CHAPTER V
BOARDING-SCHOOL
The reception-room at Miss North's school was not elaborate. It had noneof the attractiveness of Miss North's own living-room. It looked cold,business-like, and uninviting--at least so Blue Bonnet thought as shesat waiting to say her last good-bys to Uncle Cliff and Aunt Lucinda.
The parting with Grandmother had been something of a wrench. Blue Bonnethad managed to keep herself pretty well in hand, for Grandmother's sake;but to-day it was different. Everything was so strange--so forbidding.Even the presence of Carita seemed of small comfort. Carita waslovely--but, after all, she couldn't fill Grandmother's place, nor UncleCliff's, nor even Aunt Lucinda's.
Uncle Cliff rose from the stiff-backed chair he had been occupying forthe last half hour, and took Blue Bonnet's hand. Aunt Lucinda got up,too.
A frightened, half panicky look came into Blue Bonnet's face. Thefeeling that she was about to be left alone with strangers for the firsttime in her life came over her in a great wave. She reached up andtaking hold of the lapels of her uncle's coat, held him fast.
"Must you go now--right this minute, Uncle Cliff?" she said, and hecould feel her trembling.
Mr. Ashe looked at his watch.
"I am afraid so, Honey. Trains don't wait, you know. I must be offto-night, sure."
Blue Bonnet turned to Aunt Lucinda and kissed her with warmth; then shewalked between her uncle and aunt down the length of the long corridorto the front door. Carita also clung to Uncle Cliff. At the door theyall paused.
"Now you have everything that you need, Blue Bonnet?" Aunt Lucindainquired. "You are quite sure? You can write immediately if anything hasbeen forgotten, remember--"
"Yes, you are to have whatever you need, Honey," Mr. Ashe interrupted.
"Yes, Aunt Lucinda, I won't forget. Yes, yes, Uncle Cliff, and you'llwrite often, won't you? I'll be so lonesome just at first.Good-by--good-by!" There was a droop to the last note of the secondgood-by--a quaver that went straight to Uncle Cliff's heart and made himturn round and take Blue Bonnet once more in his arms.
"Why, Honey!" he said, as the brown head went down on his breast, andthe quick sobs shook the slender form. "Now, now! What are you cryingfor? Do you want to go back to Grandmother's? You only have to say so,you know."
The head shook violently on the broad shoulder that sheltered it, but noanswer came.
"Do you want to go home with me--back to the ranch?"
Again the head shook--no!
Mr. Ashe unlocked the arms that had gone about his neck so lovingly, andlifting the wet face looked into it tenderly.
"Don't, Honey," he said, and there was a catch in his own voice. "Don't,please. Uncle Cliff can't bear to have you cry. He'll hear those sobsevery step of the way back to Texas--and long after."
Blue Bonnet straightened up and made a brave effort to smile through hertears.
"Oh, no, you mustn't! I didn't mean to give way like that. I thought Iwas going to be all right--and then--all at once--it just had to come.It's homesickness. I've been fighting it for a month!"
"Remember you are responsible for Carita, too."
Mr. Ashe drew the solemn-eyed young girl who had been witnessing BlueBonnet's little outburst into the circle.
Blue Bonnet turned quickly and put her arms round Carita.
"If Carita dares act like this, I'll exert my authority and spank her,"she said, giving that young person a warm hug. "I'm to mother her inevery particular. Isn't that right, Uncle Cliff?"
"You are never to forget that you are responsible for her being here,Honey. You must make her happy and set her a good example at all times."
Blue Bonnet's merry laugh brought the smiles back into Uncle Cliff'sface.
"I'll try and not lead her into temptation, at any rate."
"That might be a good thing to remember, Blue Bonnet."
"And now, dear," Miss Clyde said, "perhaps you and Carita would bettergo up to your rooms and get your things out of your trunks. Miss Northwanted them emptied as soon as possible, so that they could be taken tothe trunk-room."
"All right, Aunt Lucinda. Good-by then--good-by! No, Uncle Cliff, I'mgoing to be good now. My love to everybody on the ranch--_everybody_,remember." She continued to wave her good-bys heroically until thecorner was turned and Uncle Cliff and Miss Clyde lost to view.
"Now for the unpacking, Carita. Come along. I'll help you first. That'sa motherly spirit, I'm sure."
"Yes, begin by spoiling me--that's right!"
