CHAPTER VI
NEW FRIENDS
Blue Bonnet found Carita up in her room, the centre of an admiringgroup. Refreshments, here, as in the corridor below, seemed to be inorder.
Mary rose from a shoe-box which she was occupying, and offered it toBlue Bonnet. Several other girls rose also and offered their chairs.
Blue Bonnet took the shoe-box and acknowledged the introductions. Thegirls were all about Carita's own age--between fifteen and sixteen.
Carita reached over and touched the girl nearest her.
"Here's a girl as far away from home as we are, Blue Bonnet. She's fromCalifornia--Los Angeles."
Blue Bonnet turned her attention for a moment to the girl--IsabelBrooks.
Isabel's eyes were red and swollen. She dropped her head as Blue Bonnetlooked at her, and her breast heaved.
"Now, now!" Mary Boyd said, springing up from the bed on which she hadperched. "Don't you cry any more. You'll be sick if you do, and they'llput you in the Infirmary. Here, eat some more candy."
Isabel refused the candy and continued her sobbing. One or two othersaround the room, moved by Isabel's weeping, commenced to cry also.
Mary seemed helpless.
"Oh, dear," she said, and her own lip began to quiver, "they always doit--these new girls! They get us every last one started."
Blue Bonnet looked at Carita. Tears were in her eyes, and, even as BlueBonnet looked, her head went down in her hands and she, too, began tosob.
Blue Bonnet rose to the occasion instantly. It was like a call toarms--the sight of those lonely children.
She looked at her watch.
"We have twenty minutes yet, to visit. Let's play a game. I know a fineone. Come on, everybody."
There was not the slightest response.
Mary Boyd took hold of Isabel and dragged her to her feet. Then sheroused the others.
"Come on," she said. "You've got to play, whether you want to or not.How do you do it--Miss--"
"Call me Blue Bonnet."
The girls stood up listlessly--a sorry looking group.
"You can sit down," Blue Bonnet announced. "You don't have tostand--just keep your eyes on me. You are each of you a musicalinstrument."
She went round and whispered something in the ear of each girl.
"Now, I'm the drum. I stand here and beat. Rub-a-dub-dub!Rub-a-dub-dub--like that. Everybody must try to represent herinstrument. Carita, you're a fiddle. Pretend to handle a bow. Isabel,you're a piano. Run your hands up and down as if you were playing ascale.
"Watch me. I beat the drum. When I stop beating and imitate one of yourinstruments--suppose it is the fiddle--then you stop playing the fiddle,Carita, and begin to beat the drum. If you don't stop instantly, andbegin to beat the drum before I call out fiddle, you have to stand uphere and take my place. See?"
Before five minutes had passed there was such hilarity in the room thatit took several knocks at the door to bring a response.
A thin angular form stood in the doorway, and a stern voice said:
"Young ladies, I haf you to report to Miss North if not this noise stopinstantly. _Instantly._ You understand? I speak not again!"
"Oh, isn't she too exasperating," remarked Peggy Austin, one of theolder girls, as Mary closed the door--a little quicker than might havebeen thought compatible with good manners.
"I perfectly abominate her," Mary answered. "I am going to ask MissNorth if Fraulein can't be removed from this hall. I don't think it'sone bit fair for us to have her all the time. She's just toointerfering."
"It wouldn't do a particle of good to ask, Sozie," Peggy said. "MissNorth caters to Fraulein, herself. She says she is the finest Germanteacher she ever saw. She imported her from Berlin at great expense andpersonal sacrifice to the Empire. The nation's been in mourning eversince she left!"
Mary giggled, and the new girls looked interested. Peggy's solemn facecarried conviction.
"Goodness me," Carita exclaimed, "couldn't the Germans afford to keepher?"
Peggy shook her head.
"No," she declared, pretending to weep in her handkerchief, "it makes mecry to think of their disappointment--the poor things!"
A gong sounded, but the girls lingered.
