An Old-fashioned Girl by Louisa M. Alcott

any story about them,” answered Fanny, hoping some romance

might be forthcoming.

Grandma turned over the little packet tied up with a faded pink

ribbon; a dozen yellow notes written on rough, thick paper, with

red wafers still adhering to the folds, showing plainly that they

were written before the day of initial note-paper and self-sealing

envelopes.

“They are not love-letters, deary, but notes from my mates after I

left Miss Cotton’s boarding-school. I don’t think there is any story

about them,” and grandma turned them over with spectacles before

the dim eyes, so young and bright when they first read the very

same notes.

Fanny was about to say, “I ‘ll choose again,” when grandma began

to laugh so heartily that the girls felt sure she had caught some

merry old memory which would amuse them.

“Bless my heart, I have n’t thought of that frolic this forty years.

Poor, dear, giddy Sally Pomroy, and she ‘s a great-grandmother

now!” cried the old lady, after reading one of the notes, and

clearing the mist off her glasses.

“Now, please tell about her; I know it ‘s something funny to make

you laugh so,” said Polly and Fan together.

“Well, it was droll, and I ‘m glad I remembered it for it ‘s just the

story to tell you young things.

“It was years ago,” began grandma, briskly, “and teachers were

very much stricter than they are now. The girls at Miss Cotton’s

were not allowed lights in their rooms after nine o’clock, never

went out alone, and were expected to behave like models of

propriety from morning till night.

“As you may imagine, ten young girls, full of spirits and fun, found

these rules hard to keep, and made up for good behavior in public

by all sorts of frolics in private.

“Miss Cotton and her brother sat in the back parlor after school

was over, and the young ladies were sent to bed. Mr. John was

very deaf, and Miss Priscilla very near-sighted, two convenient

afflictions for the girls on some occasions, but once they proved

quite the reverse, as you shall hear.

“We had been very prim for a week, and our bottled up spirits

could no longer be contained; so we planed a revel after our own

hearts, and set our wits to work to execute it.

“The first obstacle was surmounted in this way. As none of us

could get out alone, we resolved to lower Sally from the window,

for she was light and small, and very smart.

“With our combined pocket-money she was to buy nuts and candy,

cake and fruit, pie, and a candle, so that we might have a light,

after Betsey took ours away as usual. “We were to darken the

window of the inner chamber, set a watch in the little entry, light

up, and then for a good time.

“At eight o’clock on the appointed evening, several of us professed

great weariness, and went to our room, leaving the rest sewing

virtuously with Miss Cotton, who read Hannah More’s Sacred

Dramas aloud, in a way that fitted the listeners for bed as well as a

dose of opium would have done.

“I am sorry to say I was one of the ringleaders; and as soon as we

got up stairs, produced the rope provided for the purpose, and

invited Sally to be lowered. It was an old-fashioned house, sloping

down behind, and the closet window chosen by us was not many

feet from the ground.

“It was a summer evening, so that at eight o’clock it was still light;

but we were not afraid of being seen, for the street was a lonely

one, and our only neighbors two old ladies, who put down their

curtains at sunset, and never looked out till morning.

“Sally had been bribed by promises of as many ‘goodies’ as she

could eat, and being a regular madcap, she was ready for anything.

“Tying the rope round her waist she crept out, and we let her safely

down, sent a big basket after her, and saw her slip round the comer

in my big sun bonnet and another girl’s shawl, so that she should

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