Miss Beggs gave a little helpless shrug of her shoulders.
"I can see that nobody has a chance to change your mind, Billie Bradley, when it's once made up," she said with a smile, then added as the girls turned toward home: "I know what I shall name my new statue. Her name shall be 'Billie.'"
"She's lovely, isn't she?" asked Violet, referring to Miss Beggs. "I wish she were going to be one of the instructors at Three Towers."
"I hope they're nice, for it's awful to live with people who aren't," sighed Laura.
"Well, we won't know very much about them till we get there."
"And then it may be too late," put in Violet dolefully.
"But Daddy says," Billie went on, "that Miss Walters, the head of the school, is just splendid."
"Well, that ought to help some," said Laura, adding with a quick change of tone that made the girls look up suddenly: "There's Amanda Peabody. Can't we hide or something?"
"I don't see where, and, besides, she won't bite you," said Billie.
Amanda Peabody was probably the most unpopular girl in North Bend. The girls disliked her as real girls always dislike a sneak and tattle-tale. Amanda was always spying around, minding everybody's business but her own, and making a general nuisance of herself.