might be very pretty were it not for a fretful and perhaps unhappy
expression. In fact she has been here two weeks and I have not seen her
smile once.”
“Poor thing!” Carol Lorens exclaimed. “Are you speaking of Katrina
Mason?”
“Yes, that is her name,” Adele replied, then turning to Gertrude she
added, “You tell what Madame Deriby wishes us to do.”
“Yesterday I was in the office making my weekly report,” the older girl
began, “when Madame Deriby said, ‘Gertrude, I am much troubled about our
new pupil Katrina. She has been brought up by a wealthy and idolizing
mother who has gratified her every wish. Realizing, perhaps too late,
that she was spoiling her daughter, that mother has sent her to us, but
unfortunately she is discontented and wishes to return to her home. You
girls from Sunnyside have such pleasant times, I wish you would confer
together and plan some way, if you can, to make Katrina happier.’”
“That will be a hard task,” Peggy Pierce said. “She is in one of my
classes and when Miss Sharpleigh tried to insist upon Katrina’s
reciting, she stamped her foot and replied angrily that she had never
been made to do anything against her will, and that she most certainly
would not recite unless she wanted to.”
“Poor little wild thing, she seems almost untamable,” Evelyn Dartmoor
said pityingly. “Adele, have you and Gertrude thought of a plan?”
“If the rest of you agree, I had thought it might be well to select one
of us to call upon Katrina in her room this morning and perhaps invite
her to join us this afternoon in some merry-making. Madame Deriby would
grant us permission to do whatever we would wish.”
“Oh-h! Don’t choose me!” Betty Burd begged. “I said good-morning real
pleasant-like to Katrina only yesterday and she tossed her head and
walked past in the rudest manner.”
“When I was a little girl,” Doris Drexel began, “we used to say a rhyme
and point at each child in the ring to see who would be it. That would
be a good way to select the one who is to call upon Katrina.”
“You repeat the rhyme then,” Gertrude suggested, and so Doris began,—
“Rosies, posies, violets so blue,
Somebody must be it
And that somebody is _you_.”
“Poor Carol is the victim!” Betty Burd said sympathetically.
The slender, pretty girl at whom Doris was pointing sprang up as she
exclaimed brightly, “I have nothing to do right this very minute and so
I will begin at once to try to tame little Katrina. Let us meet here at
the ten o’clock rest period and I will report results.”
“That will give me time to do my piano practice,” Doris declared as she
arose. The girls then went about their different tasks, each wondering
what the outcome of the visit would be.
On leaving the others Carol Lorens did not go at once to Katrina. She
first slipped into her own room, and finding no one there, she went to
her dresser and lifted a picture in a silver frame and gazed at it
tenderly. The sweet face of her mother looked out at her.
“Mummie,” she said softly, “how would you go about it if you had to tame
Katrina?”
“With loving kindness!” the thought flashed to Carol. Once her mother
had told her that those two words linked together were all the creed of
which one had need. Replacing the photograph, the girl went with a light
heart to the west wing and tapped on the door of the most luxurious room
in the school.
“Come in!” a fretful voice called in reply to her knock. The girl curled
on the window-seat was reading a book and she did not even glance up
when the door opened.
“Miss Mason, am I intruding?” Carol asked pleasantly as she entered the
room.
Katrina turned and looked surprised. “Oh!” she said, “I supposed it was
a maid. Be seated if you want to.”
Betty was right. The girl was deliberately rude, but Carol would not
leave until she had at least tried the power of loving kindness.
“Miss Mason,” she began, “perhaps you have heard that just before
Christmas we are to give a play, and I was wondering if you would like
to take part. I am on the committee for selecting the actors,” she added
with her friendliest smile.
Katrina tossed her head as she replied haughtily, “Well, I certainly do
not care for a servant’s part, and I am told that is the only one that
is not taken.”
Carol knew that this was true. “How would you like to be one of the
summer girls?” she asked. “That was to have been my part, but I will
gladly let you have it. In fact, I would rather enjoy being Norah. It’s
such fun trying to speak the Irish brogue.” Then, taking from her pocket
a folded paper, she handed it to the astonished girl as she said, “These
are the lines that you would have to speak. I copied them on a
typewriter and they will not be hard to learn. Rosamond, Doris, and
Betty are the other summer girls. I am sure you will like that part.”
“Thank you!” Katrina heard herself saying. She found it hard to be rude
to Carol. Then she added impulsively, “Miss Lorens, I have watched you
and your friends often. You seem to be so happy all together, but none
of the girls here like me. They think I am just horrid!” again the
fretful expression in the face, which, for a moment, had been truly
pretty.
