ork Hill--and that will be exciting next term
and no mistake. Oh, how glad I am that I've got Nancy!"

CHAPTER IX

THE ANONYMOUS LETTER

WHAT fun it was to get back to York Hill!

As Judith stood in the front hall waiting her turn to sign the register,
she almost laughed aloud as she remembered how, standing in this very
spot, she had clung desperately to Aunt Nell five short months ago. How
different it was now! She could hardly wait to get over to South, and
see Nancy, and Catherine, and Jane, and Josephine, and all the rest of
them.

She peeped into the drawing-room, and there sat a stiff, solemn little
figure--a new girl, no doubt--and, yes, here was Eleanor bringing Peggy
Forrest to introduce to the newcomer. And as Judith ran across to her
own house, she felt a warm glow of gratitude that Miss Meredith had
chosen Nancy to be her "pilot" during those first difficult days.

Cries of welcome greeted her in the corridor.

"Hi, there, Judibus! Had a good time?"

"Sally May was looking for you, Judy."

"Good old Scrooge!"

"Merry Christmas, everybody--Happy New Year to all the world," quoted
Judith promptly, seizing her letters and making her way through the
crowd around Miss Marlowe's door down to the good old "Jolly Susan" and
Nancy.

Yes, there was Nancy's pretty yellow head, and in another minute she was
looking into Nancy's merry eyes and trying to answer three questions at
once and say "hullo" to Josephine and Jane and Sally May.

Judith was the last to arrive, so they all crowded into her room and
sampled Aunt Nell's Christmas cake--thoughtfully provided for the
occasion--and the big box of chocolates which Josephine's brother had
sent.

Five tongues wagged merrily in spite of cake and candy, for there were
endless things to tell--Josephine had been to her first real dance, and
Jane had been down to New York with Phyllis Lovell, and you may be sure
that Nancy and Judith were not behind the others in their accounts of
"perfectly gorgeous" times. And when Catherine joined them and added her
tale of a gay winter fete in Winnipeg, Judith felt that no home-coming
_could_ be happier.

"Oh, isn't it nice to _belong!_" said Judith to herself as she dressed
for supper. "I wonder how that new girl is getting on--I guess she's in
our form when Eleanor got Peggy for her--I wish I could do something to
make her feel at home--"

Josephine's head appeared in the door and she whispered mysteriously,