“It is really too awful to think or to speak about,” sighed Jo. “Now I know how Eve must have felt when she had to pack up and leave the garden; only she went because she insisted upon eating of the tree of knowledge, while I must go and eat, whether I will or not.”
“Your appetite for that special fruit isn't so great that you'll ever be troubled with indigestion,” dryly rejoined Patty, the student of the “Jolly Six.”
“Fancy starting off at half-past ten to-morrow morning; fancy reaching school at one, and sitting down stupidly to a dinner of broth, fried liver, and cracker-pudding! Ugh! it makes me shiver,” said Alice.
“Think of us,” cried Geoff, “going back to college, and settling into regular 'digs.'”
“If 'digs' is a contraction of dignitaries,” said Edith, saucily, “you'll never be those; if you mean you are to delve into the mines of learning, that's doubtful, too; but if it's a corruption of Digger Indian, I should say there might be some force in your remark. Oh, what matchless war-whoops you gave in the pursuit to-night. Every separate hair in Betty Bean's head stood on end, and the Misses Sawyer sat close together and trembled visibly!”
“It was a wonderful evening,” remarked Hugh. “There were persons there who said that Bell was beautiful and I was clever.”
“I don't want to annoy you,” laughed Jo, “but I heard exactly the opposite.”
“Which only goes to show that both of us are both,” retorted Bell.
“And that sentence goes to show that a week's absence from the class in parsing and analysis has had its effect,” said Patty. “Look at our angel cottage, girls! Doesn't it look like a marble night-lamp with the hall light shining through all its sweet little windows'?”
“The fire isn't out, that's fortunate,” observed Alice, as she saw a small cloud of smoke issuing from the chimney.