Phyllis | Page 5

"They are all, or nearly all, awfully nice and--why, Auntie Mogs, she's sure to like them."
Miss Carter smiled as she left the table. She had given Phyllis a new idea and she did not mean to dwell upon it.
"Hurry and finish your breakfast, dear," she directed. "I want you to go down town and finish your shopping with me. When Janet comes I don't want to think of anything but her clothes. There will be lots to do if she is to start school on Monday."
"Of course," Phyllis agreed, drinking her very hot cocoa so fast that it burned her throat. "Won't it be fun, taking Janet to all the shops and having luncheon down town. I know she'll adore it."
The morning passed quickly, as mornings always do when they are spent in shopping, and Phyllis was barely home in time to receive her friends at three o'clock.
Muriel Grey arrived first. She was a short plump girl of fourteen, with lots of fluffy yellow hair and big china-blue eyes.
"Oh, Phyllis, I'm so glad to see you. We miss you terribly at school. It isn't a bit nice without you!" she exclaimed as she kissed Phyllis.
"Well, I'll be back Monday," Phyllis replied. "I've missed you too. Sit down and tell me all the news--oh, wait a minute. Here comes Eleanor, and Rosamond is with her."
The two girls who were just coming up the steps were both dressed in dark blue and their long braids hung down their backs and were both tied with bright green ribbons to match their green tams. They were not sisters, but they had been friends for so long that it was a joke at school to say that they were beginning to look like each other.
Phyllis was very fond of them both for they were great fun, and their endless ideas were always a source of wonder to their class.
"Hello, Phyllis, here we are," Rosamond greeted. "Couldn't get here a minute sooner."
"Old Ducky Lucky requested us to remain after class as usual," Eleanor explained.
It all sounded so natural to Phyllis's ear that she giggled delightedly. It was fun seeing the girls again, and she realized for the first time that she had missed them unconsciously during the past month.
"Funny old Ducky Lucky," she laughed. "Is she just as fussy as ever?"
"Well, if you want to call it fussy, she is," Rosamond groaned. "I can think of a better word, only I won't."
Ducky Lucky was the disrespectful nickname for Miss Baxter, the mathematics teacher at Miss Harding's school.
"Sally's coming later," Eleanor said, as they all entered the living room. "She said to tell you not to dare say anything about your twin until she got here. She doesn't want to miss a word. Of course we're all fearfully excited, but to hear Sally talk you would think that she was the one that had made the discovery."
"That's just like Sally,"--Phyllis laughed. "I'm crazy to see her. I've only talked to her over the phone since I got back, and you all know it's no fun talking to Sally unless you can watch her eyes."
"Good old Sally,"--Eleanor smiled at the memory of a host of funny sayings and doings, and then she looked suddenly grave. "Do you know she is talking about going to boarding school second term?" she inquired.
"Sally! Why, we could never in the world get along without her," Phyllis and Rosamond protested.
"Oh, I don't know,"--Muriel spoke for the first time. "I think we could. Sally's nice and all that, but she is such a tomboy."
The girls turned in surprise to look at her.
"Of course she is; she wouldn't be Sally if she were any different," Phyllis said, and the two girls nodded in solemn agreement, and then Sally herself arrived.
She came into the room like a whirl of merry autumn leaves. Her hair, never very orderly at best, was towsled by the wind, and her cheeks glowed. She had deep blue eyes that flashed and sparkled behind long black lashes, her hair was black as a raven's wing, and she had a single bewitching dimple in her left cheek. When she spoke people generally thought of rippling brooks and deep ringing chimes.
"Sally Ladd, you love," Phyllis greeted her enthusiastically. "I thought I was never going to see you. You wretch, why haven't you been over before?"
"Never mind about me," Sally protested, kissing her warmly. "I want to hear all about Janet. Gracious sakes, it's thrilling enough to get a new baby sister but to find a grown-up twin! Well, I do think some people have all the luck. Tell us all about her. Is she pretty?"
Phyllis laughed. She was a little embarrassed.
"She's my twin, you know," she confessed, "and so--"
"And so you haven't gumption enough to say that she's a beauty." Sally settled the question