All too soon the Thanksgiving vacation ended. The absent girls came back; the places at table were all full again; Ann’s mother went home; Suzanne, who was unable to persuade her mother to a longer visit, appeared with the rest of the girls, and, for a wonder, in the best of spirits. In a few days lessons and school work had assumed their proper place and everything was in full swing. Only the weather was depressing. It had turned a little warmer, with rain, which melted the snow into a miserable slush. This was immediately cleaned from the walks, but not without an interval during which careless girls without overshoes acquired wet feet and sore throats. Ann, sad to say, was among these. She escaped tonsilitis and going to the little hospital which was full for a few days; but she gargled and took medicine and had her throat swabbed, to her great disgust. One week end she spent a great part of her time in bed and had her meals sent over.
“You never are sorry enough for people that are sick, Marta,” she philosophized one evening, when she was sitting in her bath robe by their table studying. “Not until you are sick yourself. And then, as soon as you are well, you forget it! I don’t think much of human nature myself.”
“Neither do I,” Marta agreed.
“Still, you do find out how many friends you have, and how kind people can be. Maybe human nature isn’t so bad after all.”
“I’m sure it isn’t,” said Marta.
“Marta Ward! You would agree with anything! I believe that you don’t know what I’m talking about!”
Marta looked at her dreamily, raising her eyes from her book. “Something about human nature, wasn’t it?”
Ann threw back her head and laughed. “Never mind. You wanted to be polite, but your room-mate would persist in talking about her own experiences while you were studying. Now you will never know the wise philosophy you have missed. Go on back, Marta. Where were you?”
“In London,” said Marta, who was reading history.
“It’s almost time for the bell. Let’s investigate the packages in that box when you get through with your history. I don’t know what I would have done without those oranges while I was sick. They were all I wanted.”