an
generally take their measure in five minutes. She's got a sister, hasn't
she--a Miss Edith, who showed me my bedroom? I expect I shall like her.
Have I hit the mark?"

The girls looked at one another and laughed.

"Just about," said Fiona Campbell. "Poppie's temper varies like the
barometer. One day she's at 'set fair', and calls everybody 'dear', or
'my child'; and the next she's at 'stormy', and woe betide you if you so
much as drop your serviette at dinner, or happen to sneeze in the
elocution class! Miss Edie's ripping! She doesn't teach much--only one
or two classes. She does the housekeeping, and sees we keep our clothes
tidy, and change our wet stockings, and all that sort of thing."

"And how many are there of you? Remember, I've been dumped down here at
a day's notice, and I know absolutely nothing at all about the school
yet. Is it a big one?"

"Twenty boarders and seventy-two day girls--that's ninety-two, and
you'll make the ninety-third. There are eight Senior boarders, and
they've got a sitting-room of their own, with a carpet on the floor. We,
the common herd, are only provided with linoleum, as you see."

"Eight from twenty leaves twelve! You're not all here."

"No; two of us are practising, and the kids have half an hour with Miss
Edith before they go to bed."

"Shouldn't mind half an hour with Miss Edith myself. By the by, are you
keen on Fudge here?"

The girls stared.

"I don't know what you mean," returned Hetty Hancock rather stiffly.
"What is Fudge?"

Gipsy threw out her arms in mock horror.

"Shades of Yankee Doodle!" she exclaimed. "These benighted Britishers
have actually never heard of the magic name Fudge! Why, in the States
it's a word to conjure with! I've known some girls who absolutely lived
for it."

"You haven't told us what it is yet. Is it a game?"

Gipsy laughed till she nearly collapsed off the table.

"A game? No; Fudge is candy--the most delicious adorable stuff you ever
tasted. Get me a pan, and some sugar, and some milk, and some butter,
and I'll make some for you this instant. How you'll bless me!"

"Don't I wish you could!" sighed Norah Bell. "But we're not allowed to
make toffee except on the 5th of November. They let us have a pan then,
and we boil it over this fire."

"We'll have a pan of our own here," said Gipsy cheerily. "I'll go out
and buy one to-morrow. I can't exist without Fudge."

"But we aren't allowed to go out and buy things," exclaimed t