Nan began to realize now that this banquet giving was rather a risky thing. The girls all did it, and it was considered a forgivable offence against Dr. Prescott’s rules; but of course the principal desired that the rule against eating after hours should be obeyed, or else she would not have made the regulation.
Nan was rather sorry she had yielded to Bess Harley’s suggestion and arranged this banquet. But now being given over heart and hand to the affair, Nan did all she could to make the entertainment a success.
At this distance from the Hall the girls felt free to let their tongues run, and to laugh and chatter to their hearts’ content.
“Oh!” cried May Winslow, “this party is lots nicer than any we ever had in our rooms, for here we do not have to set a watch for Mrs. Cupp, or be so careful how we breathe.”
“Only we should set a sentinel on guard against ghosts, May,” suggested Laura, wickedly. “That should be your job, honey.”
“How mean of you!” squealed May. “I had all but forgotten that horrid black thing we saw.”
“It is the ghost of some poor old slave your grandfather owned, Winslow,” said one girl. “That is, if it really is a black ghost.”
“He wouldn’t haunt me,” returned May, who was from Alabama. “I’m not afraid of any negro, alive or dead! Grandfather Mullin was awfully kind to all his people, and they all loved him. They didn’t feel themselves slaves. Our own forefathers were held in bondage by the lords and barons over in England, four or five hundred years ago.”
“Oh, say! don’t start anything like that here,” begged Amelia. “We get enough history I should hope, from Mr. Bonner.”
“Right-oh!” yawned Laura, lazily. “Let good fellowship flow with that cocoa that already smells so good; and as we set to work upon the more stable viands——”