Nan and Bess hurried back to Number Seven, Corridor Four. All Bess’ anger and tears had evaporated, and she was full of talk and laughter. Moreover, she and Nan ate every crumb of the shoe-box lunch before they went to bed!
CHAPTER XII
EVERYTHING NEW
Lessons were not taken up for several days after Nan Sherwood and Bess Harley arrived at Lakeview Hall. This gave them an opportunity for getting acquainted with the other girls and their strange surroundings, as well as the routine of the school.
At this time of the year the rising bell was at six and breakfast at seven. The girls could either spend the hour before breakfast in study or out-of-door recreation. The grounds connected with the Hall comprised all the plateau at the top of the bluff, with a mile of shore at its foot. At one place a roughly built, crooked flight of steps all the way down the face of the bluff, offered a path to the boathouse. By day that sprawling stone building was merely a place to shelter the school’s many boats, and a boatkeeper was on hand to attend to the girls’ needs. But at night, so it was whispered, the boathouse had a ghostly occupant.
“Nonsense!” exclaimed Nan Sherwood, with laughter, when she was told this. “What kind of a ghost?”
“A black ghost—all black,” declared May Winslow, who seemed to be of a rather superstitious nature.
“You mean the ghost of a colored man?” demanded Nan.
“Oh! nobody ever saw his face. But he’s all in black,” Miss Winslow stated.
“Well! that’s a novelty, at least,” chuckled Nan. “Usually ghosts are sheeted in white, with phosphorescent eyes and clammy hands.”