“I’m very proud of our table,” Miss Jenks added.
The girls looked at Daphne, and the Twins and winked at each other. Their favorite teachers would have more cause to be proud later in the day.
After luncheon the entire school plunged into a whirl of work that lasted until time to dress for dinner.
“Best clothes, mind,” Poppy had warned the girls; “white if you have it, Miss Hull loves to see the whole school in white.”
The girls nodded, and hurried to their rooms, to appear a half-hour later in filmy white dresses, their hair tied by pink and blue bows.
“You look like a lot of dainty butterflies,” Miss Hull told them delighted at the pretty picture they made. “I appreciate your wearing white, for I am sure you did it to please me. But I mustn’t talk any longer, we have still that surprise ahead of us and it would never do to delay it.”
They took their seats and there followed a meal of the kind one reads about in books—a typical southern dinner.
At every girl’s place there was a dainty place card. Miss Remsted had painted them all, and every one was a little joke in itself. The Twins had green pods with two little peas in each, and written above it was “alike as.”
Sally had a green poll-parrot with “My Aunt Jane’s” written in front of it. Daphne’s read, “I excel with” and then a bow and arrow.
The tables were all decorated with baskets of fruit and nuts, and the snowy linen and shining silver gave the beautiful old hall a splendid aspect.