“If you wish them to like you,” Carol began, “you might try loving
kindness.”
Katrina looked puzzled. “But how?” she asked curiously.
The visitor smiled. “Isn’t there something nice that you could do for
the girls? I am sure that if they knew that you wanted to be friends,
they would be willing to come more than half-way.”
After a thoughtful moment, Katrina looked up with a smile. “I might
share the box of goodies which Mother sent me for my Thanksgiving
treat,” she said. “Do you suppose they would like that?”
“Oh, that will be a splendid way,” Carol exclaimed joyously, “and now
let’s plan how you are to do it.”
* * * * *
At the ten o’clock rest period Carol skipped into Adele’s room where her
friends were all eagerly awaiting her.
“Well, did you tame Katrina?” Betty Burd inquired.
Carol’s face was shining. “I do believe that Katrina is as nice as she
can be underneath,” she said; then she added with a twinkle, which she
tried to hide, “at any rate she is tamed enough to wish us to call upon
her at five this afternoon. Now, girls, when we make this call, I want
you all to act as though you _really_ liked Katrina, and that will help
you to like her, I am sure.”
“We will do just as you say,” Doris Drexel replied in a doleful tone,
“but I am quite sure that we are going to be dreadfully bored.”
A happy surprise awaited the girls.
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
AN UNEXPECTED SPREAD
Carol, upon leaving Katrina’s room, went at once to the office and
Madame Deriby gladly granted the permission which was requested.
The matron was sorry indeed for the fretful, discontented girl, and she
believed that the wholesome, happy maidens from Sunnyside would be the
best companions that she could possibly have.
At the hour of five Carol again entered Apple-Blossom Alley and found
the others waiting for her to escort them to “Iceland,” as Peggy Pierce
called Katrina’s room.
“Now remember,” their leader warned, “every one is to be just as
charming as she knows how.”
“We’ll promise!” Doris Drexel declared. “Now, let the procession
proceed. If we must call upon a young tigress, let’s get it over as soon
as possible.”
Into the west wing they trooped and Carol tapped upon a closed door
which was thrown open at once. There stood a pretty girl who was
welcoming them in a manner truly gracious. Bettykins wanted to rub her
eyes to make sure that she was awake. This could not possibly be the
Katrina whom they had so disliked, but Adele understood. She realized
that Carol had also suggested to the hostess that she welcome her guests
as though she really liked them.
“Katrina,” Carol was saying, “permit me to introduce to you Adele
Doring, a maiden fair, whose name will one day be known from ocean to
ocean as a poetess of great renown. She can rhyme cat and rat without
the slightest effort, and this next maiden with the short golden curls
and the cheeks that a peach would envy, is Rosamond Wright, famous for
having made tatting of seven varieties. And these two whose arms are
linked are the Inseparables, by name Doris Drexel and Peggy Pierce. It
doesn’t matter which is which, for each comes when the other is called,
and this tall young lady with a solemn air and spectacles is our
mathematician, Bertha Angel, and this youngster with the brown braids
and a dimple is our youngest, known either as ‘Little One’ or Betty
Burd. Gertrude Willis couldn’t come, because she has taken the baby
class to the woods, and Evelyn Dartmoor has gone to Buffalo to spend the
weekend with her grandfather. Otherwise, we of the Sunnyside Club are
all present.”
“Oh, Carol!” Adele laughed, “did you say all that in one breath? I am
sure we feel very much honored, but, Katrina, don’t you believe a word
that she says about us.”
“I won’t!” Katrina smilingly replied. “I’ll find out for myself. Now be
seated anywhere. I think that there are chairs enough and five of you
can sit on the window-seat.”
Rosamond dropped into the easiest chair and the others curled up here
and there while Carol announced, “Girls, I have brought all of the parts
for the play, and I thought it would be fun to read them over to just
get an idea when our turns come in.”
The play was an amusing one and this informal rehearsal caused much
merriment and laughter, and, before any one realized that an hour had
passed, the get-ready-for-supper bell was ringing in the corridor.
Bertha stood up. “We ought to go now,” she announced, but Carol said
mysteriously, “No, not yet. Just sit ever so still and see what is going
to happen.”
The visitors looked surprised but did as they were told. Some of them
had noticed that one corner of the room was screened in a manner which
suggested that something was being hidden, but they had thought little
of it until Katrina and Carol removed the screens and revealed a table
laden with good things to eat.
