siasm, as soon as
the door closed.

"She seems to be. You're in luck, Carita. I wish you could see _my_
cross!"

"We Freshies haven't any of the lugs you grown-ups sport," Mary said,
entering the room with her pitcher of water. "There's only one bathroom
on this floor for six girls. Fancy! Getting a bath is a regular Saturday
night affair."

"This is your first year here, too, then," Blue Bonnet said with some
surprise.

"No--second."

"And you are a Freshman?"

"Well, you see, I was out last year part of the time--typhoid
fever--and--oh, I'm no high-brow, anyway! Mother thought I'd best take
the year over again. She says I've plenty of time. I'm just fifteen."

She laughed good-naturedly, showing a set of teeth dazzling in their
perfection and whiteness.

"I'm working hard this year, though. You see, I want a room with a bath,
and you have to be a Sophomore to get it."

"I see. An incentive, isn't it?"

"This is a fairly good room, don't you think? It's the best on the
floor. Carita's lucky--that is, as far as the room goes. My room-mate
was called home three weeks before Christmas. Her mother died. Poor
little Nell!"

"I'm sorry for her," Carita said sympathetically, "but if she hadn't
gone I couldn't have entered the school this year, it was so crowded."

Somewhere down the length of the hall a gong sounded.

"What's that for?" Blue Bonnet asked.

"Bed. In a half hour another will ring and every light on this floor
will go off instantly."

Blue Bonnet looked at her watch.

"You mean to say you have to be in bed at half-past nine o'clock?"

Mary nodded.

"Well, I reckon I'd better run. I haven't unpacked yet."

"Oh, they aren't so awfully particular the first day. School doesn't
really begin until to-morrow."

Blue Bonnet started to say good night to Carita. As she bent to kiss her
she paused.

"Why don't you come down and stay with me to-night?" she said. "My
room-mate isn't back yet. I shouldn't be half so lonesome."

"All right--if--do you think they'd mind?"

Carita addressed Mary.

Mary took a look down the hall.

"Skip along," she said generously. "All's serene on the Potomac. You'd
better hurry though, while the coast's clear."

And hurry they did.

Blue Bonnet turned out the light in her room, which she had left
burning, and threw up the window blinds, letting in a stream of silver
light.

"I reckon we can undress by that," she said, "and I can get up an hour
earlier in