she would be the subject of an everlasting joke, but she hoped to live it down by learning immediately everything there was to know about Wellington, and becoming so wise that nobody would ever accuse her again of being a green freshman.
Mrs. Maynard, the matron, came in to see if she was all right. She was a motherly little woman, with a gentle manner, and Molly felt a leaning toward her at once.
“I hope you’ll feel comfortable in your new quarters,” said Mrs. Maynard. “You’ll have plenty of sunshine and a good deal more space when you get your trunks unpacked, although the things inside a trunk do sometimes look bigger than the trunk.”
Molly smiled. There was not much in her trunk to take up space, most certainly. She had nicknamed herself when she packed it “Molly Few Clothes,” and she was beginning to wonder if even those few would pass muster in that crowd of well-dressed girls.
“Oh, have the trunks really come, Miss Oldham?” she asked her roommate.
“Yes, just before supper. I’ve started unpacking mine.”
“Thank goodness. I’ve got an old ham and a hickory nut cake and some beaten biscuits and pickles and blackberry jam in mine, and I can hardly wait to see if anything has broken loose on my clothes, such as they are.”
Nance Oldham opened her eyes wide.
“I’ve always heard that Southern people were pretty strong on food,” she said, “and this proves it.”
“Wait until you try the hickory nut cake, and you won’t be so scornful,” answered Molly, somehow not liking this accusation regarding the appetites of her people.
“Did I hear the words ‘hickory nut cake’ spoken?” demanded Frances Andrews, who apparently talked to no one at the table except freshmen.
“Yes, I brought some. Come up and try it to-night,” said Molly hospitably.
“That would be very jolly, but I can’t to-night, thanks,” said Frances, flushing.
And then Molly and Nance noticed that the other sophomores and juniors at the table were all perfectly silent and looking at her curiously.
“I hope you’ll all come,” she added lamely, wondering if they were accusing her of inhospitality.
“Not to-night, my child,” said Sally Marks, rising from the table. “Thank you, very much.”
As the two freshmen climbed the stairs to their room a little later, they passed by an open door on the landing.
“Come in,” called the voice of Sally. “I was waiting for you to pass. This is my home. How do you like it?”
“Very much,” answered the two girls, really not seeing anything particularly remarkable about the apartment, except perhaps the sign on the door which read “Pax Vobiscum,” and would seem to indicate that the owner of the room had a Christian spirit.
“Your name is ‘Molly Brown,’ and you come from Kentucky, isn’t that so?” asked Sally Marks, taking Molly’s chin in her hand and looking into her eyes.
“And yours?” went on the inquisitive Sally, turning to Molly’s roommate.
“Is Nance Oldham, and I come from Vermont,” finished Nance promptly.
“You’re both dears. And I am ever so glad you are in Queens. You won’t think I’m patronizing if I give you a little advice, will you?”
“Oh, no,” said the two girls.
“You know Wellington’s full of nice girls. I don’t think there is a small college in this country that has such a fine showing for class and brains. But among three hundred there are bound to be some black sheep, and new girls should always be careful with whom they take up.”
“But how can we tell?” asked Nance.
“Oh, there are ways. Suppose, for instance, you should meet a girl who was good-looking, clever, rich, with lots of pretty clothes, and all that, and she seemed to have no friends. What would you think?”
“Why, I might think there was something the matter with her, unless she was too shy to make friends.”
“But suppose she wasn’t?” persisted Sally.
“Then, there would surely be something the matter,” said Nance.
“Well, then, children, if you should meet a girl like that in college, don’t get too intimate with her.”
Sally Marks led them up to their own room, just to see how they were fixed, she said.
Later, when the two girls had crawled wearily into bed, after finishing the unpacking, Molly called out sleepily:
“Nance” – she had forgotten already to say Miss Oldham – “do you suppose that nice junior could have meant Miss Andrews?”
“I haven’t a doubt of it,” said Nance.
“Just the same, I’m sorry for the poor thing,” continued Molly. “I’m sorry for anybody who’s walking under a cloud, and I don’t think it would do any harm to be nice to her.”
“It wouldn’t do her any harm,” said Nance.
“Epiménides Antinous Green,” whispered Molly to herself, as she snuggled under the covers. The name seemed to stick in her memory like a rhyme. “Funny I didn’t notice how young and handsome he was. I only noticed that he had good manners, if he did treat me like a child.”
CHAPTER IV
A BUSY DAY
The next day was always a chaotic one in Molly’s memory – a jumble of new faces and strange events. At breakfast she made the acquaintance of the freshmen who were staying at Queen’s Cottage – four in all. One of these was Julia Kean, “a nice girl in neutral tints,” as Molly wrote home to her sister, “with gray eyes and brown hair and a sense of humor.” She came to be known as “Judy,” and formed an intimate friendship with Molly and Nance, which lasted throughout the four years of their college course.
“How do you feel after your night’s rest?” she called across the table to Molly in the most friendly manner, just as if they had known each other always. “You look like the ‘Lady of the Sea’ in that blue linen that just matches your eyes.” She began looking Molly over with a kind of critical admiration, narrowing her eyes as an artist does when he’s at work on a picture. “I’d like to make a poster of you in blue-and-white chalk. I’d put you on a yellow, sandy beach, against a bright blue sky, in a high wind, with your dress and hair blowing – ” And with eyes still narrowed, she traced an imaginary picture with one hand and shaped her ideas with the other.
Molly laughed.
“You must be an artist,” she said, “with such notions about posing.”
“A would-be one, that’s all. ‘Not yet, but soon,’ is my motto.”
“That’s a bad motto,” here put in Nance Oldham. “It’s like the Spanish saying of ‘Hasta mañana.’ You are very apt to put off doing things until next day.”
Julia
