g in the corner, wearing glasses. She looks mighty severe,
but I'll bet she can be jolly. Miss Pomeroy never has a cross teacher
here. I heard her tell Madame that Miss Cornwall is to be on our floor,
too. I suppose she will have the room next to Carrie's, as that is the
only vacant one at that end of the corridor."

"Who is the tall lady at Miss Pomeroy's table?" asked inquisitive
Tabitha, eager to make the acquaintance of all the staff of teachers.

"Miss King, of the domestic science department. Oh, you will like her!
She is splendid!"

"That's what you've said about them all," laughed the black-eyed girl,
privately thinking she had found the Garden of Eden.

"Well, they are! Really, I believe Ivy Hall is the loveliest boarding
school there is in the world. We are just like one great, big family
here. Miss Pomeroy makes the _dearest_ mother."

"What are the other teachers, then? Aunts?" Tabitha asked.

Jessie shouted. "I never thought of it before, but that is surely what
they are, and they do give us the loveliest times, and make the lessons
so interesting that it doesn't seem like study at all. But they are
awfully particular. They won't take _any_ kind of a girl here. She has
to be well recommended and even then there are always about twice as
many girls who want to enter as there is room for. This year there were
forty who couldn't get in."

"Oh!" breathed Tabitha, recalling with alarm Miss Pomeroy's words on
the stairs. "Do they ever send them away after they have begun school
here?"

"I--don't--know. Why, yes, sometimes. There was a girl here last year
who cheated and took things that didn't belong to her and was real saucy
to the teachers; and when she went home at Christmas time she never came
back. She told us that she didn't want to, but I think Miss Pomeroy
wouldn't let her. There goes the signal for assembly. We always meet
just after tea each evening for chapel services."

"Chapel services?"

"Yes. We sing a hymn or two and listen to a short talk from one of the
teachers before going up to our rooms for study. Likely Miss Pomeroy
will speak tonight, as this is the first evening. Sit anywhere you wish.
Here's a hymn-book."

Tabitha accepted the book, slipped into a vacant seat in the corner, and
marvelled at the sudden hush that fell over the noisy throng as the
silvery-haired principal arose to address them. This wise lady was not
given to sermonizing, but talked in a confidential, motherly