Chapter XVII: First Day in a New School

It had been decided between Mr. Morrison and the Colonel, who had been corresponding about the matter, not to start Geraldine in the Sunnyside Seminary until she appeared to be quite contented to stay in the village. But on the Monday morning following the making of her dress, Geraldine herself appeared in the breakfast room unusually early and asked her “uncle-colonel” if he would not take her out to the seminary and introduce her to Miss Demorest. How the old gentleman’s face brightened as he asked: “And so you are really content to stay and be the sunshine of my home?”

Impulsively the girl kissed his cheek. “I’m glad you _want_ me,” she said sincerely, “and I’ll _try_ to be sunny.” Then, as Mrs. Gray had entered the room with a cheery good morning, the Colonel shared the good news. There was a mistiness in the grey eyes of the little old lady and a song of thanksgiving in her heart. Geraldine, to prove to them that _her_ heart was changed, went over and kissed Mrs. Gray also as she said: “My dear little Make-believe Grandmother is helping me to see things in a different light, more as I would have seen them if Mother had lived.”

Then into the room came Alfred, and the good news was told to him. “That’s great!” he exclaimed. “Dad will be so pleased. He certainly has a soft spot in his big heart for this little old town. Say, Mrs. Gray, do you mind if I eat in a rush? I’m afraid I’ll be late for the students’ special if I don’t hurry.”

Alfred and Jack went every morning to the “Prep” school in Dorchester.

During the sleigh ride to the seminary Geraldine chatted happily about how surprised the girls would be to see her there. She had purposely timed their going, when classes would be occupied, that she might surprise them at the recess of which they had told her.

And that is just what happened. After making arrangements with Miss Demorest for his ward to complete the winter term at the seminary, the Colonel departed, promising to return at the closing hour, but Geraldine said that she would like to walk to town with the other girls and that she would wait at Merry Lee’s house until Jack and Alfred returned from Dorchester. Then she and her brother could return together.

The Colonel noticed a slight flushing of her pretty face as she made the suggestion, and he wondered about it as he drove home through the crisp, sunlit morning.

After planning with Miss Demorest about the classes she would enter, Geraldine was told that she might wait in the library, where a cheerful fire was burning in the hearth, and that, after the midmorning recreation, she might accompany her friends to Miss Preen’s English class.

As Geraldine sat in the big comfortable chair in front of the fire, she had time to think how very different her stay in Sunnyside was turning out from what she had expected. How she had dreaded it, and how selfish and stubborn she had been! It was a wonder that the Colonel had even _wanted_ her to stay; and how could that dear Mrs. Gray be so nice to her when she had snubbed her so rudely? Even the girls had been generous to overlook her snobbishness when they came to call upon her. She actually laughed aloud when she thought of the prank they had played upon her. Then she curled up in the chair and tried to hide, for the gong was announcing recess. A moment later merry laughter was heard as doors up and down the long corridor opened and the day pupils and boarding pupils emerged from their classes. Geraldine was wondering where her group of friends would go. She had hoped they would flock to the library, nor was she disappointed. Although she could not see them, she knew their voices. Merry was saying, “Girls, come in the library a minute. I have some news for you.”

“Is it secret?” Bertha asked.

“I’ll say it is—that is, just at first; after a time we’ll tell it to Geraldine. Are we all here? Close the door, will you; nobody will notice.”

“No, we’re _not_ all here. Gertrude isn’t. Where _can_ she be? Why didn’t she come to school today?” Rose wondered.

“That’s why I have called this special meeting,” Merry explained. “Gertrude has gone to Dorchester to spend the winter. It was very sudden; she didn’t have time even to call you all up to say good-bye. Her mother’s sister was taken very ill last night and they sent for Gertrude to take care of the children. Her aunt thinks everything of Trudie, and as she has to go to the hospital for an operation, she said she just couldn’t go contentedly unless Gertrude was there to look after her two babies. It will be spring before she can return.”

