Just before tea, Louisa came running down the Row, to No. 5, where Katy was sitting with Rose.
"Girls, what do you think?
That letter which Miss Jane got this morning was a valentine, the most dreadful thing, but so funny!" she stopped to laugh.
"How do you know?" cried the other two.
"Miss Marsh told Alice Gibbons.
She's a sort of cousin, you know; and Miss Marsh often tells her things.
She says Miss Jane and Mrs. Nipson are furious, and are determined to find out who sent it.
It was from Mr. Hardhack, Miss Jane's missionary,—or no, not from Mr. Hardhack, but from a cannibal who had just eaten Mr. Hardhack up; and he sent Miss Jane a lock of his hair, and the recipe the tribe cooked him by.
They found him 'very nice,' he said, and 'He turned out quite tender.'
That was one of the lines in the poem.
Did you ever hear of any thing like it?
Who do you suppose could have sent it?"
"Who could it have been?" cried the others.
Katy had one moment's awful misgiving; but a glance at Rose's face, calm and innocent as a baby's, reassured her.
It was impossible that she could have done this mischievous thing.
Katy, you see, was not privy to that entry in Rose's journal,
"Pay Miss Jane off," nor aware that Rose had just written underneath,
"Did it.
Feb. 14, 1869."
Nobody ever found out the author of this audacious valentine.
Rose kept her own counsel, and Miss Jane probably concluded that "the better part of valor was discretion," for the threatened inquiries were never made.
And now it lacked but six weeks to the end of the term.
The girls counted the days, and practised various devices to make them pass more quickly.
Esther Dearborn, who had a turn for arithmetic, set herself to a careful calculation of how many hours, minutes, and seconds must pass before the happy time should come.
Annie Silsbie strung forty-two tiny squares of card-board on a thread and each night slipped one off and burned it up in the candle.
Others made diagrams of the time, with a division for each day, and every night blotted one out with a sense of triumph.
None of these devices made the time hasten.
It never moved more slowly than now, when life seemed to consist of a universal waiting.
But though Katy's heart bounded at the thought of home till she could hardly bear the gladness, she owned to Clover,—"Do you know, much as I long to get away, I am half sorry to go!
It is parting with something which we shall never have any more.
Home is lovely, and I would rather be there than anywhere else; but, if you and I live to be a hundred, we shall never be girls at boarding-school again."
CHAPTER XIII. PARADISE REGAINED.
"Only seven days more to cross off," said Clover, drawing her pencil through one of the squares on the diagram pinned beside her looking- glass, "seven more, and then—oh, joy!—papa will be here, and we shall start for home."
She was interrupted by the entrance of Katy, holding a letter and looking pale and aggrieved.
"Oh, Clover," she cried, "just listen to this!
Papa can't come for us.
Isn't it too bad?"
And she read:—
"Burnet, March 20.
"My dear Girls,—I find that it will not be possible for me to come for you next week, as I intended.
Several people are severely ill, and old Mrs. Barlow struck down suddenly with paralysis, so I cannot leave.
I am sorry, and so will you be; but there is no help for it.
Fortunately, Mrs. Hall has just heard that some friends of hers are coming westward with their family, and she has written to ask them to take charge of you.
The drawback to this plan is, that you will have to travel alone as far as Albany, where Mr. Peters (Mrs. Hall's friend) will meet you.
I have written to ask Mr. Page to put you on the train, and under the care of the conductor, on Tuesday morning.
I hope you will get through without embarassment.
Mr. Peters will be at the station in Albany to receive you; or, if any thing should hinder him, you are to drive at once to the Delavan House where they are staying.
I enclose a check for your journey.
If Dorry were five years older, I should send him after you.
"The children are most impatient to have you back.