t was cool and shady near the wall, and they sat down upon a low seat
where the soft breeze fanned their flushed cheeks.

"I'd almost forgotten something that I meant to tell you," Dorothy said.
"You know Aunt Charlotte says that the pupils are to give a little
entertainment each month, when we are to have dialogues, songs, solo
dances, pieces to be spoken, and chorus music. Well, mamma has arranged
to have a fine little stage and curtain. You didn't know that, _did_
you?"

"Indeed I didn't," said Nancy, "and I guess the others will be
surprised. You haven't told them yet, have you?"

"I only knew it this morning myself, but I'm eager to tell them," said
Dorothy.

"Here's Mollie Merton and Flossie Barnet now," cried Nancy, and,
turning, Dorothy saw the two playmates running up the driveway.
"Mollie was over at my house," said Flossie, "and we saw you and Nancy
just as you ran around the house, and we thought we'd come over."

"We were wild to know if our private school is _truly_ to commence next
week. Mamma said it would if enough pupils were ready to join it," said
Mollie, "and we knew Katie Dean's cousin was a new one, and won't it be
funny to have one boy in the class?"

"Oh, but he is just a _little_ boy," said Nancy.

"And he must begin to go to school this year, and he says he likes girls
ever so much better than boys, so he asked if he might go to our
school," Dorothy said.

"He _always_ says he likes girls best," said Flossie; "isn't he a queer
little fellow?" "I don't know," Mollie said, so drolly that they all
laughed.

"And there is a new pupil, who has just come here to live, and she is
_very_ nice, Jeanette Earl says," and as she spoke Dorothy looked up at
her friends, a soft pleading in her blue eyes.

She intended to give a kindly welcome to the new pupil, and she hoped
that the others would be friendly.

"How does Jeanette know?" asked Mollie, bluntly.

"Oh, Jeanette ought to know," said Nancy, "for the new little girl is
her cousin, I mean her _third_ cousin."

"Well, Nina is Jeanette's sister," said Mollie, "so what does _she_
say?"

"She didn't say anything," said Nancy, "she just _looked_."

"Arabella Corryville is to be in our class," said Flossie, "and when I
told Uncle Harry he laughed, and asked me if her Aunt Matilda was coming
to school with her."

Of course they laughed, and it was Mollie who first spoke.

"Your Uncle Harry is always joking," she said, "and sometimes I c