forgotten.

CHAPTER VII

A SENIOR DISPUTE

The last bell was three minutes late in ringing. Betty knew it was,
because she had watched the clock tick out each one with growing
impatience. When it did ring at last, she threw her latin book into her
desk, banged down the lid, and gave vent to her favorite exclamation.

"Jemima! Thank goodness that's over." She went to the window and looked
out.

A heavy snow had been falling all morning, and the grounds of Seddon
Hall were sufficiently covered to assure good coasting.

Polly finished the last couple of sentences of her latin prose with
little or no regard to the context and joined Betty.

"Looks bully, doesn't it?" she asked. "I hope it stays long enough to
pack."

"It's wonderful," Betty agreed, "but don't let's stand and look at it
any longer. Come on out, quick."

"Coming, Lo?" Polly inquired, stopping beside Lois' desk.

"No, not just yet. I've got to speak to Miss Crosby, over in the studio.
Don't wait for me. I'll come as soon as I can," she promised. As she saw
Polly's look of disapproval, adding by way of apology, "I simply must
finish that sketch, Poll. It won't take long."

So Polly and Betty left her and went out together. They found their
sleds from the year before, in the gym cellar, and pulled them to the
top of the hill.

The snow had drifted into the road, and was so deep that the coasting
was slow at first.

"Let's wait awhile," Betty suggested, "until the other girls have packed
it down a little; this is no fun."

"All right, let's take a walk. I wish I knew how to snowshoe," Polly
said as she sank to her knees in a drift.

"When's that friend of yours coming?" Betty inquired, as they started
off towards the pond.

"Who, Maud? I don't know, sometime soon. We've got to be good to her,
Bet. She's really all right in some ways."

"I remember her only that first summer," Betty said thoughtfully. "She
didn't make much of an impression then."

"Did you ever see her ride?" Polly demanded. "We used to go out in the
back pasture and try and tame a couple of colts we had. Maud was a
wonder. Perhaps Mrs. Baird knows when she's coming."

"Let's go ask her." Betty turned back toward the school. "My feet are
soaked anyway."

Mrs. Baird was standing on the Senior porch when they came up the drive.
She called to them.

"Did Jane find you?" she asked, as they reached the steps. "I sent her
to look for you."

Polly laughed. "Why no,