NEXT TERM.
The number of boarding scholars at Coventry school was limited to
twenty, and it was necessary to make an application a year or two in
advance, and girls had been known to wait three years for a vacancy,
for the school was so popular among those who knew of it that people
were willing to wait.
The list of applicants was kept in a book in the library, and, being
allowed to look in it, the girls became familiar with the names of
expected pupils long before they saw them, and when a girl arrived she
hardly seemed like a stranger.
Five new scholars were entered at the end of the long summer vacation,
and, strange to say, only four of the names were registered in the
applicants’ book.
“It seems like putting a fifth wheel to a coach,” said Lily Dart, as
she and half a dozen other boarders held a “pow-wow” before unpacking
their trunks.
“Yes,” said Delia Howland, “there were only four vacancies, and where
is this fifth wheel to sit in the dining-room, and where is she to
sleep at night, and who’s to do the ‘mothering?’”
“Mothering” was a localism which needs some explanation. It was the
custom when a new girl entered school to hand her over to a boarding
scholar in her last year, who was expected to introduce the novice
into the ways of the establishment and befriend her in every possible
way. It was a plan that had always worked admirably, and Mrs. Abbott
had seen many strong and lasting friendships begin in this way. To
be strictly impartial the girls selected the new scholars they would
“protect” when their names were announced at the close of school, so
when it opened again and the new scholars came each girl knew which one
she was to “mother” without ever having seen her.
“There’s a great deal in a name,” said Delia Howland, contentedly. “I
feel sure my girl will be nice; no one called Sylvia Montgomery could
be any thing but charming. It has such a high-born sound.”
“I don’t take much stock in names,” said Lily. “The most
aristocratic-looking person I ever saw was named Boggs, and we had a
colored butler once called Montgomery de Vere.”
“I wonder what the fifth wheel’s name is?” said Kate.
“I know,” said Louie Fields--“Mary Ann Stubbs!”
“Not really?” This was said by three girls at once with great emphasis.
“Yes, truly. Mrs. Abbott said so.”
“Then I know she is common as dirt,” said Delia, solemnly.
Lily groaned.
“Ah, girls, I am a-weary, a-weary, I would that I were wed; for I saw
my fate in Mrs. Abbott’s eyes. As sure as you’re alive I shall be made
to ‘mother’ Miss Stubbs!
“O, sweet Mary Ann,
I’m under the ban;
Fate links us together
And we shall part never
Till life at school ends!”
The girls always laughed at Lily’s ready versification whether it was
funny or not, so the approval she had learned to expect came now.
“Don’t cross a bridge till you come to it,” said Delia.
“O, you dear, original creature, I have come to it, I know it by the
pricking of my thumbs. and I feel it in my bones, and existence isn’t
going to be worth having!”
“Here’s my bottle of toothache-drops, with a caution on the label not
to swallow any, because it’s poison. I guess I can spare one fatal dose
for you and have enough left to last till term ends.”
“Thanks, Katie, but I prefer to end my days by opening a vein; besides,
your toothache-drops smell of cloves, and I hate cloves. I’m very
fastidious, and prefer to ‘die of a rose in aromatic pain.’ I don’t
quite know what that means, but it sounds better than cloves.”
“Well, go on living till you see Miss Stubbs; she may be such a queen
of love and beauty that even that name can’t spoil her.”
The door opened then, admitting Mrs. Abbott and little Ethel, who
shrank away as the girls made a dash at her.
“Her shyness will not last when she has had time to make acquaintance
with you all,” said Mrs. Abbott, sitting down in the rocking-chair Lily
placed for her and taking Ethel upon her lap.
“Will she be in school?” asked Kate.
“Only a little while each day. She is too young for lessons, but I want
her to be among you as much as possible, for she has always lived with
grown people, and the contact with young life will be very healthful
and delightful for her.”
“I wish we might have her all the time!” exclaimed Lily. “O, do, Mrs.
Abbott, let us take turns taking care of the darling! Say, baby, wont
you be Lily’s little sister for a week, and be with her all the time
and sleep in her bed?”
“I am every body’s little sister, grandpa says,” said Ethel, holding
up her chin with a sort of baby dignity that made her very bewitching;
“but I’d rather sleep with Mammy Candace.”
