Part 2 (1/2)
”Catch,” came in a shriller whisper from the other side, and a second something followed.
Judith groped for them in surprise and discovered a chocolate bar and a huge sticky Chelsea bun wrapped in tissue paper.
”Promised Cathy we wouldn't have a picnic to-night,” said Nancy, ”but we didn't say that we wouldn't sit up in bed like little ladies and partake of some light refreshment.”
Sheer surprise made it possible for Judith to say, ”Thank you.” A moment ago she would have felt one word was an impossibility and then--oh, blessed bun!--one cannot sob and eat a large Chelsea bun at the same time.
Judith ate slowly and carefully, set her lips, and kept back the miserable lump. The chocolate was still to finish, and Jane began an interminable story of a canoe trip in Algonquin Park, but before it was nearly ended, tired Judith was fast asleep.
CHAPTER II
IMPORTANT THINGS
JUDITH never forgot morning prayers on the first day of school at York Hill. In some miraculous way the throng of girls, who crowded the corridors before nine o'clock, formed in lines at the doors of their old cla.s.srooms, new girls were piloted to a special position, and when the prayer-bell rang, an orderly procession, beginning with the little ”Removes” and ending with the serious and important-looking Sixth Form, filed into Big Hall and took their places.
The beautiful arching Gothic windows, the soft music from the pipe organ, the dignity of the high, oak-beamed ceiling, all this to Judith's beauty-loving mind was curiously satisfying. The service was short but reverent; a hymn, the reading of the lesson, the prayers for the day, and then the Head Mistress was reading out the promotion of old girls and the placing of new girls.
Form Five A was announced; ”Judith Benson, Josephine Burley, Sally May Forsythe, Joyce Hewson, Nancy Nairn, Frances Purdy”--Judith's cheeks glowed as the list was read. Five A! How pleased Daddy would be, and how glad she was that she had stuck to the hated mathematics this summer!
And to be in Nancy's form, what joy!
Then followed a busy morning; new books piled high on the waiting desk, new teachers, each seemingly more interesting than the last, new rules to be learned, new girls to meet.
Judith was quite ready for buns and milk at eleven-thirty and enjoyed her fifteen minutes in the open, and by the end of the morning she was both tired and stimulated, for she found that she was required to think for herself in order to take part in the discussions. There was to be a written test to-morrow on the books which had been set for Form Five A's summer reading and Judith had thought that she was prepared for it. But as Miss Marlowe proceeded with her keen questioning, Judith began to wonder if she knew anything at all about ”The Idylls of the King.” Miss Marlowe had a way of saying, when answers were given, ”Yes--yes--what do _you_ yourself think?” which Judith, accustomed to teachers who had spoken with a voice of authority, found disconcerting but highly interesting.
After luncheon and a rest period, Nancy took Judith for a tour of inspection; tennis courts, cricket field, gymnasium, common room, and library were visited in turn, the etiquette of the stairs explained--Judith learned that it was considered fearful ”side” for a Fifth-Form girl to use the front stairway to the entrance hall--and the round ended in the tuck shop where Judith was introduced to the presiding genius--Mrs. Wilc.o.x, the housekeeper's sister--a bright-eyed, cheerful little Englishwoman, who, to judge by the way the girls greeted her, was immensely popular.
Sally May and Josephine hailed them from a coveted table by the west window, and the four of them were soon busily and happily engaged with peach sundaes and the foibles and peculiarities of teachers new and old.
The four-thirty bell caused a hasty scattering: Judith was enrolled in music and studio cla.s.ses and introduced to study hour in the library.
It _was_ a busy day. Judith, as she drifted off into the sleep that claimed her before she had time to think over the events of the last twenty-four hours, wondered drowsily whether she had been at York a day or a week, and however was she going to tell Mother and Daddy _all_ about it as she had promised!
By the end of the week the new girls had been so well shepherded by the old that Judith had lost her first shyness and bewilderment at living with so many new people, and was beginning to feel that she herself was an old girl and ready to uphold and defend York Hill traditions.
Everything had so far been made so easy for her that she had lost sight of Aunt Nell's cryptic remarks concerning the important things that the girls were to teach her. But the week was not to end without the beginning of the discipline Aunt Nell had been thinking about.
When Nancy and Judith ran upstairs after luncheon on Friday, Judith was surprised to find on her bedroom door a card. There was one on Josephine's too.
”Oh, dear,” groaned that young person, ”bedroom inspection already! And I left my boots under my bed last night. 'C,' of course, and I did want to have at least 'B's' this term. What've you got, Judy?” And looking over Judith's shoulder she read aloud, ”A. Excellent. A pretty room in exquisite order.”
”My word, Judy, you're in Miss Watson's good books all right. Did you hear that, Cathy?”--as their prefect appeared in her door dressed for going out, ”Judy has 'A' on her card.”
”Splendid,” said Catherine approvingly; ”I wish the rest of you would take Judith's room as a model. You may thank your lucky star, Sally May,” she continued as Sally May joined them, ”that Miss Watson hadn't time to inspect your room. It's in a shocking state. Run along now and have things s.h.i.+p-shape by dinner-time.”
”Isn't she simply lovely?” breathed Sally May when Catherine had gone; ”I'd do _anything_ in this world for her. But I don't see how I could _ever_ be tidy. I never looked after my things before and there's _so_ little s.p.a.ce in these tiny rooms.”
”They certainly are tiny,” agreed Judith. ”I couldn't think of anything but a cabin on board s.h.i.+p when I saw mine.”
”Well, if Cathy wants us to be tidy, we've just got to be,” said Nancy with finality, and Josephine and Jane were summoned to help eat the last of Judith's chocolates, and lend their brains to a scheme ”for furthering extreme and painful neatness,” as Sally May put it.