CHAPTER III
THE WELCOME DANCE TO THE NEW GIRLS
School had opened on Monday and today was Saturday. It had been anexciting week for everybody getting acquainted and settled, and the timehad flown.
Today was very important, for it was the date set for the old girls'welcome dance to the new girls. All week there had been whisperings andtalk of it, but none of the new girls really knew anything about it.
Friday afternoon the bulletin board had flaunted a poster of a bigsmiling girl, holding out her arms in welcome to a shy little lass withher finger in her mouth. Mary Williams had painted it, and it was trulya work of art. On it were the words:
WELCOME DANCE TO THE NEW GIRLS SATURDAY, AT 8 P. M., IN ASSEMBLY HALL
As Polly sat up in bed and stuffed her fingers in her ears--she hadn'tgrown accustomed to the rising bell yet--she suddenly thought what day itwas.
Bouncing out of bed, she slipped into a dressing gown, dashed throughthe corridor down a flight of stairs to a long room lined on either sidewith doors leading into tiled bathrooms with sunken porcelain tubs. Theyhad been built only two years, and so magnificent were they after theold ones, that the girls had christened them The Roman Baths and thecorridor, Roman Alley.
As Polly took the last two steps at a jump, she ran bang into Betty, thefreckled face.
"Whither awa' in such mad haste, and what have I ever done to you thatyou should want to see my poor nose any flatter?" asked Betty, carefullypretending to straighten her nose.
"Oh, I'm so sorry, Betty; did I hurt you?" answered Polly. "I was insuch a hurry to get a tub. Some one always beats me, and I've been lateto breakfast twice."
"Why not try my stunt and get up ten minutes before the bell? But you'reall right this morning," and Betty pointed to the row of open doors."Turn on the water and then we can talk."
In a minute they were both sitting huddled up on the bottom step, whilethe water was splashing into their tubs.
"Know who you're going with tonight?" began Betty.
"No. Do you know who has asked me?" inquired Polly.
She had known all week that on the morning of the dance each new girlwould receive a written invitation from one of the old girls, asking herto be their guest for the evening.
"Ha, ha," laughed Betty, "don't you wish you knew? Yes, I was there andI heard you bid for; also I was with her when she put the note in yourdesk. I think you'll be pleased."
"Ah, go on, tell me, please," teased Polly.
"Indeed, I will not," Betty exclaimed. "I will tell you that you won'tlike Miss Hale any better this time next year than you do now--I willtell you that we will have pancakes for breakfast--or that tomorrow'ssermon will be very dull, but tell you the name of the girl who is goingto take you tonight, certainly no--"
She stopped short in her dramatic speech as she caught the warninggurgle that water gives in a tub, just a few seconds before it runsover.
"Great Caesar's Ghost! our baths!" she cried, and both girls dashed fortheir tubs, and in a minute there came the sound of splashing frombehind the closed doors.
Twenty minutes later they met at breakfast, both a little out of breath,and true to Betty's prophecy, there were pancakes.
After breakfast on Saturday there was an hour for study, and after thatthe girls were free for the rest of the day. Polly could hardly wait toget to her desk, but of course something had to interfere on thisparticular morning.
Just at the entrance to the schoolroom Miss Hale held out a damp,detaining hand.
"One minute, if you please, Marianna. I want to see you and Angela andElizabeth" (she meant Betty, of course), "in my room. Your books havecome and er--"
Her voice trailed off into a murmur as she sailed down the corridor.
Betty said "The dickens" quite distinctly. Angela looked bored but notrebellious. She shared the other girls' dislike for Miss Hale, but sheadored Latin. As for Polly--well, you can fancy how furious she was.There was that note in her desk and Miss Hale might keep them for hours.She wasn't very attentive as the intricacies of Latin grammar wereexpounded and explained.
However, it did finally end, though not until fifteen minutes after thelast study hour bell had rung. Polly, followed by Angela and Betty,started for Study Hall. At the door they ran into a group of girls. Someof them flourished neatly folded notes.
"What are you going to do this morning, Polly?" asked Dot Mead, who wasone of the group.
"Come on out for a walk with us," chimed in Helen Reeves and GraceWright, a long lanky new girl who always agreed with everybody. It maybe seen from this that Polly was popular.
"No you don't. She's going with me to watch the basket-ball practice inthe gym," Betty interrupted before Polly had a chance to answer.
Just then Angela stepped up and put a note in Polly's hand.
"Forgive my freshness in opening your desk without permission," shesaid, "but I knew you were crazy to get this, and these wild Indianswould have kept you here till luncheon time."
"Angela, you are angelic. Thank you ever so much." And opening the noteshe read the following:
"Dear Polly:
"Please be my guest at the dance tonight and save me numbers one, three, five, and the last. See you in the corridor after study hour.
"In mad haste, "Lois."
Polly danced for joy. It was Lois after all, just as she had hoped. Shewould have been glad, of course, to have gone with Connie or Angela orBetty; she knew them all, perhaps, better than Lois, but then it waseasy to know them. It was different with Lois; as often as she had beenwith her the past week, she felt there was lots left to discover abouther.
