oss the hall a group of girls had gathered
around Katherine Leonard's chafing dish, from which the tantalizing
smell of thick, hot fudge was beginning to pervade the corridors, and
distract the thoughts of the more studious from their unsocial but
conscientious labors.

"Come on in, Nance," called Alma, waving a sticky spoon invitingly.
"Surely you aren't going to work now, are you?"

Nancy hesitated, her hand on the door-knob. They all looked so jolly,
the room so cosy, and the warm, chocolaty smell of the fudge was almost
irresistible. Nancy's nose twitched at the delicious odor, and she
smiled uncertainly.

"I've got to finish my English," she began.

"Oh, bother your English," cried Dolly Parker, "None of us have even
looked at ours yet. Don't be a 'grind'--come on."

"You're such a shark at it, Miss Garnett wouldn't bother you if you
loafed for a month," added Maizie Forrest. This was quite true--and
that was the trouble. It was just because Miss Garnett was so lenient
that Nancy felt the responsibility of keeping up in her work resting
heavily on herself. Nearly all the girls loafed shamelessly, and Nancy
had to guard against the temptation to imitate them. She knew that she
would have to pass a stiff examination in English to enter college, and
that it mattered nothing to Miss Garnett whether she passed or not.

"Well, the point is that I've got so little to do on it that I might as
well finish it up and feel free," she said, finally. "I'll come in a
little while, so don't, for goodness' sake, eat all the fudge."

"Oh, Nancy, you make me tired," pouted Alma. "If you're going to be
such an old poke, you don't deserve any fudge."

Nancy only laughed in reply, and calmly went in to her room, and shut
the door. She flung her sweater on her bed, sent her scarlet
tam-o'-shanter after it, and then stood for a moment, her hands in the
pockets of her skirt, looking about her. The Prescotts' room was
certainly not the cosiest and most inviting in the school, and she had
listened long to Alma's petitions for an easy chair, and a new lamp to
take the place of the green-shaded student's lamp which by its hard,
sharp light intensified the severe bareness of the little place.
Besides the two beds, there were the two desks, two stiff desk-chairs,
and the two small bureaus. Nothing had been added to soften the chilly
aspect except a pair of cheap, chintz curtains at the window, and a few
small cushions on the