Page:An Old Fashioned Girl.djvu/115

Rh grandma turned them over with spectacles before the dim eyes, so young and bright when they first read the very same notes.

Fanny was about to say, "I'll choose again," when grandma began to laugh so heartily that the girls felt sure she had caught some merry old memory which would amuse them.

"Bless my heart, I haven't thought of that frolic this forty years. Poor, dear, giddy Sally Pomroy, and she's a great-grandmother now!' cried the old lady, after reading one of the notes, and clearing the mist off her glasses.

"Now, please tell about her; I know it's something funny to make you laugh so," said Polly and Fan together.

"Well, it was droll, and I'm glad I remembered it, for it's just the story to tell you young things.

"It was years ago," began grandma, briskly, "and teachers were very much stricter than they are now. The girls at Miss Cotton's were not allowed lights in their rooms after nine o'clock, never went out alone, and were expected to behave like models of propriety from morning till night.

"As you may imagine, ten young girls, full of spirits and fun, found these rules hard to keep, and made up for good behaviour in public by all sorts of frolics in private.

"Miss Cotton and her brother sat in the back parlor after school was over, and the young ladies were sent to bed. Mr. John was very deaf, and Miss Priscilla very near-sighted,—two convenient afflictions for the girls on some occasions, but once they proved quite the reverse, as you shall hear.