“Won’t I?” asked Ann. “I’ll want to think about it so much that I won’t want to study.”
“I’ll risk you on that,” said Grandmother. “Don’t forget that I have never had reason to be anything but proud of you. Please keep up the record, child.”
“I will try, Grandmother,” said Ann with earnestness. “You are so good to me!”
Ah, it was not the freshman cottage, or hall, any more! When Ann, Suzanne and Madeline, with several more girls whom they had met on the train, arrived within the Forest Hill grounds, they saw many improvements added during the summer. Greetings from youth to youth, taxis full of jolly old girls and subdued new ones, trucks of trunks and bags and boxes,—all the usual sights of a girls’ school in the throes of opening were to be seen. Busy teachers, a small host of assistants in different lines, janitors and assistant janitors, truck-men, grocery wagons and express wagons, bringing supplies, contributed to the general air of enterprise.
There was not a sign of any one among Ann’s particular friends of the Jolly Six at the administration building, where Ann’s party went first. The girls had left their names and application for admittance to the new sophomore cottage, which was to add to the provisions for the sophomore girls. The school was growing and Ann’s class was one of the largest freshman classes they had had.
“Wouldn’t it be awful if there is any mistake and we don’t get our rooms?” asked Madeline, suddenly taking a panic.
“Don’t worry, Maddy,” said Suzanne. “They won’t turn us out. For some reason or other, I’m not so particular this year, though I would like to get in the new cottage. The old girls had the first chance if they wanted it; but some of them wanted to go in the old one anyhow, because of ‘tradition’ they said.”
“Tradition doesn’t appeal to me,” Madeline announced, “though there is something in those high and airy halls, and the rooms with high ceilings. But they are hard to heat in the winter, Mother says. She wants me to be in the new building.”