Part 9 (1/2)
”You'd better believe! I've been here five years, and we've never missed one yet. Do you remember the night last winter, when we all went sleighing and came home at eleven o'clock nearly frozen stiff, Bess? Whew! it was cold. When we got back we found Miss Preston making chocolate for us.
There she was in her bedroom robe and slippers. She had gotten out of bed to do it because she found out at the last minute that that fat old Mrs.
Schmidt had gone poking off to bed, and hadn't left a single thing for us.”
”I guess I _do_ remember, and didn't it taste good?” was the feeling answer.
”You weren't here the year before,” said Lou. ”Sit still, my heart! Shall I ever forget it?”
”What about it? Tell us!” cried the girls in a chorus.
”That was the first year Mrs. Schmidt was here, and, thank goodness, she isn't here any longer, and she hadn't learned as much as she learned afterwards. My goodness, wasn't she stingy? She thought one egg ought to be enough for six girls, I believe. It took Miss Preston about a year to get her to understand that we were not to be kept on half rations. Well, that night we were expecting something extra fine. We got it!” and Lou stopped to laugh at the recollection. ”We rushed into the house, hungrier than wolves, and ready to empty the pantry, and what do you think we found? A lot of _after-dinner coffee cups_ of very weak cocoa, with _nary_ saucer to set them in, and two small crackers apiece. 'I was thinking you would come in hungry, young ladies, so I make you some chocolate. You don't mind that I have not some saucers, it make so many dishes for was.h.i.+ng,' she said, smiling that pudgy smile of hers. Ugh! I can't bear to think of it even to this day, and she was ten million times better before she left last spring. That was the reason Miss Preston took matters into her own hands the next time, I guess.”
Just then a tap came at the door, and Miss Preston put her head in to ask:
”Can you girls do extra hard work between this and eight o'clock?”
Had she entertained any doubts of their ability to individually do the work of three, the shout which answered her in the affirmative would have banished them forever, for the girls were not slow to guess that some surprise was afoot.
”Very well, I'll trust you all to prepare tomorrow's lessons without exchanging an unnecessary word, and at eight o'clock I'll ring my bell, and then you must all put on extra warm wraps and go out on the piazza to--look at the moon. I shall not expect you to come in till ten-thirty.”
As the last word was uttered Miss Preston met her doom, for five girls pounced upon her, bore her to the couch and hugged her till she cried for mercy.
”Come with us, oh! come with us,” they cried. ”It will be twice as nice if you'll come!”
”Come _where_? Do you suppose I've lived all these years and never seen the _moon_?” and laughing merrily she slipped away from them, only pausing to add: ”It is ten minutes of seven now.”
The hint was enough, and not a girl ”got left” that night.
At eight o'clock a silvery ting-a-ling was heard, and never was bell more promptly responded to. Had it been a fire alarm the rooms could not have been more quickly emptied.
The moonlight made all outside nearly as bright as day, and when the girls went out upon the porch they found three huge sleighs, with four horses each, waiting to whirl them over the s.h.i.+ning roads for miles. Miss Preston did not make one of the party, but Miss Howard was a welcome subst.i.tute, for, next to Miss Preston, the girls loved her better than any of the other teachers, and Toinette was sorely divided in her mind as to which she was learning to love the better.
Off they started, singing, laughing at nothing, calling merrily to all they overtook, or pa.s.sed, and sending the school yell, which Miss Howard had made up upon the spur of the moment for them,
”Hoo-rah-ray! Hoo-rah-ray!
Sunny Bank, Montcliff, U. S. A.,”
out upon the frosty air, until the very hills rang with the cry, and flung it back in merry echoes.
Miss Howard's sleigh led the van, and one or two of the girls had clambered up to ride upon the high front seat with the driver, a st.u.r.dy old Irishman, who would have driven twenty horses all night long to please any of Miss Preston's girls. Ruth sat beside him, with Toinette next to her, and Edith was squeezed against the outer edge. But who cares about being squeezed under such circ.u.mstances? It's more fun.
The snow had fallen so lightly that sometimes the runners cut through slightly; but, all things considered, the sleighing was very good. Still, the driver kept the horses well in hand, for they were good ones and ready to respond to a word. Moreover, the hilarity behind them seemed to have proved infectious, for every now and again a leader or a wheeler would prance about as though joining in the fun, and presently another animal became infected and wanted to prance, too. Had she not, the next chapter need not have been written.
CHAPTER XV
”PRIDE GOETH BEFORE A FALL”