When Thanksgiving was over, the girls from Sunnyside devoted many hours to earnest study preparing for the mid-year examinations that were to be held in December, but also there were frequent times of merry-making.

During the last week in November the snow came, and Bettykins, who had never outgrown her childish joy in it, gave a shout of delight when she awakened one Saturday and found the ground, trees and fences a sparkling white.

An hour later the older girls, standing in the library windows, laughed to see their youngest member taking an active part in a lively game of snowballing with the small primary pupils.

Then, one day there came another invitation from their kind neighbors, the Ellsworths, and this time every girl at Linden Hall was invited. It was an old-fashioned sleigh-ride party and Farmer O’Rourke appeared with his lumber-wagon on runners. In the bottom there was a soft, cushiony depth of clean straw.

Arthur Ellsworth followed with another roomy sleigh in which, smiling and bowing to the waiting girls, sat Miss Ellsworth and little Alise.

Such a merry ride they had up-hill and down, tooting upon horns that Arthur had provided, and ending at the mansion-like home of Elmhurst. There in the spacious library, a huge log snapped and sparkled on the wide hearth, and the forty-eight girls, slipping off their warm wraps, sat on the chairs, floor, everywhere, and were helped by Arthur and a maid to steaming chocolate and delicious sandwiches.

Little Alise, hopping among them like a fairy, announced that this was her very own party, and Miss Ellsworth, smiling at the little girl whom she so loved, agreed. “Yes, this is Alise’s birthday, and when I asked whom she would like to invite to a party, she replied that she wanted all of the nice girls at Linden Hall.”

A week after this jolly affair, rehearsals on the play were begun in real earnest, and Katrina, who now laughed as often as the others, made a very graceful and pretty summer girl, but, when at last the evening arrived, it was Carol’s truly amusing impersonation of an Irish maid that sent the delighted audience into gale after gale of laughter. When it was all over, she was presented with a huge bouquet of pink carnations tied with wide green ribbons.

“Well, it’s certainly a good thing that I was too snobbish to take that part,” Katrina exclaimed when every one had surged up and congratulated the beaming maid. “The play wouldn’t have been a success at all without you as Norah.”

Carol gave this little maiden a friendly hug and then darted away to take off the wig and paint.

Midwinter exams were not so dreadful after all, and each dweller of Apple-Blossom Alley emerged from them with high marks, and then satchels were packed and away they went to their homes for the holidays.

The “Jolly Pirates” were at the station to meet the train when it pulled into Sunnyside, and after much laughter and joyous greetings, the several sleighs in waiting bore the girls away to their homes and devoted families.

A round of gay times had been planned to entertain them, and almost before they realized that it was possible, they were back in Linden Hall and again at their studies.

“Girls!” Adele cried one day as she skipped into Apple-Blossom Alley, “I am possessed of a sudden and soaring ambition. I have decided to compete for the French essay medal which is awarded by Madame Vandeheuton every year on the first day of February.”

“Oh, Della, you’d have to study terribly hard to win that. Marie Le Clerc is also trying for it, and she is of French descent,” Betty Burd declared.

“‘Nothing venture, nothing have,’” Doris Drexel chanted.

“‘Work, work, and then work some more,’ was a certain author’s rule for gaining success,” Bertha Angel told them. “Your ambition is a laudable one, my dear friend Adele, and I will lend you my assistance by hearing you recite your verbs.”

“‘It is better to fail than never to try,’” Carol laughingly added. “Doesn’t some one else know a suitable adage?”

“‘Failures are stepping-stones to success,’” Evelyn Dartmoor chimed in, and the cheerful expression in her beautiful face would have delighted her grandfather could he have seen it, but he knew from her letters that she was finding happiness in the companionship of Carol.

But when the contest took place, it was won, as Betty had prophesied, by Marie Le Clerc. Adele sincerely congratulated the winner and greatly admired the medal, which had come from France, and secretly determined to try again next year if she chanced to be at Linden Hall. Her own essay won second place and honorable mention in the school archives.

The next exciting event was the birthday of Gladys Merle Jones, who received a goodly check from her adoring father, and that maiden, wishing to share it with the others, obtained Madame Deriby’s permission to have a theater-party in Buffalo, to which she invited all the pupils and the faculty.

The request was granted, and the girls spent a wonderful afternoon in one of the most beautiful of theaters and returned bearing with them refreshments for an evening spread.

March came in wild and blustering, and with it a new pupil arrived at Linden Hall. She was of so unusual a type that she greatly interested the girls from Sunnyside.