with a merry laugh Polly ran from the room, all animosity forgotten.

"What did she mean by 'Tattoo' and 'Taps,'" asked Natalie of Peggy.

"The warning call sounded on the bugle for the midshipmen to go to their
rooms, and the lights out call which follows. Have you never heard
them? They are so pretty. Polly and I love them so, and you can't think
how we miss them here. Polly always sounded them on her bugle at home.
You've no idea how sweetly she can do it," answered Peggy as she walked
toward her room beside Natalie.

"Oh, I wish I _could_ hear them. I wonder if mother knows anything about
them," cried Natalie enthusiastically. "Do you know, I think you and
Polly are perfectly wonderful, you have so many original ideas. I am
just crazy to know what mother wanted of you tonight. I'm going to ask
her. Do you think she will tell me?"

"Why not? The only reason I did not tell was because I felt I had no
right to. If Mrs. Vincent wants the others to know she will tell them,
but you are different. I reckon mothers can't keep anything from their
own daughters. At least Polly and her mother seem to share everything
and I know Mrs. Harold is just like a mother to me."

The girls separated and Peggy and Polly were soon behind closed doors
discussing Mrs. Vincent's private interview with the former.

The following Tuesday was Hallow E'en and where is your school-girl who
does not revel in its privileges? Mrs. Vincent, contrary to Miss
Sturgis' preconceived ideas of what was possible and proper for a girls'
school, though the latter never failed to quote the rigid discipline of
the school which had profited by her valuable services prior to her
engagement at Columbia Heights, was given to some departures which often
came near reducing Miss Sturgis to tears of vexation.

One of these rules, or rather the lack of them, was the arrangement of
the tables in the two dining-rooms. In the dining-room for the little
girls under twelve a teacher presided at each table as a matter of
course, but in the main dining-hall covers were laid for six at each
table, one of the girls presiding as hostess, her tenure of office
depending wholly upon her standing in the school, her deportment,
ability and general average of work. At the further end of the room Mrs.
Vincent's own table was placed, and the staff of eight resident teachers
sat with her. It was a far happier arrangement than the usual one of
placing a teacher at each table and havi