CHAPTER IV--The Rivalry of the Wings
"All aboard for the grand tour of inspection," Gladys announced.
School for the day was over. All through a confusing morning the twinshad been shown from one classroom to another where they had met theirteachers. There had been no attempt at lessons, but the girls had beenencouraged to talk and give their opinions on the different studies. Asa result of this, some shifting had been necessary. In English, one ofthe new girls named Ethel Rivers had been dropped to the class below.Because from her hasty remarks it was easy to see that she knew verylittle of literature. She protested, but Miss Slocum stood firm. Thetwins acquitted themselves well. They sat together and none of theteachers could tell them apart, for they did not know about the tinycrescent pin that Phyllis was faithfully wearing. But unlike Miss Baxterat Miss Harding's school, the faculty at Hilltop rather enjoyed theirown confusion.
Now they were free for the day, and Sally with the able assistance ofPrue and Gladys was waiting to show the twins over the school and thegrounds.
"You've seen the classroom," Sally began, "and you know about theassembly hall."
"Oh, Sally, if you're not going to do better than that I'm going to playguide," Gladys protested. "The idea of calling a ballroom the assemblyhall! It loses all its romance."
"And besides, Miss Hull doesn't like it," Prue added.
"Why?" Phyllis inquired.
Sally waved her hand at Gladys as if she were introducing a speaker.
"You tell it, Glad, and then we'll be sure to be amused."
"I accept the nomination, and I will do my best for the people under mycare," Gladys said grandly.
"Well, do start with the explanation of the ball room," Janet begged."I'm so curious."
"That means the history of Hilltop, but I'll do my best," Gladysreplied, and began:
"Fifty years ago, Colonel Hull lived in this house. He had lots of moneyand he lived like a king. He was famous throughout the countryside forhis wonderful hunting, but, if you just go on spending money and neverdo anything to make it, it doesn't last forever, so when Colonel Hulldied and Miss Hull's father had the house, he found he didn't have anymoney to run it with. So for a long time Miss Hull and her father andmother lived in the old wing and were terribly poor.
"Then her parents died and the house was Miss Hull's, but still therewasn't any money. All her friends wanted her to sell it, but shewouldn't do it. There had been six generations of Hulls on this place,and she wasn't going to let her ancestors up in heaven see her beaten bya little thing like no money."
"Oh, Glad!" Sally and Prue protested.
"Well, she wasn't," Gladys persisted. "Maybe that's not a very elegantway of putting it, but it's exactly as it was. She wouldn't admit shewas beaten, and, of course, she wasn't.
"She got together with some teachers that she knew and she startedHilltop. She started with ten pupils, and now I wish you'd look at us.We're the most wonderful school in the country."
Gladys finished as though she were closing a speech to the Senate.
"But what about the ballroom?" Janet insisted.
"I'm coming to that, if you have a little patience," Gladys told her.
"Miss Hull remembered her grandfather, and she remembered how he likedto have the rooms called by their special name, so she goes on callingthem the same and so you see, instead of having lectures in an assemblyhall, like everybody else, we have them in a real ballroom, that's themost beautiful room in the state.
"That's why we call it the ballroom still, and why we call the diningroom the hall, why Miss Hull's room is the boudoir instead of an office,and why we have history in the library instead of a classroom. You see,it gives us an advantage over other schools, makes Hilltop originalinstead of an ordinary boarding school."
Gladys paused, and looked at her listeners for appreciation.
The twins sighed. "It's just wonderful!" Janet said.
"Why it makes you think you're living in the time of white wigs andpatches," Phyllis whispered, looking about her as though she expected tosee Colonel Hull walk through one of the heavy oak doors, ready for aday with the hounds.
Janet's eyes held the look of dreamy speculation that had so oftenfilled them when she was reading old-world stories in her EnchantedKingdom.
Gladys had dropped her mocking tone as the story unfolded. The realestlove in her life was Hilltop, and she loved to talk about it. She sawthe look in the twins' eyes that she had hoped to see, and she smiledcontentedly.
"Now, ladies and gentlemen, step this way if you please," she went onwith a return to her laughing manner. "We will now learn something ofthe present history of the school. We are now in the old building and, Imight add, the only building to live in, but observe this green baizedoor. It leads to what is commonly called the new wing."
She pushed it open with a contemptuous push, and they found themselvesin a spick-and-span corridor of white woodwork and gleaming mahoganydoors. In comparison to the old and stately paneled walls of the oldbuilding it seemed new indeed.
Several girls that the twins recognized came out of one of the rooms andstopped in mock surprise.
"Why, Gladys! Why, Prue! Why, Sally!" Louise Brown, a tall and lankygirl, and one of their own classmates, exclaimed. "Is it possible thatyou've come for a breath of fresh air to our light and sunny abode,after the mouldy shadows of yours?" she asked, smiling sweetly.
Gladys sighed, but it was Sally who answered.
"No," she said in a bored tone, "we are simply showing Janet and Phylliswhat to avoid in the future."
The other girls laughed good-naturedly.
"That's one on you, Sally," Louise admitted, and one of the other girlsexclaimed:
"Long live the rivalry between the old and the new at Hilltop!"
"Well, anyway, now that you're here, come on into my room, I've got awhale of a box of candy," little Kitty Joyce invited.
When they were all seated in her dainty room, Phyllis said, shyly:
"I wish somebody would explain to me about this rivalry; I don'tunderstand."
"I'll explain!" Louise jumped up and stood in the middle of the floor,her hands behind her back.
"We are two distinct and separate wings," she began, "and we representthe old and the new. For some reason that nobody will ever understand, aspirit of rivalry started between the two years ago, when we were verynew. Now it is an established fact. We fight in games, in art and inlessons for the glory of our wings, and even at the risk of being rude,"she added with a little twinkle in her eye, "I'm going to state lastyear our house won everything."
"Everything but archery, history, composition and dramatics," Pruereminded her gravely.
"Oh, pouf!" Kitty laughed. "Those don't count. We won the tennis cup,the running cup, the art prize, for sculpture and painting."
"That was last year," said Sally severely.
They munched the candy for a while in silence, and then Kitty saidslowly:
"Funny thing the way the wings feel about each other. Why, look at you,Sally. You were awfully good friends with Alice Bard, and she was a newwing girl...."
"Well, for that matter, take us here today," Louise put in. "We'rereally the best of friends, and yet--"
"And yet there's a difference. It's rather like two brothers who go todifferent colleges. They love each other, but they love their collegestoo."
"All very well," said Gladys, "but the truth of the matter is that bothwings enjoy the spirit of competition. It gives us something to thinkabout and work for."
"But you're so good-natured about it," Janet said wonderingly.
"Of course we are," Sally replied. "Whoever heard of two basketballteams really disliking each other, and yet they'll fight tooth and nailfor a cup."
"A cup that they really don't want, either, except for what it standsfor," Gladys added with a little laugh.
Kitty threw up her two little hands in mock despair.
"Mercy on us. We are getting in deep. I vote we have
some morechocolates."
The girls returned to the candy box with renewed interest and for thetime being the subject of the wings was dropped, but not before thetwins had grasped the exact nature of the rivalry.