"I want to see you after dinner, Carita," Blue Bonnet said as she leftthe room.
"We go down to the gymnasium and dance a while, after dinner," Marycalled out.
"All right. I engage the first three dances then, Carita. Don't forget."
Blue Bonnet went down to her room thoughtfully; a vision of thosehomesick children before her eyes. She wondered what people meant bysending such infants away from home. Why, there was one who seemedscarcely old enough to comb her own hair. All of a sudden she feltold--grown up; responsibility weighed on her--the responsibility ofCarita.
On her own hall she passed Mrs. White.
"What a serious face," the teacher said. "I hope it is nothomesickness."
Blue Bonnet smiled brightly.
"No, I think I've fought that all out."
"That's good! Youth is not the time for tears."
"But I have just come from a regular downpour."
"It sounded like a downfall. I was in Madame de Cartier's room, justunderneath. We thought the ceiling was coming through."
"Oh, I'm so sorry. I am afraid it was my fault. Those children were sohorribly homesick that I suggested a game."
"That was very thoughtful, I am sure. Some of those young girls reallysuffer terribly. Sometimes it makes them quite ill."
Blue Bonnet wondered why Fraulein could not have been so reasonable._She_ certainly was disagreeable. She wished Carita might be under Mrs.White's wing. What a dear Mrs. White was, anyway.
Blue Bonnet opened her bedroom door, still lost in thought. The earlywinter twilight filled the room, almost obscuring her room-mate who satnear a window straining her eyes over a book.
Blue Bonnet snapped on the light.
"You'll ruin your eyes," she said pleasantly. "That's what my auntalways says to me when I read in the twilight."
Joy forced a half smile and continued reading.
"I suppose we get dressed for dinner now?" Blue Bonnet, ventured,beginning to unfasten her waist.
"Yes."
"Is dinner just at six?"
"Yes."
"What do we do in the meantime?"
"Study--or practise; or read, if you wish."
Blue Bonnet went into the bathroom and made as much of her toilet as waspossible. When she came out, Joy was still poring over her book.
"That must be a hard lesson you are getting," Blue Bonnet remarked.
"It's a book I'm reading."
"Oh!"
There was an interval of silence during which Blue Bonnet put thefinishing touches to her toilet. When she was quite dressed she stoodhesitatingly by one of the windows, gazing out over the brightlylighted city. Suddenly she turned and flew down the hall, knockingsoftly at number fifteen.
The door opened slightly and Annabel peered out.
"May I come in--please? I'm threatened with a terrible attack of--theblues, I reckon."
Annabel pulled her in quickly.
"Surely," she said, "only hurry. This isn't strictly according toHoyle."
"You mean it's against the rules?"
Annabel nodded, her mouth full of pins.
"Then I'd better go."
"Nonsense, stay where you are! I was dying for some one to hook me up.Ruth's in the tub--been there an hour. If you hear any one coming, stepin the closet."
"I shouldn't have come only I knew I was going to be homesick, and--"
"And Joy wasn't a very good antidote, was she?"
"Hardly. She won't talk."
Annabel laughed.
"You'll have to do what Sue did last year. That awful silence got on hernerves. Not that she was so anxious to hear Joy talk, but she got tiredof putting forth all the effort. Well, she got somebody to make out alist of subjects on a typewriter. She gave it to Joy.
'Now,' she said,'for goodness sake, _talk_. Choose, in any order you like, but_talk_!'"
Blue Bonnet laughed merrily.
"Ssh!" Annabel warned. "You mustn't do anything more than breathe duringthis hour."
Blue Bonnet got up again.
Annabel pushed her back in the chair.
"Sit still," she said.
"What would they do if they found me?"
"That depends upon who found you. If it were the German lady above--"
"Fraulein?"
"Yes."
"Has she anything to do with this floor?"
"There isn't anything in the school that she hasn't something to dowith."
"And if it were Mrs. White?"
"Mrs. White would do her duty. She would send you to your room--andyou'd go--a heap quicker than you would for Fraulein."
