Just Patty | Page 4

to those three," said Conny. "The
Dowager said to make our influence felt over the whole school."
"Oh, yes!" Patty agreed, rising to enthusiasm as she called the school
roll. "Kid McCoy uses too much slang. We'll teach her manners.

Rosalie doesn't like to study. We'll pour her full of algebra and Latin.
Harriet Gladden's a jelly fish, Mary Deskam's an awful little liar,
Evalina Smith's a silly goose, Nancy Lee's a telltale--"
"When you stop to think about it, there's something the matter with
everybody," said Conny.
"Except us," amended Priscilla.
"Y--yes," Patty agreed in thoughtful retrospection, "I can't think of a
thing the matter with us--I don't wonder they chose us to head the
reform!"
Conny slid to her feet, a bundle of energy.
"Come on! We'll join our little playmates and begin the good
work--Hooray for the great Reform Party!"
They scrambled out of the open window, in a fashion foreign to the
dictates of Thursday evening manner class. Crowds of girls in blue
middy blouses were gathered in groups about the recreation ground.
The three paused to reconnoiter.
"There's Irene, still chewing." Conny nodded toward a comfortable
bench set in the shade by the tennis courts.
"Let's have a circus," Patty proposed. "We'll make Irene and Mae
Mertelle roll hoops around the oval. That will kill 'em both with one
stone--Irene will get thin, and Mae Mertelle girlish."
Hoop-rolling was a speciality of St. Ursula's. The gymnasium instructor
believed in teaching girls to run. Eleven times around the oval
constituted a mile, and a mile of hoop-rolling freed one for the day
from dumb-bells and Indian clubs. The three dived into the cellar, and
returned with hoops as tall as themselves. Patty assumed command of
the campaign and issued her orders.
"Conny, you take a walk with Keren and shock her as much as possible;

we must break her of being precise. And Pris, you take charge of Mae
Mertelle. Don't let her put on any grown-up airs. If she tells you she's
been proposed to twice, tell her you've been proposed to so many times
that you've lost count. Keep her snubbed all the time. I'll be elephant
trainer and start Irene running; she'll be a graceful gazelle by the time I
finish."
They parted on their several missions. St. Ursula's peace had ended.
She was in the throes of reform.
* * * * *
On Friday evening two weeks later, an unofficial faculty meeting was
convened in the Dowager's study. "Lights-out" had rung five minutes
before, and three harried teachers, relieved of duty for nine blessed
hours while their little charges slept, were discussing their troubles with
their chief.
"But just what have they done?" inquired Mrs. Trent, in tones of
judicial calm, as she vainly tried to stop the flood of interjections.
"It is difficult to put one's finger on the precise facts," Miss Wadsworth
quavered. "They have not broken any rules so far as I can discover, but
they have--er--created an atmosphere--"
"Every girl in my corridor," said Miss Lord, with compressed lips, "has
come to me separately, and begged to have Patty moved back to the
West Wing with Constance and Priscilla."
"Patty! Mon Dieu!" Mademoiselle rolled a pair of speaking eyes to
heaven. "The things that child thinks of! She is one little imp."
"You remember," the Dowager addressed Miss Lord, "I said when you
suggested separating them, that it was a very doubtful experiment.
Together, they exhaust their effervescence on each other; separated--"
"They exhaust the whole school!" cried Miss Wadsworth, on the verge
of tears. "Of course they don't mean it, but their unfortunate

dispositions--"
"Don't mean it!" Miss Lord's eyes snapped. "Their heads are together
planning fresh escapades every moment they are not in class."
"But what have they done?" persisted Mrs. Trent.
Miss Wadsworth hesitated a moment in an endeavor to choose
examples from the wealth of material that presented itself.
"I found Priscilla deliberately stirring up the contents of Keren's bureau
drawers with a shinny stick, and when I asked what she was doing, she
replied without the least embarrassment, that she was trying to teach
Keren to be less exact; that Mrs. Trent had asked her to do it."
"Um," mused the Dowager, "that was not my precise request, but no
matter."
"But the thing that has really troubled me the most," Miss Wadsworth
spoke diffidently, "is a matter almost a blasphemy. Keren has a very
religious turn of mind, but an unfortunate habit of saying her prayers
out loud. One night, after a peculiarly trying day, she prayed that
Priscilla might be forgiven for being so aggravating. Whereupon
Priscilla knelt before her bed, and prayed that Keren might become less
self-righteous and stubborn, and more ready to join in the sports of her
playmates with