“Ohee!” squealed the irrepressible Betty Burd. “Girls, aren’t you glad
that you were invited?”
“Suppose you all sit on the floor now in a circle,” Carol suggested,
“and then Katrina and I will pass the feast.”
Katrina, who had always had a maid to wait upon her, actually enjoyed
the novel experience of serving her guests.
Suddenly she thought of something. “Oh, Adele,” she exclaimed, “don’t
you suppose that your friend Gertrude Willis would be free and could
join us now?”
Adele, who had been wishing that Gertrude was with them, sprang up as
she said, “I am sure Trudie would love to come. I will go and find her.”
Gertrude, who had heard nothing about the taming of Katrina, was in the
south wing wondering where all the girls could be, and she gladly
accompanied Adele back to the party, where she was graciously received
by the beaming hostess.
On the floor they all sat in a big circle, and to each was given a plate
heaped with cold turkey and cranberry jelly. Potato chips, olives,
candy, frosted cookies, a huge chocolate-cake, and grape-juice completed
the feast.
Rosamond Wright was just about to begin on an olive when she surprised
them all by exclaiming, “Katrina, I just can’t eat a bite of your party
until I tell you that I am sorry that I haven’t been nicer to you.”
And Katrina replied simply, “Rosamond, I was just thinking that the
fault must have been mine. You see when I was little, I was a spoiled
child, and I never smiled except when things happened to please me. It
seems easy enough to be cheerful to-day, while you all are here, but
to-morrow I may forget.”
Carol laid a loving hand on the girl’s arm as she said, “We want you to
be with us often, Katrina, and you will be, because we are to have
rehearsals for the play every day now at the four-thirty recreation.”
And so was completed the taming of Katrina.
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
A THANKSGIVING DINNER PARTY
“Where are you, girls?” Adele called one crisp November day as she
whirled down Apple-Blossom Alley and entered the corner room where many
of her particular friends were assembled. They looked up eagerly at her
entrance, and Betty, noting that her hands were behind her, exclaimed in
little-girl fashion, “Oh, Della, what are you hiding? If it’s candy, I
choose the right.”
“It’s better than candy,” Adele declared. “Do you all give up?”
“It’s a letter!” Peggy Pierce said mischievously.
“Oh, Peg, that isn’t fair! You peeked!” Adele protested, then bringing
the missive around front, she added, “It was really sent to Gertrude,
but she is busy with the baby class, so she asked me to read it to you.
In a thousand years you couldn’t guess whom it is from or what is in it.
Gertrude is delighted about it, and so am I.”
“Della, you are so provoking! Please don’t keep us ‘suspended’ this way,
as Bob says,” Rosamond pleaded. “Nothing exciting has happened in ever
so long, not since we tamed Katrina.”
“That was only last Saturday, and this is Wednesday,” Adele replied
merrily. “I’ll give you a tiny hint. It’s an invitation from a
neighbor.”
“Oho, I know then,” Doris Drexel sang out, “for the only neighbor with
whom we are any of us acquainted are those nice Ellsworths about whom
you and Gertrude were telling us.”
“Right you are, Dory dear! Now, lend me your ear and you shall hear!”
Adele chanted as she sat on the rug tailor-wise and unfolded the
pale-blue sheet of note-paper.
“My dear Miss Gertrude and Miss Adele:”
she read—
“Ever since you were here, I have been wondering how I can
thank you both for the great happiness that you have brought
into my life. Words are inadequate to express my gladness,
and I want you to come over and see for yourself how joyous
is the little girl whose welfare you had so much at heart.
If Madame Deriby is willing, I would like you to dine with
us on Thanksgiving Day.”
“Oh-h!” moaned Betty Burd, “I thought it was going to be an invitation
for all of us.”
“So it is!” Adele said brightly. “I haven’t finished reading.” Then she
continued:
“Our table will accommodate twenty, and, as there will only
be six of us, will you kindly extend my invitation to your
friends from Sunnyside?
“If Madame Deriby consents, we should be pleased to have you
come at two and spend the afternoon on Thursday.
“Your most grateful friend,
“Louise Ellsworth.”
“Oh, what glorious fun that will be!” Peggy Pierce exclaimed. “It will
give us a chance to wear our pretty party dresses. Mine is blue and
brand new and I am wild to appear in it.”
The other girls were equally glad, but they had no time to express their
pleasure, for at that moment a gong was calling them to their classes.