Blue Bonnet gave the hand in hers a little squeeze.
"A little spoiling won't hurt you a bit. I doubt if a great deal would.There are some people you can't spoil."
"I wouldn't advise you to try too hard," Carita laughed.
They stopped first at Blue Bonnet's room, which was two floors belowCarita's.
"I don't like your being so far away from me, at all," Blue Bonnet said,as she turned on the light and laid her coat and hat on the bed. "That'sa silly rule having the younger girls all together on one floor. Theyneed the older girls to keep them straight."
"I fancy Fraulein can do that," Carita said resignedly, remembering theeagle-faced teacher in charge of the hall. "Mary Boyd says she's apill!"
"A--what?"
"A pill! I asked Mary what that meant, and she said a _dose_. Youknow--something you have to take and don't like."
Blue Bonnet's eyes roamed ceiling-ward and a queer expression curled herlips.
"You must introduce Mary to Aunt Lucinda, Carita. It would, perhaps,make her appreciate my vocabulary."
"I think I'm going to like her just the same."
"Aunt Lucinda?"
"Oh, no! I mean--that is--I like _her_, of course. I meant Mary Boyd, myroom-mate. She's awfully jolly."
Carita had arrived at the school in the afternoon and had been shown toher room immediately, while Blue Bonnet finished some shopping withUncle Cliff and Aunt Lucinda.
"I think I'd like to see Mary Boyd. Let's go up to your room now and getyour things out of the trunk."
"Yes, we will, only my things are out. Mary helped me this afternoonwhile you were away. I'm all settled."
Nevertheless Blue Bonnet led the way to the floor above.
Mary Boyd opened the door herself. She was just coming out of the room,pitcher in hand, on the way to the bathroom for some cold water. She hadon a gay little kimono and her hair was neatly brushed and braided forthe night.
"Back again?" she said to Carita, with a smile.
"Yes, and this is my friend, Blue Bonnet Ashe."
"How do you do?" Mary said, pausing a moment. "First year here, too?"
"Yes, my first year."
Mary waved her hand toward the room.
"Make yourselves at home," she said hospitably. "Everything is in amuss, yet. I only got in myself this morning. I'll be back in a minute."
"Don't you think she's nice?" Carita asked with enthusiasm, as soon asthe door closed.
"She seems to be. You're in luck, Carita. I wish you could see _my_cross!"
"We Freshies haven't any of the lugs you grown-ups sport," Mary said,entering the room with her pitcher of water. "There's only one bathroomon this floor for six girls. Fancy! Getting a bath is a regular Saturdaynight affair."
"This is your first year here, too, then," Blue Bonnet said with somesurprise.
"No--second."
"And you are a Freshman?"
"Well, you see, I was out last year part of the time--typhoidfever--and--oh, I'm no high-brow, anyway! Mother thought I'd best takethe year over again. She says I've plenty of time. I'm just fifteen."
She laughed good-naturedly, showing a set of teeth dazzling in theirperfection and whiteness.
"I'm working hard this year, though. You see, I want a room with a bath,and you have to be a Sophomore to get it."
"I see. An incentive, isn't it?"
"This is a fairly good room, don't you think? It's the best on thefloor. Carita's lucky--that is, as far as the room goes. My r
oom-matewas called home three weeks before Christmas. Her mother died. Poorlittle Nell!"
"I'm sorry for her," Carita said sympathetically, "but if she hadn'tgone I couldn't have entered the school this year, it was so crowded."
Somewhere down the length of the hall a gong sounded.
"What's that for?" Blue Bonnet asked.
"Bed. In a half hour another will ring and every light on this floorwill go off instantly."
Blue Bonnet looked at her watch.
"You mean to say you have to be in bed at half-past nine o'clock?"
Mary nodded.
"Well, I reckon I'd better run. I haven't unpacked yet."
"Oh, they aren't so awfully particular the first day. School doesn'treally begin until to-morrow."
Blue Bonnet started to say good night to Carita. As she bent to kiss hershe paused.
"Why don't you come down and stay with me to-night?" she said. "Myroom-mate isn't back yet. I shouldn't be half so lonesome."
"All right--if--do you think they'd mind?"
Carita addressed Mary.
Mary took a look down the hall.
"Skip along," she said generously. "All's serene on the Potomac. You'dbetter hurry though, while the coast's clear."
