Nan Sherwood at Lakeview Hall Part 12

"There are never more than seven crackers on a plate--just seven, the perfect number," sighed this hyperbolical girl. "I've counted them again and again. Why seven, and not six, or eight, deponent knoweth not. I think Mrs. Cupp counts them out that way for some fell purpose of her own," went on Laura, reflectively. "She must have the crackers all numbered and she deals 'em around as in a game at cards. Anyhow, I tried a trick once and it didn't work, so I believe she has them numbered."

"What did you do?" asked wide-eyed Bess.

"The girl next to me didn't appear at supper. I took her crackers and slipped them down my stocking. But Mrs. Cupp caught me before I got out of the room, took me to her den, and made me disgorge the booty----"

A mellow gong clanged through the building. Nan and Bess, who were now almost convulsed by their new friend's remarks, had managed to make some sort of a toilet.

"Come on!" whispered the red-haired girl, hoa.r.s.ely. "Never mind your bags and wraps. _They_ will be perfectly safe on that settee. But hang onto the lunch box. If Mrs. Cupp finds _that_ she will confiscate its contents, I a.s.sure you."

She thrust the box into Bess' hands and drove both the new girls before her, like a fussy hen with two chickens.

CHAPTER X

A FAMOUS INTRODUCTION

The girls crowded into the dining hall from all directions. Nan and Bess were told that there were many who had not yet arrived; but to the two strangers from Tillbury it seemed as though there was a great throng.

The curious glances flung at Nan and her chum confused them, the buzz of conversation added to their embarra.s.sment, and had it not been for the red-haired girl, Laura Polk, they would have been tempted to turn and flee. They were quickly shown to seats, however, at a table where every seat was filled with laughing, chattering girls. As the school was not yet fully organized for work, there was no person in authority to take the head of the table. Nan and Bess were glad to note that their acquaintance, the red-haired girl, was with them. Bess was under the embarra.s.sing necessity of holding the lunch box in her lap.

"Hullo, Laura!" whispered one mischievous girl from across the table. "I thought you were going to have your hair dyed this vacation?"

"So I did," declared Miss Polk gravely.

"Well! I must say it didn't seem to do it any good," was the next observation.

"That's just it," said the serious, red-haired girl. "The dye didn't take."

"I really do wonder, Laura," said another of her schoolmates, "how your hair ever came to be such a very reddish red."

"I had scarlet fever when I was very young," said Miss Polk, promptly, "and it settled in my hair."

The smothered laughter over this had scarcely subsided when another girl asked: "Say, Polk! what's your new chum, there, got in her lap?"

This pointed question was aimed at Bess, who blushed furiously. Laura remained as grave as a judge, and explained:

"Why, it's her lunch. She seems to be afraid she won't get supper enough here and has brought reinforcements."

The laughter that went up at this sally drew the attention of many sitting near to that table. Bess Harley's eyes filled with angry tears.

She saw that the red-haired girl had set a trap for her, and she had walked right into it.

Bess really had feared she would not have supper enough. Having refused to eat out of the lunch box on the train, her appet.i.te had now begun unmistakably to manifest itself. If the usual supper served the pupils of Lakeview Hall was as scanty as Laura Polk had intimated, the remains of the lunch Bess' mother had bought for the two chums in Chicago would be very welcome indeed.

A glance around the table, however, soon a.s.sured even un.o.bservant Bess that the red-haired girl was letting her tongue run idly when she criticised the food served. There were heaps of bread and biscuit, plenty of golden b.u.t.ter, and a pitcher of milk that had _not_ been twice skimmed, beside each plate. Besides, there were apple sauce and sliced peaches and cold meat in abundance. The supper was plain, but plentiful enough, considering that Dr. Prescott believed in giving her girls their hearty meal at noon.

Nan had at once suspected that Laura Polk was joking. But, even she had not appreciated the fact that the red-haired girl was deliberately laying a trap for them until the subject of the lunch box was brought up. Nan whispered quickly to Bess:

"Laugh! laugh! Laugh with them, instead of letting them laugh at you!"

But Bess could not do that. She was very angry. And as soon as these fun-loving girls saw she had lost her temper, they kept the joke up.

Bess angrily allowed the lunch box to fall to the floor under the table.

But, as the meal progressed, gradually almost every dish on the table gravitated toward Bess' plate.

"Want any more of your apple sauce, Cora?" the question would be raised, quite gravely. "No? Well do pa.s.s it this way, we're hungry over here," and the half-eaten apple sauce would appear at Bess Harley's elbow.

Her plate was soon ringed about with pitchers of milk, half-empty b.u.t.ter plates, broken biscuits, dabs of peaches and apple sauce in lonely-looking saucers. Nan was almost choked with a desire to laugh; and yet she was sorry for her chum, too. If Bess had only been able to take the joke in good part!

"Don't show that you are so disturbed by their fun," begged Nan of her friend.

"Fun! I'll write my mother and have her take me away from here,"

muttered Bess, in a rage. "Why, these girls are all _beasts_!"

"Hush, honey! don't make it worse than it already is," advised sensible Nan. "The madder you get the more they will enjoy teasing you."

A rather severe and plainly dressed woman, wearing spectacles, who had been walking about among the tables, now came to the one where Nan and Bess were seated. She looked somewhat suspiciously at the dishes pushed so close to Bess Harley's plate; but all the girls at the table were as sober as they could be.

"Dr. Prescott tells me you are the two girls from Tillbury," she said to Nan.

"Yes," was the reply. "My friend is Bess Harley and I am Nan Sherwood."

"We are glad to have you with us, and you have been a.s.signed to Number Seven, Corridor Four. Your trunks will be unpacked in the trunk room in the bas.e.m.e.nt to-morrow." Then she flashed another glance at the array of dishes before Bess.

"What is the meaning of this?" she demanded.

"I--I----," Bess stammered, and some of the girls gave suppressed giggles.

Laura Polk soberly came to her rescue--or appeared to.

"This is her birthday, and all the girls have been giving her presents.

At least, that is the way I understand it."

Irrepressible laughter broke out around the table. Even Mrs. Cupp smiled grimly.

"I fancy you started the birthday presentation, Laura," she said. "Let us have no more of it."

When she had pa.s.sed along Laura Polk leaned forward to whisper shrilly across Nan to Bess:

"Have a care, Bess! I think Mrs. Cupp suspects you. Don't try to smuggle any of that apple sauce up to Room Seven, Corridor Four, in your stocking!"

Of course this was all very ridiculous, and, taken in the right spirit, the introduction of Nan Sherwood's chum to Lakeview Hall, would not have been so bad. This was really a mild initiation to the fraternal companions.h.i.+p of a lot of gay, fun-loving girls.

But Bess had a high sense of her own dignity. At home, in Tillbury, because her father was an influential man, and her family of some local importance, n.o.body had ever treated her in this way. To be an object of the ridicule of strangers is a hard trial at best. Just then, to Bess'

mind, it seemed as though her whole school life at Lakeview Hall must be spoiled by this opening incident.

Nan felt for her friend, for she well knew how sensitive Bess was. But she knew this was all in fun. She could not help but be amused by the red-haired girl's jokes. There wasn't a sc.r.a.p of harm in anything the exuberant one did or said. There was no meanness in Laura Polk. She was not like Linda Riggs.