“And I am afraid that playing nurse would interfere seriously with
lessons and rules,” said Mrs. Abbott. “But I am glad to have you fond
of Ethel. She has grown very dear to me through this long vacation,
while we have been off in the Catskills and at the sea-side seeking for
health and strength for us both.”
“Ethel looks better for the change,” said Delia.
“She is much better,” said Mrs. Abbott; “I saw the color come to her
cheeks before we had been in the hills a week. I wish Mr. Bellamy
could see how plump and rosy she has grown.”
Candace, who was never far from her charge, put her head in at the door
with Ethel’s broad hat in her hand, and the child sprang to her and
started for a walk. Lily would have proposed going too, but Mrs. Abbott
detained her.
“I came in to speak particularly to you,” she said. “Since I mentioned
at school closing that four new scholars were expected this term I
have arranged to take a fifth. She has just arrived and is in my room
now. According to the usual custom I have selected one of the oldest
scholars to be her friend and initiate her kindly into the ways of
the school and help her over some of the difficulties, which you
will all remember, from your own experiences, seem rather formidable
to a stranger. I expect you, Lily, to be the friend in need in this
instance, and if you are ready I will take you directly to my room and
introduce you to Miss Stubbs.”
Lily turned to give the girls one look of comical despair as she
followed Mrs. Abbott to her own sitting-room, where the only occupant
was a girl of fourteen, sitting stiffly upon an ottoman. Her hair,
which was certainly thick and long, was all drawn away from her round
red face and put up in a big braided knot at the back. She had
pleasant dark eyes and teeth which showed white as pearls as she parted
her lips in a smile as Mrs. Abbott came in. But her hands! they were
awful, thought Lily, taking the stranger in with a quick glance--big
red, rough things, with neither ruffle nor cuff to soften them as they
lay clasped tightly together upon a coarse, stiffly starched white
apron which enhanced their redness. Hardly more attractive than the
hands were the awkwardly crossed feet, made more clumsy by common,
thick, new shoes. Lily had never, except on bargain-counters in the
door-way of cheap stores, seen any material like the red, purple, and
green plaid of which Miss Stubbs’s dress was made.
“Girls, I shall write to my father to take me out of school!” exclaimed
Lily, impetuously, as she rushed back to the room where the girls she
had left were still sitting. “I will not stay to be so insulted!”
“Your insult did not last long,” said Katie, who was well accustomed to
Lily’s extravagant manner of speech. “It’s only five minutes since you
went off. We didn’t expect you back for an hour.”
“I couldn’t stay,” said Lily, gloomily; “but I suppose I must go right
back. I asked Mrs. Abbott to excuse me while I ran for a handkerchief.
I knew I had one in my pocket all the time, but I just had to come
out and give vent to my indignation! Girls, Mary Ann Stubbs is just a
little servant-girl! I know it by her looks and her words too. Why,
what do you think she said when I mumbled out something about hoping
she’d be very happy here? I wouldn’t have said one word to her after
looking at her hands, but Mrs. Abbott’s eye was on me, and I had to
make some kind of conversation.”
“Well, what did the girl say after you had done the polite?”
“‘Thank you, ma’am.’”
“O, how funny to call you ‘ma’am!’ Then what did you say?”
“I said, ‘Have you ever been at boarding-school before?’
“‘No, ma’am.’
“‘Should you like me to tell you some of the rules?’ I said.
“‘If you please, ma’am,’ she said, sticking out her elbows and twisting
her fingers together as if she was wringing out a dishcloth. I say Mrs.
Abbott has no business to ask us to associate with such a heathenish
girl. Ugh! How she looks! Her dress is made of the coarsest cloth
you ever saw, and it looks like a star-spangled banner mixed up with
a rainbow, only there isn’t enough of it to make a banner, for it’s
scant and short, short enough to give a plentiful view of her white
stockings, and she’s got on clod-hoppers; I think they must be her
brother’s shoes. She has no collar or cuffs, and her hair is done up
like an old woman’s. Just think of my ‘mothering’ that great, horrid,
vulgar girl! I wont, though!” She burst into a flood of angry tears as
she made this declaration.
Mingling with the rather hysterical weeping in which Lily’s indignation
had culminated there was another sound of sobbing, and, turning
suddenly, they beheld, with a poor little cotton handkerchief pressed
to her eyes, the forlorn figure which had just been so aptly described
that there was no difficulty in recognizing--Mary Ann Stubbs!