And hurry they did.
Blue Bonnet turned out the light in her room, which she had leftburning, and threw up the window blinds, letting in a stream of silverlight.
"I reckon we can undress by that," she said, "and I can get up an hourearlier in the morning and unpack."
But the rising-bell had been sounding some seconds when Blue Bonnetopened her eyes to the light the next morning. She sprang out of bedwith a bound, and dragged forth Carita, who still clung to her slumbers.
"Get up, Carita," she said. "That's some kind of a bell ringing forsomething or other--goodness knows what! Maybe it's breakfast. I don'tknow."
A look at her watch reassured her. Seven o'clock. Breakfast was atseven-thirty--she remembered hearing that somewhere.
"Oh, Blue Bonnet, I could have slept twenty minutes yet," Carita wailedsleepily. "I can dress for a party in ten minutes. Yes, I can,honestly!"
"Maybe--in Texas! You're in Boston now. Boston means a cold bath with agood rub, and getting into your clothes for the day--all of which takestime."
At seven-thirty they were dressed, waiting for the breakfast-bell toring.
The dining-room at Miss North's was not large, but it was cheerful andinviting. There were some five or six tables and at the head of each sata teacher.
Miss North met Blue Bonnet and Carita at the door and took them to herown table. When the meal was over she assigned them to their regularplaces, and again Blue Bonnet found to her dismay that she and Caritawere separated.
As they left the dining-room Mary Boyd came along and took Carita offperemptorily.
"I'll take care of her," Mary announced, with a wave and a smile."She'll be in a lot of my classes." They passed on, arm in arm.
Blue Bonnet was feeling a bit forlorn and neglected when a voice, softand sweet, said at her elbow:
"Miss North has asked me to show you about this morning."
Blue Bonnet turned and looked into the face of the Southern girl she hadadmired the first day she visited the school.
"Perhaps you don't remember me, but we were introduced. My name isAnnabel Jackson."
"Oh, I remember you--yes, indeed; and I'm Blue Bonnet Ashe."
"We have prayers the first thing," Annabel said, leading the way to thechapel. "The gong will ring in five minutes. I reckon we won't be tooearly if we go now."
"Dear me, do you have a gong to breathe by?" Blue Bonnet askedlaughingly. "Seems to me one rings every five minutes."
"Not quite; but that little electric hammer runs the school--with MissNorth behind it."
Miss North's school was supposed to be non-sectarian, so far asreligious government went; but in expression it was very muchEpiscopalian.
Blue Bonnet listened to the prayers read in a pleasant monotone by oneof the teachers, taking part in the responses.
Prayers over, Annabel led the way up-stairs.
"We have a half hour to put our rooms in order," she said, leaving BlueBonnet at her own door. "I'll call for you in a little while. I'm justdown the hall--number fifteen--if you get through first, stop for me."
"I haven't unpacked yet. I think, if I have a minute, I had better takemy gowns out of the trunk," Blue Bonnet answered.
"You won't have much time now. Wait until this afternoon. We have fromfour to five o'clock free. I'll help you then."
The rest of the morning was spent in the classroom. By noon Blue Bonnethad met a number of the girls--including two of Annabel's most intimatefriends: Sue Hemphill, from somewhere in the Middle West, and RuthBiddle, a Pennsylvania girl. Ruth was Annabel's room-mate; aplain-looking girl, but decidedly aristocratic--blue blood written inevery line of her delicate features and rather aloof bearing.
Sue Hemphill was the nicer, Blue Bonnet thought after a few moments'conversation. She was much friendlier, and much prettier; with soft greyeyes that twinkled mischievously, and a saucy little nose that inclinedupward, giving her face a piquant, merry expression, quite irresistible.
"Miss Ashe is a new girl--a Junior," Annabel explained to her friends."She's on our floor--in number ten, with Joy Cross."
Sue Hemphill crumpled up like a withered rose-leaf and leaned against ablackboard for support.
"Oh, you poor thing! You must have been born for trouble--."
"Now, Sue, don't!" Annabel protested. "Just because you had her lastyear and didn't like her--"
"Do you? Does Ruth? Does anybody?" Sue asked.
"Miss North does," Ruth replied; "and Mrs. Goodwin and Mrs. White andMadame de Cartier and Professor Howe--"
"The entire Faculty, to say nothing of the janitor and maids," Sueinterrupted.