"I think I'll go anyway. Oh, there's a knock!"
Annabel opened the door a crack.
"May I come in, Annabel?"
It was Mrs. White's voice, and Annabel was obliged to open the door.
Mrs. White looked at Blue Bonnet.
"I think I'll have to escort Miss Ashe to her room and show her therules," she said, smiling.
"I'm ready. I was just going."
"Very well. We'll 'kill two birds with one stone.' I was going to yourroom to talk over your music."
Arm in arm they went down the corridor.
Mrs. White turned Blue Bonnet round after they had entered the room, anddrew her attention to a white placard on the wall near the door.
"There," she said, "you will find all the rules."
She ran her finger along the printed column until she came to the oneshe wanted. Then she read aloud:
"'Visiting among students is forbidden except between the hours of fourand five in the afternoon, and two and six on Saturdays.'
"Didn't you see these rules, Miss Ashe?"
"Oh, yes, I saw them," Blue Bonnet answered with unconcern that amazedMrs. White. "I didn't read them. I hate rules!"
"But I am afraid you will have to read these--and obey them!"
"I suppose so."
Blue Bonnet sighed. "You see," she explained, "I've been brought uprather differently from most girls--that is, up to a year and a halfago. I lived on a big ranch in Texas with my uncle. Everything there wasas free as the air and water. We didn't have any restrictions. Bostonseems to be made up of 'em."
"We do have a good many conventions, that's true--especially here. Itwould be chaos without them. You can see that, can't you?"
"Oh, yes."
"And you will try to keep the rules?"
"Of course I'll try. I shouldn't like to displease _you_."
The compliment was so naively given, and so evidently sincere, that Mrs.White looked pleased.
"I appreciate that very much," she said, "but you must keep on equallygood terms with your _own_ conscience--have its approval, always."
* * * * *
The building in which Miss North conducted her school for girls hadoriginally been a private mansion. It was interesting and attractive,with many odd nooks and mysterious passages that lent charm and romanceto its young occupants. In recent years property adjoining had beenadded for recitation and school purposes; two houses welded into one.
The entire basement of the annex had been remodeled into a well-equippedgymnasium, and at the rear of the lot a swimming pool had been erected.
It was the custom of the girls to repair to the gymnasium after dinnerfor a half hour's frolic. Usually they danced.
Blue Bonnet and Carita followed the other girls down-stairs and throughthe narrow passage that connected the two buildings, a passage known asthe subway--or sub.
"Mercy, isn't this spooky?" Carita said, taking a better hold on BlueBonnet's arm.
"Oh, this isn't anything? Wait a minute."
Mary Boyd drew the girls over to a door at one side of the gymnasium andflung it wide.
"That's a part of the furnace room," she said. "You can go through hereand follow another little dark hall--oh, much worse than this--and ittakes you to the kitchen and pantries. We went down one night lastyear--"
"One night?"
Carita shuddered.
"Yes, it was loads of fun. There were five or six of us. We ate enoughapple sauce and fresh bread to kill us."
At the piano in the gymnasium a girl was playing a two-step.
"Let's sit here and talk," Blue Bonnet said to Carita, drawing her to asecluded corner. "I feel as if I had hardly seen you."
Sue Hemphill passed, and, seeing Blue Bonnet, dropped into a seat besideher.
"Well," she said, "how do you girls like it by this time?"
"The school, you mean?" Blue Bonnet asked.
"Yes."
"It's been rather strenuous to-day. I'm beginning to look forward tobedtime. I'm tired."
"It is tiresome--getting adjusted."
"What do we do after this half hour? It's a regular merry-go-round,isn't it? A continuous performance."
Sue laughed.
"We study the next hour. Sometimes--twice a week--we have a shortlecture on general culture. You'll be taught how to enter a roomproperly, and how to leave it--"
"I know that already."
"Of course, but it has to be impressed."
"Then what?"
