read them and tell me about them. I'll take the
box out if it says so, but if we have to keep things in such angelic
order why in the world don't they give us room?"

"Room? Indeed this is a large room, given us especially, and it is
quite a favor to be allowed to room together--only real sisters ever
get a double."

"Heaven help the singles!" sighed Tavia in mock devotion. "But come
on, Doro,--we are missing all the fun. I did think I heard the mob at
our door."

Without further leave or license Tavia dragged Dorothy from her work
and closed the door of Number Nineteen behind her. In the hall they
found Rose-Mary, whom the girls called "Cologne," Amy Brook, Nita
Brant, and Lena Berg. All were trying to talk at once, each had "the
very most delicious vacation" to tell about, and to Dorothy it appeared
the first requisite for boarding school ways was the coining of absurd
and meaningless phrases. Tavia fell right into line, and could
discount anyone of the crowd. "Splendifiorous, glorioutious and
scrambunctious," were plainly hard to beat, and no one seemed willing
to try. Cologne had a way of saying things in a jerky little jump that
suggested bumping noses, Amy Brook fairly strangled with dashes and
other unexpected shorts stops, while Nita Brant "wallowed" in such
exclamations as:

"Fine and dandy! Perfectly sugary! Too killingly, dear, for anything!"

It was Cologne who declared Nita "wallowed" in slang, because the Nicks
had decided that no ready-made slang should be used at meetings, and
Nita persisted in ignoring the rule. Each new term brought the
season's current phrases back in the custody of the sandy-haired Nita
and now, on the first night, her companions took precious good care to
remind her of the transgression.

Altogether Dorothy found it difficult to keep track of anything like
conversation, and was forced to say "yes" and "no" on suspicion. Tavia
had better luck, Edna Black (christened Ebony Ned) took her in charge
at once, and the two (Ned had already established her reputation as a
black sheep), dashed off down the corridor, bursting in on unsuspecting
"Babes" (newcomers), and managing, somehow or other, to upset
half-emptied trunk trays, and do damage generally.

"Hello! Hello!" came a shout from the first turn or senior row.
"Come, somebody, and fan me!"

"That's 'Dick,'" Ned told Tavia. "Molly Richards, but we call her
Dick. By the way, what shall we call you? What is yo