"You mean--that she's a sort of teacher's pet?" Blue Bonnet, askedslowly.
"Well--'pet' would be going some, for Joy," Annabel laughed. "Butyou're warm--very warm!"
"Or you will be, before many days. You'll be a regular barometer, goingup--going up--going up--"
Annabel put her hand over Sue's mouth.
"Stop, Sue! Don't mind her, Miss Ashe. She's an awful tease. Joy isn'tanything worse than a stick--a bore. If you have a nice dispositionyou'll get on splendidly--Sue hasn't!"
"Oh, thanks," Sue said, bowing profoundly. "It is because of my longassociation with you, then;" and with this good-natured banter she wasoff to lunch.
At two-thirty in the afternoon there was a general exodus from theclassrooms, the recitations for the day being over. It had been rather astrenuous period for Blue Bonnet--the continuous round from seveno'clock in the morning. She was a little weary as she left the Englishclass, and filed out with the other girls who stopped to chat for aminute as they put away their books.
Down the hall came Mary Boyd with Carita still in her train. Blue Bonnetstopped them and inquired how Carita had got on during the day.
Carita was all enthusiasm.
"Oh, just fine, Blue Bonnet, thank you. Mary has been such an angel. Weare in the same Algebra class--and French, too. Isn't that nice? We canget our lessons together."
Annabel Jackson came out of a classroom and joined the group.
"Hello, Sozie," she said to Mary, pinching her cheek affectionately.
Mary colored with the pleasure that comes from being noticed by one ofthe older and evidently popular girls in the school.
"Hello, Annabel," she answered. "This is my new room-mate--CaritaJudson, from Texas."
Annabel acknowledged the introduction indifferently. Carita was tooyoung to be particularly interesting to her. Annabel was eighteen, andconsidered herself quite a young lady.
Blue Bonnet and Annabel drifted on toward their rooms.
"What sort of a girl is Mary Boyd?" Blue Bonnet asked. "She's roomingwith a little friend of mine. Carita and I come from near the same placein Texas."
"Mary? Oh, Mary is a dear. A little spoiled, I reckon. She's an onlychild, I believe, and has a perfectly doting father. She's always justas you see her--smiling or laughing. Did you ever see such teeth in yourlife? The girls call her 'Sozie.' You know that picture, don't you?Sozodont! Girl all smiles and teeth."
"What do we do now?" Blue Bonnet asked, pausing at her own door.
"Now we exercise--walk. Generally we go over to the Fenway. In thespring and fall we play tennis."
"Do we all go? I mean all the girls together?"
"Yes, all of us--a la chain gang. The animals march out two by two."
"Alone?"
"Hardly. It's like the Charge of the Light Brigade--teacher to the rightof us--teacher to the left of us--teacher in front of us--"
"Really?"
"No, not really. Only to the back and front of us--usually. You'll havefifteen minutes to get into a walking suit if you care to; if you don't,just put on a big coat. It's raw out to-day."
Blue Bonnet preferred to freshen up. She brushed the tumbled hair,bathed her face in cold water, and put on a very smart-looking littlegrey suit with a Norfolk jacket and tam-o'-shanter to match.
She thought of Carita as she came out of her room, and started up-stairsafter her. A teacher stopped her.
"The young ladies meet for their walk in the reception-roomdown-stairs," she said. "There is no visiting back and forth in therooms except between four and five o'clock."
Blue Bonnet found the girls, Carita among the rest.
"We will walk together, Carita," she said.
"All right, I have so much to tell you, Blue Bonnet."
A teacher overheard the remark.
"The younger girls usually walk together," she said, turning to BlueBonnet. "Have you no partner?"
"No. I only entered yesterday."
Mrs. White cast her eye over the waiting group. Each girl seemedsupplied with a companion.
"So many of the girls are not back yet. Perhaps you would walk with me,"she said.
"Thank you," Blue Bonnet answered politely.
They took their places at the rear of the line, and the brisk walkbegan. During that brief half hour, Blue Bonnet laid the foundation of afriendship that was to prove invaluable to her throughout her schoolyear.
Mrs. Alicia White was a vocal teacher--_the_ vocal teacher of the schoolit might be said, for there were several. She was in charge of thedepartment and most efficient.
