hing, however, that she fought back the homesickness that was
rising like a flood within her, and even managed to whistle a tune as
she hung up her dresses and laid her stockings and handkerchiefs in the
drawers. Then the shoe-bag must be hung against the closet door, the bag
that Margaret had made and worked with her initials. Dearest Margaret!
and here was the pincushion that Flora gave her, and the writing-case
from Brother Hugh-- Oh! she would write to him every week of her life,
indeed she would! and so on and so on.

When the trunk was empty, the room looked less forlorn, though still
pretty bare, for in Peggy's home little thought was given to anything
not of practical use. The door was open, and happening to look up she
caught a glimpse of the opposite room, on the other side of the narrow
corridor. Here, too, the door stood open, and Peggy gazed open-eyed. A
greater contrast could hardly be imagined. Here every available inch of
wall-space was covered, with photographs, with Japanese fans and
umbrellas, with posters and ribbons and flags. The room itself was
choked, it seemed to Peggy, with chairs and tables, low tables covered
with books, with cups and saucers, with knickknacks of every possible
description. The whole effect was bewildering, but so gay and cheerful
that Peggy sighed as she glanced back at her own bare white walls, at
the bureau with its sober brush and comb, and the polished table where
the writing-case lay in solitary state. She could not imagine living in
a room like that other: she should stifle, and throw half the things out
of the window; but it would be nice to have just a few more things! If
she had only thought! Jean would have been glad to share the nests with
her, and she could have had the rattlesnake skin, for had she not killed
him herself? and then there were the fossils!

As Peggy meditated, steps came along the corridor, and halted at her
door. A face peeped in. "May I come in?" asked the girl who had sat
beside her in the class-room.

"Oh, do! I wish you would!" cried Peggy, eagerly. "I am so glad to see
you! Sit down! I wanted to tell you--you were awfully kind to let me
know she meant me. You see, I never was called Miss Montfort in my life
before."

The girl sat down, and looked kindly at Peggy. She was a
singular-looking girl, short and dark, with a curious effect of
squareness in her thickset figure. Her face was plain, but one forgot
that when one met the bright, int