S CAROLS 121
VII. HOMEWARD BOUND 138
VIII. A PICNIC IN THE SNOW 156
IX. A PROGRESSIVE CHRISTMAS PARTY 176
X. THE DUNGEON OF DISAPPOINTMENT 198
XI. IN THE ATTIC 218
XII. HUMDRUM DAYS 235
XIII. IN THE FOOTSTEPS OF AMANTHIS 254
XIV. "CINDERELLA" 273
XV. A HARD-EARNED PEARL 292
XVI. "SWEET SIXTEEN" 315

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

PAGE

"'GEE WHIZ!' EXCLAIMED ROB, IN A TEASING TONE.
'SAY THAT AGAIN, WON'T YOU PLEASE?'"
(_See page 163_) _Frontispiece_

"MADAM'S CONVERSATION LED FAR AWAY FROM THE
CREST AND ITS LESSON" 25

"STUDYING THE FACE OF THE HANDSOME YOUNG FELLOW
WITH INTEREST" 105

"'I TELL YOU SOMEBODY WAS TRYING TO SANDBAG ME'" 152

"ONE OF THE BOYS HAD DARED HIM TO CARRY IT" 221

"'I NEARLY FAINTED WHEN I HAPPENED TO LOOK UP'" 248

"SHE RODE OVER TO ROLLINGTON" 299

"'NO MATTAH WHAT LIES AHEAD . . . I'LL NOT
DISAPPOINT THEM'" 333

THE LITTLE COLONEL'S CHRISTMAS VACATION

CHAPTER I.

WARWICK HALL

WARWICK HALL looked more like an old English castle than a modern
boarding-school for girls. Gazing at its high towers and massive portal,
one almost expected to see some velvet-clad page or lady-in-waiting come
down the many flights of marble steps leading between stately terraces
to the river. Even a knight with a gerfalcon on his wrist would not have
seemed out of place, and if a slow-going barge had trailed by between
the willow-fringed banks of the Potomac, it would have seemed more in
keeping with the scene than the steamboats puffing past to Mount Vernon,
with crowds of excursionists on deck.

The gorgeous peacocks strutting along the terraces in the sun were
partly responsible for this impression of mediaeval grandeur. It was for
that very purpose that Madam Chartley, the head of the school, kept the
peacocks. That was one reason, also, that she proudly retained the coat
of arms in the great stained glass window over the stairs, when
circumstances obliged her to