scending the
stairway; so she closed her door quietly, observing that two or three
curious faces were peering at her from across the hall; and with a
feeling half homesick, half exultant, Tabitha hung up her hat and turned
for a more studied survey of her surroundings.

"Twenty-eight hooks in the closet, fourteen for me and fourteen for
Chrystobel. Isn't that the loveliest name? I never heard of it before. I
wonder if she will be as nice as she sounds! But of course she will.
Carrie says the girls are all nice. Four drawers in the dresser, two
little ones and two big ones. I will take the bottom big drawer and the
little one nearest the window. Bertha says the drawers are the same
size, but the bottom one _looks_ a little deeper. Here is a string, I
will measure.--They are exactly the same. That's where you got fooled,
Tabitha Catt! See what comes from being stingy?--I would like the bed
nearest the window, but maybe I better leave that for Chrystobel.--Clear
as crystal and sweet as a bell. I wonder if that is what her mother and
father thought when they named her that. These rockers are
i-den-ti-cally the same. That's fortunate. It won't be any temptation
to choose the prettiest. We will have to tell them apart by putting bows
on them. I will tie one of my red hair-ribbons on mine; there are four
new ones in my box of ribbons. I wish they would bring up my trunk. I
would like to unpack while I have nothing else to do. Wonder where
Carrie is. Wish she would come in and talk to me, it seems so strange
here all alone."

There was a bold knock at the door, and thinking it might be her trunk,
she flung it wide open with the words, "Bring it right in, please, and
set it in--oh, I thought--"

"You thought it was your trunk," giggled the lisping midget who faced
her in the doorway, "but it ain't. I am Cassandra Hertford. Carrie is my
room-mate. Isn't she a darling? She told me you and Mercedes McKittrick
had come, and I had to run in to see you. Carrie has gone to see about
the trunks. She said she would introduce you when she came back, but I
couldn't wait. Where's Mercedes? Oh, she is to be with Bertha Peck,
isn't she? Let's go see her."

Clutching astonished Tabitha by the hand, she dragged her out of the
room and before any remonstrance could be offered, pushed open the door
of the next apartment and announced her arrival with the shout, heard
all over the hall, "Hello, Bertha and Mercedes! Here I am with our Tabby
Ca