* * * * *
Madame Deriby’s permission was readily obtained, and Betty Burd declared
that she just knew that she wouldn’t sleep a wink, but the next morning
Adele had to throw a pillow to awaken the little maiden.
“Betty!” she called. “You can’t guess what’s going to happen to-day!”
Their youngest rubbed her eyes, and then, leaping out of bed, she
pirouetted about gleefully while the older girls begged her to watch out
for pins.
Thanksgiving Day had dawned golden and bright, and the girls were so
excited that the morning hours seemed to drag, but at last the noon
repast was over and they flocked to Apple-Blossom Alley to deck
themselves in their prettiest finery.
At one o’clock many of them, with completed toilets, were in the corner
room admiring one another and bubbling over with joyous anticipation,
when there came a knock at the door.
“Peg, please open it!” Adele was busily fastening Betty’s hardest hooks.
It was Marie, the maid, carrying a long, large box. “For Miss Gertrude,”
she said with a smile.
“Oh, Trudie, who do you suppose has been sending you flowers?” exclaimed
Rosamond, the romantic.
“I can’t guess, but we will soon know,” the other said brightly as she
snipped the yellow cord.
“Oh! Oh! What pretty, curly chrysanthemums!” Doris Drexel cried. “Here’s
a little envelope, Trudie,” she added, lifting it from the blossoms and
handing it to the older girl.
“They are from Arthur Ellsworth for all of us!” Gertrude said. “How nice
it was of him to send them. You know, one always wears a chrysanthemum
on Thanksgiving Day.”
“There’s something on the back of the card, Trudie, and you didn’t read
it.”
“Suppose you read it then, Bettykins.” Gertrude was separating the
flowers and giving one to each maiden, so Betty read:
“_At the hour of three
A surprise there will be!_”
“How exciting!” Peggy Pierce exclaimed as she whirled about gleefully.
“Here comes Patrick up the drive. Get on your hats and cloaks,
everybody,” Adele announced. “It’s time to go!”
* * * * *
Little Alise was eagerly watching out of the wide front window in the
library, and, when she saw the school bus turn in at the drive, she
exclaimed joyously:
“Oh, Auntie Louise, here comes big sister Gertrude. Let’s you and I open
the door.”
Miss Ellsworth, whose new happiness was shining in her face, nodded a
dismissal to the maid who had come to answer the call of the knocker,
and she and Alise greeted the merry girls.
Then the laughing, chattering child, holding fast to Gertrude’s hand,
led them up the curving stairway to a beautiful upper room, where they
were to lay aside their wraps.
Then down they trooped, looking, so thought the lady who stood waiting
in the hall below, like a flock of daintily colored butterflies.
There was a big log cheerily burning on the wide hearth, around which
comfortable chairs had been drawn. Miss Ellsworth bade them be seated
and for a time they talked together, little Alise, with her excited
happy chatter, preventing the occasion from being a formal one.
Rosamond, remembering what had been written on the back of the card
among the flowers, looked often at the clock, and, when it was five
minutes to three, she glanced meaningly at the girls nearest her, and
indeed they were all wondering what the surprise was to be. Just as the
bells in a beautiful marble clock were chiming the hour, a door at one
side of the fireplace opened, and Arthur Ellsworth entered. He was
followed by three other young men who were rather peculiar-looking, as
each had long, dark hair and a heavy, drooping mustache. Arthur
introduced the newcomers, but their names were so difficult to pronounce
that the girls decided that these friends of their host must all be
Russians.
Miss Ellsworth took this occasion to slip away to attend to some matter
pertaining to the dinner and Alise went with her.
Arthur then asked the girls if they would like to see the gallery which
adjoined the library. Rosamond found herself walking by the side of one
of the supposed Russians, who seemed to be strangely silent. Believing
that he must be very shy, Rose said, “Mr. Mellowisky, your name is such
a long one that I am not sure that I have it right.” Then, not knowing
what else to say, she inquired, “Is this your first visit to Linden?”
“Yes, Mademoiselle, it is!” was the reply. The girl was puzzled. Surely
she had heard that voice before. She turned and looked intently at her
companion and saw a pair of blue eyes twinkling with mischievous
laughter.
“Bob Angel!” she cried. “If you had not spoken, I never should have
recognized you, but you couldn’t disguise a voice that I have heard ever
since I was knee-high to a grasshopper.”
How Bob laughed as he pulled off the wig and mustache. Adele, whirling
about, clapped her hands merrily. “Oh, Rosie!” she exclaimed, “I
recognized Jack the very first minute.”
