WHAT KATY DID - Complete Illustrated Trilogy: What Katy Did, What Katy Did at School & What Katy Did Next by Susan Coolidge

Author:Susan Coolidge [Coolidge, Susan]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9788075834331
Publisher: Musaicum Press
Published: 2017-06-09T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter IX.

The Autumn Vacation

Table of Contents

The last day of the term was one of confusion. Every part of the house was given over to trunks and packing. Mrs. Nipson sat at her desk making out bills, and listening to requests about rooms and room-mates. Miss Jane counted books and atlases, taking note of each ink-spot and dog-eared page. The girls ran about, searching for missing articles, deciding what to take home and what to leave, engaging each other for the winter walks. All rules were laid aside. The sober Nunnery seemed turned into a hive of buzzing bees. Bella slid twice down the baluster of the front stairs without being reproved, and Rose Red threw her arm round Katy’s waist and waltzed the whole length of Quaker Row.

“I’m so happy that I should like to scream!” she announced, as their last whirl brought them up against the wall. “Isn’t vacation just lovely? Katy, you don’t look half glad.”

“We’re not going home, you know,” replied Katy, in rather a doleful tone. She and Clover were not so enraptured at the coming of vacation as the rest of the girls. Spending a month with Mrs. Page and Lilly was by no means the same thing as spending it with papa and the children.

Next morning, however, when the big stage drove up, and the girls crowded in; when Mrs. Nipson stood in the door-way, blandly waving farewell, and the maids flourished their dusters out of the upper windows, they found themselves sharing the general excitement, and joining heartily in the cheer which arose as the stage moved away. The girls felt so happy and good-natured that some of them even kissed their hands to Miss Jane.

Such a wild company is not often met with on a railroad train. They all went together as far as the Junction: and Mr. Gray, Ellen’s father, who had been put in charge of the party by Mrs. Nipson, had his hands full to keep them in any sort of order. He was a timid old gentleman, and, as Rose suggested, his expression resembled that of a sedate hen who suddenly finds herself responsible for the conduct of a brood of ducklings.

“My dear, my dear!” he feebly remonstrated, “would you buy any more candy? Do you not think so many pea-nuts may be bad for you?”

“Oh, no, sir!” replied Rose, “they never hurt me a bit. I can eat thousands!” Then, as a stout lady entered the car, and made a motion toward the vacant seat beside her, she rolled her eyes wildly, and said, “Excuse me, but perhaps I had better take the end seat so as to get out easily in case I have a fit.”

“Fits!” cried the stout lady, and walked away with the utmost dispatch. Rose gave a wicked chuckle, the girls tittered, and Mr. Gray visibly trembled.

“Is she really afflicted in this way?” he whispered.

“Oh, no, papa! it’s only Rose’s nonsense!” apologized Ellen, who was laughing as hard as the rest. But Mr.

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