“You’d best not begin, Fan, or I’ll howl,” said Betty.
“Hush! do hush, Fanny!” exclaimed Hester. “Don’t forget that we are in mourning for darling auntie.”
“But have you really no other dresses?”
“There’s nothing wrong with these,” said Hester; “they’re quite comfortable.”
Just at that moment there came peals of laughter proceeding from several girls’ throats. The room-door was burst open, and Sylvia entered first, her face very red, her eyes bright and defiant, and a tiny piece of raw meat on a plate in her hand. The girls who followed her did not belong to the Specialities, but they were all girls of the upper school. Fanny thanked her stars that they were not particular friends of hers. They were choking with laughter, and evidently thought they had never seen so good a sight in their lives.
“Oh, this is too delicious!” said Sibyl Ray, a girl who had just been admitted into the upper school. “We met this—this young lady, and she said she wanted to go to the kitchen to get some raw meat; and when I told her I didn’t know the way she just took my hand and drew me along with her, and said, ‘If you possessed a Dickie, and he was dying of hunger, you wouldn’t hesitate to find the kitchen.’”
“Well, I’m not going to interfere,” said Fanny; “but I think you know the rules of the house, Sibyl, and that no girl is allowed in the kitchen.”
“I didn’t go in,” said Sibyl; “catch me! But I went to the beginning of the corridor which leads to the kitchen. She went in, though, boldly enough, and she got it. Now, we do want to see who Dickie is. Is he a dog, or a monkey, or what?”
“He’s a spider—goose!” said Sylvia. “And now, please, get out of the way. He won’t eat if you watch him. I’ve got a good bit of meat, Betty,” she continued. “It’ll keep Dickie going for several days, and he likes it all the better when it begins to turn. Don’t you Dickie?”