“And I did Bob,” Bertha confessed, “but I didn’t want to spoil the fun
till Rosie found him out.”
“Am I the only one to go unrecognized just because I haven’t a sister?”
the third young man asked dolefully.
“Oh, you are Donald Burnley!” Betty Burd exclaimed joyously. “Isn’t this
the best surprise that there ever could be?”
The ringing of musically toned Chinese gongs was calling them to the
dining-room, and it was not until they were seated that the mystery was
explained.
“I don’t see how you happen to know our brothers, Mr. Ellsworth,” Adele
said, turning at once to Arthur.
“I went to school with them in Dorchester,” that lad replied. “When you
told me that you were from Sunnyside, I afterwards, in thinking of it,
wondered if you were related to Jack Doring, and I wrote him to inquire.
When I found that he and Bob both had sisters at Linden Hall, I decided,
with Aunt Louise’s permission, to invite them to our Thanksgiving party.
Donald, being my particular pal, I also included, although you are none
of you especially interested in him.”
Peggy and Betty exchanged quick, twinkling glances, and Adele hurriedly
led the conversation in a safer direction, not knowing what those
mischievous maidens might say.
After dinner the young people sang and danced until twilight brought
Patrick and the bus. The girls thanked Miss Ellsworth for the delightful
afternoon and each received a loving hug from little Alise.
The boys accompanied the guests back to the school, as Adele and Bertha
were eager to introduce their nice brothers to Madame Deriby.
The matron was pleased with all four of the manly boys and invited them
to visit the school whenever they wished.
Then, as they were to return on the evening train to Buffalo, Arthur
drove them to the station in his car and the girls waved until they had
disappeared.
“Well, that certainly was a happy surprise!” Adele declared when half an
hour later the girls in their gaily colored kimonos were gathered in her
room and sat around the fire to talk over the party.
“Do you know,” Betty Burd suddenly exclaimed, “I think Arthur Ellsworth
is the nicest boy, and I really believe that he particularly likes our
beloved Gertrude.”
“Bettykins, what an imagination you have!” the young teacher said, and
then there was a chorus of merry good-nights, for the lights-out gong
was sounding in the corridor.
CHAPTER NINETEEN
JUST SKIPPING ALONG
When Thanksgiving was over, the girls from Sunnyside devoted many hours
to earnest study preparing for the mid-year examinations that were to be
held in December, but also there were frequent times of merry-making.
During the last week in November the snow came, and Bettykins, who had
never outgrown her childish joy in it, gave a shout of delight when she
awakened one Saturday and found the ground, trees and fences a sparkling
white.
An hour later the older girls, standing in the library windows, laughed
to see their youngest member taking an active part in a lively game of
snowballing with the small primary pupils.
Then, one day there came another invitation from their kind neighbors,
the Ellsworths, and this time every girl at Linden Hall was invited. It
was an old-fashioned sleigh-ride party and Farmer O’Rourke appeared with
his lumber-wagon on runners. In the bottom there was a soft, cushiony
depth of clean straw.
Arthur Ellsworth followed with another roomy sleigh in which, smiling
and bowing to the waiting girls, sat Miss Ellsworth and little Alise.
Such a merry ride they had up-hill and down, tooting upon horns that
Arthur had provided, and ending at the mansion-like home of Elmhurst.
There in the spacious library, a huge log snapped and sparkled on the
wide hearth, and the forty-eight girls, slipping off their warm wraps,
sat on the chairs, floor, everywhere, and were helped by Arthur and a
maid to steaming chocolate and delicious sandwiches.
Little Alise, hopping among them like a fairy, announced that this was
her very own party, and Miss Ellsworth, smiling at the little girl whom
she so loved, agreed. “Yes, this is Alise’s birthday, and when I asked
whom she would like to invite to a party, she replied that she wanted
all of the nice girls at Linden Hall.”
A week after this jolly affair, rehearsals on the play were begun in
real earnest, and Katrina, who now laughed as often as the others, made
a very graceful and pretty summer girl, but, when at last the evening
arrived, it was Carol’s truly amusing impersonation of an Irish maid
that sent the delighted audience into gale after gale of laughter. When
it was all over, she was presented with a huge bouquet of pink
carnations tied with wide green ribbons.
“Well, it’s certainly a good thing that I was too snobbish to take that
part,” Katrina exclaimed when every one had surged up and congratulated
the beaming maid. “The play wouldn’t have been a success at all without
you as Norah.”
Carol gave this little maiden a friendly hug and then darted away to
take off the wig and paint.