ask me to stay at Beechwood while I m in town.
You ll write to me while you re in, won t you?
I ll write Tuesday night and tell you how the first day goes, promised
Anne.
I ll be haunting the post office Wednesday, vowed Diana.
Anne went to town the following Monday and on Wednesday Diana haunted
the post office, as agreed, and got her letter.
Dearest Diana [wrote Anne],
Here it is Tuesday night and I m writing this in the library at
Beechwood. Last night I was horribly lonesome all alone in my room and
wished so much you were with me. I couldn t cram because I d promised
Miss Stacy not to, but it was as hard to keep from opening my history
as it used to be to keep from reading a story before my lessons were
learned.
This morning Miss Stacy came for me and we went to the Academy, calling
for Jane and Ruby and Josie on our way. Ruby asked me to feel her hands
and they were as cold as ice. Josie said I looked as if I hadn t slept
a wink and she didn t believe I was strong enough to stand the grind
of the teacher s course even if I did get through. There are times and
seasons even yet when I don t feel that I ve made any great headway in
learning to like Josie Pye!
When we reached the Academy there were scores of students there from
all over the Island. The first person we saw was Moody Spurgeon sitting
on the steps and muttering away to himself. Jane asked him what on earth
he was doing and he said he was repeating the multiplication table over
and over to steady his nerves and for pity s sake not to interrupt
him, because if he stopped for a moment he got frightened and forgot
everything he ever knew, but the multiplication table kept all his facts
firmly in their proper place!
When we were assigned to our rooms Miss Stacy had to leave us. Jane and
227