There was just enough mystery surrounding Mrs. White to make her anobject of interest to the girls, and she had her full share ofpopularity among them. An army officer's widow, she had been thrown uponher own resources early in life, and having had exceptional musicaladvantages, as well as a good voice, had taken up teaching as a means ofearning a livelihood.
She was a slight, fair woman, rather plain of features, but her face hada way of lighting into something closely akin to beauty when she becameanimated, and there was charm in her manner.
It had leaked out--probably without the slightest foundation--that Mrs.White had been deserted by her army husband, and around this bareincident all sorts of fantastic stories had been woven. At the hands ofthe girls the poor man suffered all kinds of indignities. Sometimes hewas lured from the path of duty by a fascinating woman--at others drink,or his terrible temper caused the separation; but whatever his sins,they all redounded to the glory of Mrs. White, and deluged her withsympathy.
To the gossip of the school Mrs. White was apparently oblivious--if notoblivious, impervious. Her interest in the girls was rather indifferent,except for a chosen few, upon whom she bestowed a good deal ofattention. Annabel Jackson was one of her special favorites.
Blue Bonnet found before the walk ended that Mrs. White had charge ofthe floor upon which she roomed, and a number of other things incidentto school life and discipline.
Blue Bonnet had barely laid aside her things after returning from thewalk when a knock at the door startled her. She opened it, admittingAnnabel, Ruth, and Sue Hemphill.
"We came over to help you unpack," Annabel announced. "Three of us cando it quickly, and then perhaps you will come over to my room for a cupof tea. We have a whole hour to ourselves now."
Blue Bonnet was grateful, but a little embarrassed. She didn'tespecially care to open her trunk and bare its contents to utterstrangers; but Sue was already tugging at the straps, and Ruth openingbureau drawers preparatory to putting things away.
Blue Bonnet took the key from her purse and unlocked the trunk.
As the gowns and underwear, hats and shoes, tumbled forth, there wereexclamations of delight and approval.
"Oh, what a love of a hat! Do get out of the way, Ruth, so I can try iton;" this from Annabel.
"And, oh, what a sweet organdy! Where did you get that white wool PeterThompson? I've searched the town for one."
Blue Bonnet turned from unwrapping something very dear to her to answerSue.
Annabel leaned over her shoulder, watching with interest the smallpackage in her hands.
"What is it?" she asked.
Blue Bonnet took off the last wrapping and disclosed to view a smallminiature.
The girls crowded round her.
"Oh, how lovely!" they exclaimed in a breath. "Who is it?"
Blue Bonnet hesitated a brief second, gazing lovingly at the picture.
"My mother," she answered softly.
"Isn't she beautiful! Is she in Texas?" Ruth inquired.
"No. She's--dead."
There was a hush for a moment.
"Where's your father--have you one of him?" It was Annabel this time.
Blue Bonnet made another dive in the trunk and brought forth a package.From it she drew a photograph which she handed to Annabel.
"Is he in Texas--on the ranch you were telling us about?"
"No. He's dead--too."
There was a longer silence this time, and then it was Sue who put herarm through Blue Bonnet's shyly.
"I know what it means," she said. "I have lost my mother, too. I stillhave my father, though, thank Heaven, and Billy. You must knowBilly--he's my brother at Harvard--the best ever--why--"
Annabel lifted her hands in protest.
"Now, Sue's going to take the pulpit," she said, "and we'll get adiscourse on Billy! Billy the great! Billy the supreme--Billy--"
Ruth gave Annabel a push.
"You're jealous," she said, "because you haven't got such a brotheryourself. Billy's all right. He's everything Sue says he is."
In the midst of the banter that followed, the door opened, and Joy Crossentered.
She put her suitcase down by the bed, and nodded to the girlsindifferently. They nodded back and went on with the inspection of BlueBonnet's wardrobe.
Blue Bonnet put the miniature carefully away in the bureau drawer, and,with that instinct of politeness which is inborn, went over to Joy andextended her hand.
Joy took it listlessly. The girls scarcely turned round.
When the clothes had all been put away, Annabel renewed her invitationto tea. She did not include Joy, and Blue Bonnet felt rather indignant.It seemed so rude.
"You girls certainly have it in for my room-mate," she said, as sheclosed the door, and a wave of sympathy went back to Joy.
Ruth Biddle shrugged her shoulders and made a grimace.
