tells me she is
wonderfully pretty and quite a lady, also that she got a yell from the
Seniors for her quickness in responding to a sally from you."
I pinched Annie's arm and whispered: "What did I tell you? Two more new
friends, Sally Coles and this big girl who has just punctured Mabel
Binks' conceit."
"Come along, girls," and Miss Sayre pushed her way to our retreat. "I
think we can get into the office now. How do you do, Josephine? I am
glad to see you back," and she shook the big girl's hand cordially. "I
want to introduce you to two new girls and ask you to see that they meet
the crowd."
"All right, Margaret, what you say goes. I was a freshy myself once and
know how it feels." She gave us a cordial grip and assured us we must
call on her if we needed anything, friendly counsel or protection or
even soothing syrup.
"Jo is a fine old girl," said Miss Sayre, as she hooked one arm in mine
and the other in Annie Pore's and drew us into the office. (I noticed
that she had completely ignored Mabel Binks.) "She would fight to the
finish for her friends. Her clothes are impossible, but we mustn't judge
the poor thing by her clothes. They've got so much money, they don't
know what to do with it. I'm real sorry for her."
It seemed a queer cause for pity to Annie and me, but Miss Sayre was
introducing us to Miss Peyton and we could not ask her why riches were
to be pitied. I liked Miss Peyton from the minute I saw her and I
believe she liked me. Her countenance was a noble one, her manner frank,
and her voice sounded like music.
"I am going to put you into the room with some sisters, Page. I hope you
will get along well together. If everything is not pleasant, come
directly to me. You are No. 117 in Carter Hall. I will see all the girls
to-morrow and classify them. Miss Sayre, will you please get someone to
show Page her room? Now I will talk to Annie Pore and assign her her
roommate." And Miss Peyton went on quietly with what might have been a
confusing task, but which she managed as calmly as a Napoleon marshaling
his troops.
I found my way to 117 Carter Hall with the help of an old girl. I was
naturally quite interested to know what the sisters were to be like who
were to be my roommates for the year. The door to 117 was open and I
heard sobbing.