The extra fifteen minutes that Miss Hale had kept the girls in her roomhad given Lois time to make her bed, fix her room, and go to the gym.She had left word with Connie, waiting of course, for Angela, to tellPolly where she was.
When the trio reached the corridor, Connie called out:
"Polly, if you're looking for Lois, she's in the gym. She told me totell you."
And as the girls started for their rooms, she added:
"Don't worry about your beds; I made them."
"You duck," and Betty threw her arms around her neck.
"Yes, you are a duck," agreed Polly. "Thanks awfully."
"Don't be so grateful," called Angela, retiring behind her door forsafety. "She only did it so she wouldn't be kept waiting. And they areall probably pied."
"Ungrateful wretch," Connie gasped.
Polly and Betty went after their sweaters, and in a few minutes all fourgirls were racing for the gym, a low, round building about fifty yardsaway from the school.
They found Lois, not in a gym suit, as they had expected, but in sweaterand cap, evidently waiting for them.
"Hello," she called, "what kept you so long, the Spartan?" (A nicknamefor Miss Hale.) "Did you get my note?" she continued, turning to Polly.
"Yes, and of course I'm awfully tickled to go with you. You were awfullygood to ask me."
Polly's voice was very earnest.
Lois smiled. "Good, that's settled, and now do you want to go into thewoods and get some greens with me? Florence Guile and Louise Prestonasked me to get some branches for them. They are decorating AssemblyHall and they told me to take another girl with me. We have permissionto go out of bounds," she explained.
Then to Betty, who was dramatically tearing her hair:
"Don't look so peevish, Bet, dear, if you expect to make the big teamyou want to trot on and practice, not wander in the wood."
"Do you know, Lo," Betty answered with a wry smile, "you have the mostdiscouraging habit of telling the truth just when I don't want to hearit. I go. Farewell."
She finished, disappearing through one of the French windows that ledinto the locker-room.
That long tramp in the woods, on that glorious day, with the fallenleaves almost knee-deep and the crisp wind in their fac
es, did more toestablish the lasting friendship between the two girls than anythingelse could have done.
Polly, less reticent than Lois, told of her life in the New Englandtown, of the quaint old house, and lingered over the description of hermany beloved dogs.
Lois, in turn, described her jolly father, who was a well-knownphysician, her mother--no one was quite as adorably precious and young asLois' mother--and her big brother Bob, just seventeen, who was preparingfor college.
"You see," she finished, "Dad didn't want me to grow up in a city, andas he has to live in Albany in the winter, he and mother decided I'dbetter come here."
"I'm awfully glad they did," Polly replied, giving Lois' arm a tightsqueeze.
Perhaps the quantity of greens was a little smaller than it might havebeen, but for these confidences. Still what do greens matter whencompared to the forging of a splendid and lasting friendship?
Even confidences must end, and Polly, looking at her wrist watch, aparting gift from Uncle Roddy, exclaimed: "Lois, it's after twelveo'clock. We'll have to fly. I hope you know the way. I'm lost."
They raced back and just had time to scrub their hands and join the endof the luncheon line.
That afternoon they stayed together as a matter of course. They helpedthe Seniors get the Assembly Hall ready for the dance, and before goingto their rooms at dressing hour, they had promised to help serve the icecream that evening.
Polly was being treated just like an old girl and it seemed hard for herto realize that she had only been at Seddon Hall for one short week.
The dance was a great success, which means no one spoiled it by beinghomesick, and every one danced all the dances. Ethel Brown and MarjorieDean almost upset things at the beginning of the fifth dance by gettingout handkerchiefs and daubing at their eyes. They were sitting atopposite corners of the room, but didn't think of joining forces.
Lois and Polly, standing near the faculty platform, were just startingtheir fifth dance when they caught sight of them, and scented danger.
"Look at those two," Lois groaned as she dropped her hand from Polly'sshoulder.
Polly looked.
"Bother," she said, "I suppose that means good-bye to our dance."
They parted without hesitation. Lois went over to Ethel and Polly toMarjorie, and as they danced, they listened patiently to a tale of woe,and tried their best to cheer up their self-enforced partners.
After the sixth dance the ice cream and cake and lemonade were served,and for the rest of the evening everything went beautifully. The"good-night bell" rang at ten o'clock, just in the middle of theVirginia reel, but Mrs. Baird, who was on the platform, beckoned to oneof the Seniors and gave her permission for it to be finished. When thegirls finally did go off to bed, they were all very sleepy and veryhappy.
As Polly and Lois were leaving the room, Mrs. Baird stopped them.
"Good-night, girls," she said, "you have been a big help to the Seniors,but they have no doubt thanked you for that. I want to tell you that Isaw and appreciated your kindness tonight. I am proud of it in you as anold girl," she said to Lois, and then turning to Polly with one of herwonderful smiles that made all the girls adore her, she added:
"And I am more proud to find that same spirit in a new girl."
When Lois and Polly said good-night a few minutes later, Pollywhispered:
"Isn't she wonderful?"
"Of course she is," Lois answered, smiling. "I wondered how long itwould be before you found it out."