134 
THE LADIES’ FLORAL CABINET. 
with blond hair and honest blue eyes, and presented a fine 
contrast to the pretty, petite, dark-haired and dark-eyed 
Kitty. 
She was older by two or three years than Kitty, rather 
grave and contemplative and very fond of study. Unlike 
as the two girls were, they soon became close friends. 
The grave Serena was attracted and amused by the 
vivacity and rollicking freedom of Kitty’s actions and 
conversation, while that wayward maiden admired and 
respected Serena for the staid dignity of manners and 
solid worth of character so conspicuous in her. 
The rules in St. Botolph’s Academy were somewhat 
rigid, particularly those having reference to study hours 
and communication between the two sexes. It was the 
custom for the rules to be read to the assembled school 
some morning early in each term. It so happened that a 
severe headache prevented Serena from being present on 
the morning when this custom was observed, and she had 
but a vague and indefinite idea of their nature. She was 
a girl to whom few rules were needful, as she always tried 
to conduct herself with scrupulous propriety, and she de¬ 
voted herself to her books of her own accord. Being in a 
private family, and in daily association with her fellow 
boarders, it never occurred to her that she could be in 
danger of breaking important rules by concurring in plans 
proposed by them and sanctioned by Mrs. Deming. 
So when Kitty one day proposed that the four young 
people of the family should spend the evening with the 
Atwood girls, Serena made no objection, but simply 
studied the harder that afternoon to prepare her lessons 
earlier. The Atwood girls were residents of the village, 
but their home was in a lonely side street leading off from 
the main street at some distance from Mrs. Deming’s. 
They were older than the present generation of students 
having graduated several years before, but they still re¬ 
tained sufficient interest in school life to enjoy initiating 
the'innocent and unsuspecting into certain reprehensible 
practices forbidden by the rules and frowned upon by the 
faculty. The Misses Atwood had called on Serena and 
had urged her to come to them informally with Kitty, of 
whom they professed to be very fond. So when evening 
came Kitty and Serena wended their way to the Atwoods’, 
where they were soon joined by Ralph Mortimer and 
Charlie Edgars. The Atwood girls being quite- as lively 
as Kitty, no time was lost, and the evening was opened 
with a dance, for which the younger Miss Atwood played 
the piano. Then they sang a number of merry songs and 
rounds. Being a warm spring evening, the windows were 
open, although the blinds were closed, and, just as the 
gay little company had made an end of singing “Johnny 
Smoker ” in full chorus, voices were heard on the street 
near by. Instantly there was perfect silence in the room, 
which was broken in a minute by the elder Miss Atwood, 
who exclaimed, “ I hear Professor Ryder’s voice, and his 
wife and the Misses Slater are probably with him, for he 
told me yesterday that they should come down here some 
evening this week.” 
The words were no sooner out of her mouth than Kitty, 
Ralph, Charlie, and the younger Miss Atwood left the 
room with a rush, not by the hall-door at which they had 
entered, but by one at the back of the room. Serena had 
risen when the others rose, but remained in the parlor 
with an expression of entire amazement on her face. 
“ Where have they gone? what does this mean?” she 
asked. 
“Follow them quickly, before the door-bell rings,” 
commanded Miss Atwood, in a low but decided tone. 
Surprised and offended Serena obeyed and soon found 
herself in the kitchen, where Kitty was putting on her 
wraps and laughing with -the others as if something ex¬ 
ceptionally funny had happened. 
“ We began to think you were going to stay and sur¬ 
render to the powers that be, Miss Hoyt,” began Ralph. 
“ I don’t understand what all this means,” replied Se¬ 
rena, stiffly. 
“ It means that our evening visit has come to an un¬ 
timely end, and that we are, to express the situation in 
poetical language, ‘ nipped in the bud,’ ” replied Charlie. 
Serena still stood in motionless bewilderment, and Kitty 
interposed: “ It means that we are breaking rules, and 
must not be caught by the teachers ; we are out of our 
rooms in study hours, and, worse yet, in company with 
gentlemen. Now put on your duds lively, or we shall 
leave you here to be caught.” 
Serena donned her wraps in dignified silence, and in a 
minute more the younger Miss Atwood had let them 
noiselessly out at the back-kitchen door, and returned to 
the parlor to meet the new-comers, whom her sister had 
already admitted. 
The little group of transgressors so unceremoniously 
dismissed were unacquainted with the dimensions or pos¬ 
sible eccentricities of the Atwood backyard, and the dark¬ 
ness of the night increased their perplexity as they groped 
their way slowly along the unexplored country. 
“ I never was turned out of doors before ! ” said Serena, 
indignantly, but as the words left her lips she stumbled 
against an unseen hen-coop and fell, upsetting the coop 
and liberating a whole brood of spring chickens with their 
maternal relative! Serena sprang hastily to her feet 
again ; the frightened hen clucked noisily to her scattered 
brood, who were rushing about in every direction to escape 
the avalanche. 
“Well!” exclaimed Kitty, in answer to Serena’s re¬ 
mark, “ you have turned a whole family out of doors now, 
I should say—out of their own house, too. How do you 
suppose they like it? ” and Kitty laughed till she choked, 
and Charlie joined in until he was unable to stand, and 
sat down on what looked like a milking stool, but found 
himself doubled up in a pail of rain-water! Even the 
indignant Serena had to laugh then, and they were all 
nearly choked by their efforts to smother their laughter. 
It was fortunate that the parlor was on the other side of 
the house. The unlucky Charlie found it a matter of 
much greater difficulty to get out of a pail than to get 
into one, but, after much wriggling and squirming on his 
part and much pulling on the part of Ralph, he was at 
last freed from the undesirable incumbrance, and the 
little company proceeded on their way. 
“ Isn’t there any end to this backyard, or farmyard, or 
whatever it is? ” asked Ralph in a tone of disgust. 
“ Ask me a little later,” replied Charlie. 
But at that moment another splash was heard. 
