"It's mighty nice to have you back, Sally," Poppy smiled affectionately.

"We room together until your friend Daphne comes," Prue told her.

"Good work. h.e.l.lo, Ann; what are you lurking in the shadows for?" Sally demanded.

"Oh, I never rush, even to say how do you do to my best friend. I much prefer to be the last on the list. Did you have a good summer?"

"Oh, wonderful!" Sally enthused. "Alice's family were awfully nice to me, and I had a glorious time."

"It's too bad Alice isn't coming back," Gladys exclaimed. "I'm going to miss her frightfully."

"I know, but she really isn't well enough. Why girls, she's lost pounds," Sally replied. Alice Bard was a girl Sally had been visiting.

She had been to Hilltop for three years, but was unable to return on account of ill-health.

"Well, come along; let's go in," Prue suggested. "After all, we're not the only ones that want to see Sally."

They followed into the house, and Sally, after she had said "how do you do" to Miss Hull, rejoined them and they went on up to the ballroom. A shout went up from the girls as they saw her coming, and she shook hands until the silence bell sounded.

"That's the trouble," Sally protested. "We no sooner get talking when that old bell rings. There are loads of girls I haven't even had a chance to speak to yet."

The room emptied in a minute and the twins, with Sally between them, went upstairs.

"I can't come in and talk to you, because there's no visiting after hours, but I'll see you bright and early in the morning," Sally promised. "You're not homesick, are you?"

"Homesick! I should say not," Phyllis protested. "I'm so excited I'm ready to die, and now that you're here it's simply perfect."

"I never knew there were so many nice girls in the world," Janet exclaimed. "It's going to be wonderful, and won't it be fun having Daphne come?"

"Indeed it will; the old quartette together again," Sally agreed. "But I've got to fly now or I'll be caught, and that will never do on the first night back."

They parted, Janet and Phyllis, in their own room with the door closed, stood in the middle of the floor trying to decide why they were so happy.

"It's wonderful, isn't it?" Phyllis began.

"It's just like a wonderful dream," Janet agreed.

"It's nice to have Sally back, isn't it?"

"You bet."

"And I love Ann."

"So do I, the best of all."

They undressed slowly.

"You honestly like it, Jan?" Phyllis inquired anxiously, after the lights were out, and they were both in their single white beds.

Janet's hand found Phyllis's.

"I do honestly," she replied seriously. "There's something about their spirit, the nice way they tease," she added.

"And that sort of understood respect they give the Seniors," Phyllis replied. "It's all so nice and-and-oh, I can't think of the word I want."

"I can; it's _happy_," Janet told her.

They were quiet for a few minutes, and then Janet suddenly sat up in bed.

"But how awful it would have been if Miss Hull had separated us," she said in the darkness.

"She couldn't have done that. No one ever can," Phyllis replied very positively, but very sleepily.

"Never!"

CHAPTER IV-The Rivalry of the Wings

"All aboard for the grand tour of inspection," Gladys announced.

School for the day was over. All through a confusing morning the twins had been shown from one cla.s.sroom to another where they had met their teachers. There had been no attempt at lessons, but the girls had been encouraged to talk and give their opinions on the different studies. As a result of this, some shifting had been necessary. In English, one of the new girls named Ethel Rivers had been dropped to the cla.s.s below.

Because from her hasty remarks it was easy to see that she knew very little of literature. She protested, but Miss Sloc.u.m stood firm. The twins acquitted themselves well. They sat together and none of the teachers could tell them apart, for they did not know about the tiny crescent pin that Phyllis was faithfully wearing. But unlike Miss Baxter at Miss Harding's school, the faculty at Hilltop rather enjoyed their own confusion.

Now they were free for the day, and Sally with the able a.s.sistance of Prue and Gladys was waiting to show the twins over the school and the grounds.

"You've seen the cla.s.sroom," Sally began, "and you know about the a.s.sembly hall."

"Oh, Sally, if you're not going to do better than that I'm going to play guide," Gladys protested. "The idea of calling a ballroom the a.s.sembly hall! It loses all its romance."

"And besides, Miss Hull doesn't like it," Prue added.

"Why?" Phyllis inquired.

Sally waved her hand at Gladys as if she were introducing a speaker.

"You tell it, Glad, and then we'll be sure to be amused."

"I accept the nomination, and I will do my best for the people under my care," Gladys said grandly.

"Well, do start with the explanation of the ball room," Janet begged.

"I'm so curious."

"That means the history of Hilltop, but I'll do my best," Gladys replied, and began:

"Fifty years ago, Colonel Hull lived in this house. He had lots of money and he lived like a king. He was famous throughout the countryside for his wonderful hunting, but, if you just go on spending money and never do anything to make it, it doesn't last forever, so when Colonel Hull died and Miss Hull's father had the house, he found he didn't have any money to run it with. So for a long time Miss Hull and her father and mother lived in the old wing and were terribly poor.