“Oh, I say, that _is_ too bad! She’ll miss all the fun we’ve planned for this winter,” Bertha said. “But you have more to tell, Merry. What is it?”

“Yes, I have,” their president confessed. “Gertrude suggested that, since we need seven girls in our secret society, she would like us to invite——”

There was a sudden rustling noise. “Hark! There’s someone in this room,” Peggy announced.

The girl in hiding sprang up. “I’m terribly sorry, girls,” she said. “I didn’t want to eavesdrop. I was crouching down so that I could leap out and surprise you when you came over by the fire, as I supposed of course you would.”

With a glad cry of surprise her friends surrounded Geraldine, asking a dozen questions at once. How did she happen to be there? Was she going to stay?

And when she had answered them all satisfactorily, Merry announced: “This is like a play. Characters enter just when they’re needed.”

Geraldine’s face was beaming. “O, I am _so_ glad, if I am _wanted_ even,” she told them. “I can’t understand, though, how I can be _needed_.”

“We’ll have to tell you later,” the president announced. “The ten-minute recess is over. Hear that cruel gong! Now, Gerry, what class are you to start in?”

“Miss Demorest said that if I would accompany Merry Lee everywhere that she went, I couldn’t go wrong.”

“Oh, goodie-good!” Betty Byrd exclaimed. “That means we are all in Miss Preen’s English class.”

“Shh! Come on!” Rose called to them from the open doorway.

Merry introduced the new pupil to the angular Miss Preen and Geraldine thought she never had seen a thinner person or one with sharper eyes. She felt sure that she would heartily dislike the English teacher, but what did _that_ matter as long as she was in the class with all of her friends.

Before the hour was over Geraldine had, at least, to acknowledge to herself that Miss Preen knew how to teach and that she made the subject very interesting. After all, what more did one require in a teacher?

From there they went to a song service conducted in the basement recreation hall by Professor Lowsley, whose hair, soft, grey and wavy, rested on his shoulders. His near-sighted eyes were gentle and light blue, and his manner one of infinite patience. For half an hour the forty girls in the school practiced vocal scales all together, then sang songs, some old and some new, until the gong announced for them a change of activities. Geraldine was interested to know what was to happen next.

“We go to lunch now,” Merry informed her. “After we’ve washed up in yonder lavatory.”

The dining-rooms were also in the basement, beyond the recreation hall, and Geraldine was delighted to find that she was to occupy Gertrude’s place at a table with her six friends and one teacher, a Miss Adelaine Brockett, young, who had charge of the gym, understanding theatricals and games. In reality she was Miss Demorest’s assistant and often had entire charge of the seminary during the principal’s absences. The girls seemed to adore Miss Brockett, but of course Merry could not talk about their club plans with anyone else present.

“Isn’t it great that we day pupils are allowed to have lunch here these wintry days? It’s a long mile to the middle of town and that poky old street car never could get us home and back in time for classes,” Peg said to Geraldine, who agreed that it was a jolly plan.

“You missed math,” Rose informed her. “We have that torturous subject first thing in the morning.”

Then the afternoon classes began: History, General Sciences, Drawing, and French. But at last three o’clock arrived and the girls started to walk to town. “I’m so glad you didn’t have your ‘uncle-colonel’ call for you,” Merry informed Geraldine, who was walking at her side, the other girls following two by two, that being as wide as the walk had been shoveled in that suburban part of town. They passed fine old homes set far back on wide snow-covered grounds among bare old trees. “We are having a most important club meeting at my house today, and——”

Geraldine stood still, exclaiming with sincere disappointment: “Then I can’t stop there and wait for Alfred as I told my uncle-colonel that I would.”

“Why not?” Merry asked; then before her companion could reply, she exclaimed: “Oh, I understand now! You think we wouldn’t want to discuss club business with you there. You’re wrong, Gerry, my dear! We _especially do_ want you there. Now, don’t ask me any questions. This is a secret club and it wouldn’t do for me to tell you a thing about it until the meeting is called.” And with that explanation the curious Geraldine had to be content.