It 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 can’t tell whether he is in earnest, or only saying things just for fun.”

“Well, I guess you’ll laugh when I tell you what he said next!  He said that although he had graduated from college, and now was in business, he would urge Aunt Charlotte to let him attend a few sessions of our school, if Arabella’s Aunt Matilda was to be there.  He said it would be a great pleasure which he really could not miss.”  How they laughed at the idea of Flossie’s handsome young uncle in the little private school, while Arabella’s prim little aunt was also a pupil.