Hilary’s girls, like the rest, babbled of many things on the way.
“Oo-oh! I’ve lost off my slippers and the snow is so co-old!”
“I’m most frozen!” declared Olivia.
“Why don’t you put on your fur coat, silly, instead of carrying it?” asked Isabel, who was rather unjustly disgusted with Olivia.
“I d-didn’t have time, with Virgie and Hilary pulling me along so!”
“Well, we didn’t want you burned up, did we?” asked Virgie.
“It is hard on Olivia, girls,” said the just Hilary, who always “kept her head.” “I’m sorry, Olivia, that we had to do it, but you have to obey order in fire drill, or the real thing, as this seems to be. You’ll be all right in a minute.” And after reporting her girls all present, Hilary spent a little while in seeing that Olivia was soothed, and warmed by having her feet rubbed until they were in a glow, while she sat by a radiator wrapped in her big fur coat. The gym teacher was flying around, finding towels and encouraging frightened girls. Most of the girls, however, had good self-control and some of them rather enjoyed the adventure.
“Do you suppose that our things will be all burned up?” asked Avalon.
“I haven’t seen a flame yet,” answered Lilian.
“It does seem as if we might have taken time in a real fire to gather up our most important things, don’t you think so, Pauline?”