"Then we go to our rooms. Sometimes we settle down, and sometimes wedon't. It depends. Once in a while we have a feast. We'll invite younext time."
Blue Bonnet looked interested.
"Where do you have it?"
"Oh, in our rooms sometimes--but it's risky. The sky parlor is the bestplace. That's up in the attic--under the eaves. It's fine! There's noteacher to bother. It's a little cold just now. They don't heat it, butyou can put on your bath-robe and be comfy. We're waiting now for WeeWatts to get her clean clothes back from home. You see, she only livesan hour or two out of the city, and she sends her things home to bewashed. When they come back, her mother always fills up the suitcasewith cakes and cookies and jam--well, not jam, any more. The last jarshe sent, broke, and spilled all over a new silk waist she was sendingWee for a party. It was quite tragic."
"The loss of the jam--or the waist?"
"Both. It was hard on Wee, losing the waist. You see, she's so stout shecan't borrow much from the rest of us."
Annabel came up at that moment and asked Sue to dance, so Carita andBlue Bonnet visited until the gong sounded.
* * * * *
On the way up to the study hall, Miss North stopped Blue Bonnet.
"Will you come to my office a moment after study hour?" she said. "Iwant to go over your program with you. The room is just beyond thereception hall on the first floor."
Blue Bonnet found Miss North waiting when she entered the room an hourlater.
"You found your classes this morning, all right?" she began.
"Yes, thank you, Miss North."
"And decided upon your course?"
"Yes. Professor Howe thought I could enter the Junior class without anytrouble. I'm taking college preparatory. I don't know yet whether I'llgo to college or not, but my aunt wanted me to prepare."
There was a few moments' conversation relative to the work, and MissNorth rose.
"Good night," she said, holding out her hand. "I hope you are going tobe happy with us. You found the girls pleasant? Annabel Jackson is aboutyour age."
"I'm not seventeen yet," Blue Bonnet said. "I reckon my clothes make melook older. I begged Aunt Lucinda to let me have them a little longerthan I've been wearing. Yes, I like the girls very much. Good night."
* * * * *
In her own bed, under cover of darkness, Blue Bonnet had much to thinkabout that night. Opposite her, as still as the dead, Joy Crossslumbered. Blue Bonnet's mind went back over the day. How full it hadbeen--and strange! She almost felt as if she had been transported toanother world. In the stress and excitement of the ne
w surroundings herold life faded like a dream. Even the We Are Sevens seemed remote andindistinct in her tired brain.
She dozed off, finally, to dream of marching to gongs. Gongs that urgedand threatened; and of a certain German individual who lived in agarret, and who growled like a savage beast if she made the slightestsound as she passed her door.
The next two weeks fairly flew along, and Blue Bonnet was too busy tobe homesick. There were good long letters from home often; from thefaithful We Are Sevens, full of news and cheer; and from Uncle Cliff, infar-off Texas.
Blue Bonnet found the course she had selected a hard one, with a gooddeal of outside reading in English. Then there was her music, vocal andinstrumental. Practising took up a great deal of time.
The teacher of piano--Fraulein Schirmer--was very nice, Blue Bonnetthought, and she was glad to tell her aunt that she liked her, since sheand Fraulein had been such good friends in Munich.
Because of Miss Clyde, Fraulein took much interest in Blue Bonnet,discovering a good deal of musical ability, she wrote Miss Clyde.
Mrs. White still continued to be the joy she promised, and Blue Bonnetlooked forward to her vocal lessons with the keenest pleasure.
"Will I ever sing really well?" she asked Mrs. White one morning, andMrs. White had answered:
"That depends upon yourself, and how much you want to sing. You have agood voice, plenty of excellent timbre in it. You have even more--thegreatest essential of all--temperament. You live--you feel--you have thesympathetic quality that spells success--with work!"
Blue Bonnet went from her lesson feeling that she had the world almostin her grasp.
