“I can answer one of those questions,” Peggy Pierce declared, “for I just this moment saw her in the lower hall standing near Madame Deriby’s door as though she were waiting to be admitted, and truly, she is the queerest-looking girl that I have ever seen outside of a picture-book. She had on a plaid shawl and a beaver cap and, think of it, girls, she was wearing thick woolen mittens and her skirt was skimpy and much too short, for she is almost as tall as Gertrude. She must be a new pupil, though, for an old battered suit-case was on the floor beside her. I suppose that I stared at her rather curiously and she actually looked frightened. I guess that she isn’t used to seeing other girls, for surely there is nothing scary about me, is there?”
“Of course not, Peggy,” Rosamond Wright replied indignantly. “I certainly can’t see why such a countrified girl is coming to Linden Hall Seminary, which is supposed to be a select school for the daughters of the gentry.”
“Well, don’t let’s decide about this girl until we know her,” Adele had just said, when there came a tap on the door followed by the appearance of Gertrude Willis, who was gladly welcomed by all. Peggy Pierce sprang up from the easiest chair and offered it to the newcomer.
“Oh, Peg, do keep your comfortable seat,” the older girl urged with her winning smile.
“Truly I feel much more at home on the floor,” the other maiden replied as she sat down tailor-fashion by her chum Doris.
“I can’t stay but a moment,” Gertrude said. “Madame Deriby wishes me to come to her office at four-thirty. We have a new pupil, it seems, who is unused to the ways of girls, and Madame Deriby wishes me to meet her and take her under my wing, so to speak.”
“Oh,” moaned Doris Drexel, “I know what that will mean. You will have to spend all your free time coaching her, and we won’t see anything of you, and if it’s that gawky country girl Peggy has just been telling us about, you won’t find much pleasure in her company, I’m sure of that.”
“Well, girls,” Gertrude said brightly as she arose, “you remember that one of the mottoes that we chose for our Sunnyside Club was, ‘The only creed of which we have need is the art of being kind.’”
“You are right!” Adele exclaimed. “I am afraid that we do forget sometimes. Bring the new pupil back with you and we will all help to make her feel at home.”
Then, when Gertrude was gone, the girls took out their mending, and tongues and needles flew, while they wondered what the new girl would be like.