"She isn't in our crowd," she said, as if that excluded her from theright to exist--almost.
Annabel's room was a good deal like Annabel. It inclined to frills. Itwas furnished charmingly in cretonnes--pink, with roses and trailingvines. Pennants from Harvard, Yale, Princeton, Cornell, and many othercolleges adorned the walls. Everything in view--and there wasmuch--expressed Annabel. Ruth's personality--if she had any--wasentirely missing.
Annabel shook up a cushion and tucked it behind Blue Bonnet comfortably.She had a hospitable manner that fitted pleasantly with the cosiness ofthe room. Blue Bonnet looked about admiringly.
"I didn't know they allowed you to have so much in your room," she said,surprised
.
"They don't--ordinarily. I've been here a long time, and thingsaccumulate. Anyway, I told Miss North that if I couldn't have things theway I wanted them this year, I'd go somewhere else. They'll do a gooddeal to keep you after they once get you. You'll soon find that out."
"Oh, I don't know," Ruth said from her end of the room, where she wasoperating a chafing dish, "they send you away fast enough if you don'tkeep the rules. You remember that Fanny Price, last year."
"Oh, well,--_that_, of course. Fanny Price hadn't any business here inthe first place." Annabel began to arrange the tea cups.
"Will you have lemon in your tea?" she asked. "Do you mind if we callyou Blue Bonnet? It's something of a mouthful, but I like it."
"Please do. I should love it. I take lemon, thank you."
"It's a good thing you do. Cream is an unknown quantity in this room. Wedid have some Eagle Brand, but Ruth spread the last of it on hercrackers yesterday."
"On crackers?"
"Yes. Ever try it?"
Blue Bonnet made a face.
"Oh, it's not so bad. You'll come to it--some day when you're starving."
"Starving? Don't you get enough to eat here?"
"Yes--but it's not the Copley Plaza--exactly. We manage to get fat,anyway. That reminds me--where's Wee? Go get her, Sue, and ask her tobring over some Nabiscos, if she happens to have any handy. Wee's aregular life-saving station, usually."
Sue dashed out of the room and came back in a minute with a very large,stout girl, whom she introduced as her room-mate, Deborah Watts--betterknown as "Wee."
Good nature, affability--all the essentials of comradeship--fairly oozedfrom Deborah Watts. She took Blue Bonnet's hand in a grip that hurt,but Blue Bonnet felt its sincerity and squeezed back.
A bright girl in the school had once compared Deborah Watts to a familyhorse. Not a pretty comparison, but apt, when one knew Deborah.
The girl said that Deborah was safe, gentle, and reliable. Safe enoughto be trusted with old people; gentle enough for children; and that shecould, at times, get up enough ginger to give the young people a fairrun. The comparison went even farther. The girl declared thatsometimes--oh, very occasionally, under pressure and highliving--Deborah could kick up her heels and light out with the best, andthat when she did, people held up their hands in horror and said: "Whatever in the world has got into Deborah Watts!"
Her room-mate and friends had beheld her in this enviable state a numberof times, and had pronounced her--in boarding-school vernacular--aperfect circus.
"Can you cook things in your room?" Blue Bonnet inquired of Ruth, gazingat the chafing dish with the water steaming in it.
"You can have a chafing dish, if that's what you mean; that is, you canif you happen to be a Senior. Annabel and I graduate in June. Our menuis limited, however. We seldom roast fowl, or boil coffee"--she winkedat Sue--"or try entrees, except--"
All three girls went off into peals of laughter. All but Wee Watts, whoremained as sober as a judge.
"Do we, Wee?"
"Wee do!" giggled Annabel.
No one offered to explain the joke and Blue Bonnet looked mystified.
"First year?" Deborah inquired of Blue Bonnet.
"First," Blue Bonnet said. "I have answered that question fifty timesto-day. I believe I'll have a placard printed and hang it round myneck."
"It might save breath during the next few days," Sue remarked."Everybody you meet will ask you that. It sort of breaks the ice."
Blue Bonnet put down her tea cup and rose.
"It was awfully good of you girls to be so nice to me to-day. Iappreciate it ever so much. I think I must go now. Carita will belooking for me. Come and see me, won't you? I'm in number ten"--shenodded toward Deborah Watts. "Not being a Senior I can't make you tea,but I might manage to have some crackers and Eagle milk. Good-by."