Her English teacher, too, Professor Howe--- Blue Bonnet could notunderstand why a woman should be called Professor--was delightful. Astorehouse of knowledge, she made the class work so interesting that theforty-five minutes of recitation usually passed all too quickly.
Professor Howe was an unusually able woman, much looked up to by theFaculty and pupils. She was middle-aged--past the fortieth milestone, atany rate--and somewhat austere in manner. Those who knew her bestdeclared that her stern demeanor was a professional veneer, put on inthe classroom for the sake of discipline, and that underneath she wasintensely human and feminine. She had charge of the study hall and actedas associate principal.
Professor Howe interested Blue Bonnet. She didn't mind the austeremanner at all. There was something behind it--a quick flash of the eye,a sudden smile, limited usually to a brief second; an intense, keenexpression that acted like an electric battery to Blue Bonnet. Itstimulated her to effort. No matter what else had to be neglected,English was invariably prepared.
And, as admiration usually begets admiration, Professor Howe wasattracted to Blue Bonnet.
"Miss Elizabeth Ashe," she said to Miss North at the end of the secondweek, "promises to be a bright pupil. She has an unusually clear mind,and good judgment. She's going to be quite a stimulus to the class."
Miss North seemed a little surprised.
"That's rather odd," she said. "Miss Root told me only a half hour agothat Miss Ashe was very indifferent in her mathematics--absolutelyinattentive."
Professor Howe raised her eyebrows ever so slightly, but she made nocomment.
Blue Bonnet could have explained. If not to Miss North's satisfaction,to her own, entirely. She hated Miss Root, and she hated mathematics,which added fuel to fire.
At the end of the third week of school Blue Bonnet was summoned to MissNorth's office.
Miss North looked serious as she motioned Blue Bonnet to a seat andopened the conversation.
"I am very sorry to find that you are not doing well in yourmathematics, Miss Ashe. What is the trouble?"
"I hate mathematics and I dislike Miss Root," Blue Bonnet replied with afrankness that quite took Miss North's breath away.
"That is very disrespectful, Miss Ashe; I cannot have you speak of oneof your teachers in that way."
"But I don't like her, Miss North, not a bit!"
"That is not to the point. Why are you inattentive?"
"I'm not. I am only stupid!"
Miss North was obliged to smile.
"I can hardly think that," she said. "I have excellent reports fromother teachers regarding your work."
Blue Bonnet let the compliment pass without any show of pride orpleasure.
"I meant stupid in mathematics. I always have been."
"Perhaps you haven't got hold of them properly. The difficulty oftenbegins in the primary grades."
"Perhaps that is it. I always had a tutor or a governess on the ranch. Ihated arithmetic, so we didn't bother much with it. When I enteredschool in Woodford I just managed to slide through my mathematics. Inever got more than a passing grade."
Miss North looked at Blue Bonnet as if she were some new species of girlwith whom she was unfamiliar. Such honesty was quite without precedent.
"And Miss Root? Why do you dislike her?"
"Miss Root is too sarcastic. When I make a mistake she calls theattention of the class to it."
Miss North looked stern.
"You may be excused, now, Miss Ashe," she said. "I will investigate thismatter."
A day or two later there seemed to be a change of atmosphere in MissRoot's classroom. Miss Root was very nice to Blue Bonnet--even trying tounravel hard knots, and Blue Bonnet gave strict attention. She stoppedBlue Bonnet one day at the end of a period.
"You see what you can do when you try, Miss Ashe," she said.
Blue Bonnet flushed a warm red.
"I tried all the time, Miss Root--but--I reckon--maybe we didn't justunderstand each other."
The girl's sweet smile was more appealing than her words. Suchspontaneity was infectious. A faint pink crept into the teacher'swithered cheek, and for a moment the dull grey of her humdrum existencechanged to a startling blue. She held out her hand.
"I daresay that was just the trouble. You are very young to have so muchphilosophy. If you are puzzled again, come to my room. I want you tolike mathematics--they are great mental gymnastics. You must learn toget fun out of them."