were always wild, mirth-loving spirits in our
midst, so full of fun and frolic that the exuberance of their spirits
was continually breaking out, much to the discomfort of tutors and
governesses. When the holydays were approaching, and the strict
discipline usually maintained among the pupils was somewhat relaxed,
these outbreaks became more numerous, insomuch that lessons were
carelessly omitted, or left unlearned. When study hours were over
misrule was triumphant. Lizzie Lincoln could not find a seat at the
table where some of the older girls were manufacturing fancy articles
for Christmas presents, and avenged herself by pinning together the
dresses of the girls who were seated around the table, and afterward
fastening each dress to the carpet. Fan Selby saw the manoeuvre, and
ran to her room, where she equipped herself in a frightful looking
mask, which she had manufactured of brown paper, painted in horrid
devices. Arrayed in this mask, and a long white wrapper, she came
stalking in at the door of the sitting-room. In their fright the girls
screamed and tried to rush from the table, when a scene of confusion
ensued which beggars description. The noise reached the ears of the
teachers, who came from different parts of the house to the scene of
the riot, but ere they reached it, Fan had deposited the mask out of
sight in her own room, and was again in her place, looking as innocent
as if nothing had happened. She even aided the teachers in their
search for the missing "fright." When this fruitless search was ended,
and a monitress placed in the sitting-room to prevent further riots,
a new alarm was raised. Mary Lee blackened her face with burnt cork,
and entered the kitchen by the outside door, begging for cold
victuals, much to the terror of the raw Hibernians who were very
quietly sitting before the fire, and telling tales of the Emerald
Isle, for they feared a negro as they would some wild beast. They ran
up stairs to give the alarm, but when they returned the bird had
flown, and while a fruitless search was instituted throughout the
basement, Mary was in her own room, hastily removing the ebon tinge
from her face. Such were a few among the many wild pranks of the
mischief spirits, invented to while away the time. Quite different
from this was the employment of the "sisterhood." A number of the
older pupils of the school had seated themselves night after night
around the table which stood in the centre of the sitti