"Isn't it great!" exclaimed Tavia, shaking out her blue dress, and tying a worn handkerchief over its particular closet hook so that no hump would appear in the soft blue texture¹. "I never would believe boarding school was such fun. Here comes Rose-Mary with more Nicks to introduce. I hear her laughing—hasn't she got the jolliest little giggle—like our brook² when it bubbles over."  
"I wish, Tavia, you would confine your wardrobe to your own half of the closet," Dorothy remonstrated³, as she took down several articles that had "crossed the line."
 
"Oh, I will, dear, only I was just listening to what those girls were saying. I thought I heard Viola's voice. Isn't it strange she does not call on us. I told her our room was Number Nineteen."
 
"I suppose she's busy, every one appears to be except Rose-Mary. She doesn't seem to mind whether her trunk is unpacked⁴ first day or on Christmas," said Dorothy, working diligently⁶ at her own baggage.
 
"I would just love to go the rounds with her," declared Tavia, "if you did not insist upon going right to work. I would rather have fun now and unpack⁵ later."
 
"But there is no later. We must go to bed at eight thirty, my dear, and we have no time to spare. School will begin to-morrow."
 
"All the more reason why we should have the fun now," persisted Tavia, who was nevertheless getting her clothes on the hooks in short order. "There! I'm all hung up," she declared, banging the closet door furiously, in spite of Dorothy's hat box trying to stop it.
 
"But your hats," Dorothy reminded her. "They have got to go on that shelf, and there isn't an inch of room left."
 
"Then I'll just stick the box under the bed," calmly remarked the new girl, making a kick at the unlucky box and following it up to the "goal."
 
"Against the rules," announced Dorothy, pointing to a typewritten notice on the door. "Read!"
 
"Haven't time. You read them and tell me about them. I'll take the box out if it says so, but if we have to keep things in such angelic order why in the world don't they give us room?"
 
"Room? Indeed this is a large room, given us especially, and it is quite a favor to be allowed to room together—only real sisters ever get a double."
 
"Heaven help the singles!" sighed Tavia in mock devotion. "But come on, Doro,—we are missing all the fun. I did think I heard the mob at our door."
 
Without further leave or license⁷ Tavia dragged Dorothy from her work and closed the door of Number Nineteen behind her. In the hall they found Rose-Mary, whom the girls called "Cologne," Amy Brook, Nita Brant, and Lena Berg. All were trying to talk at once, each had "the very most delicious vacation" to tell about, and to Dorothy it appeared the first requisite⁸ for boarding school ways was the coining of absurd and meaningless phrases. Tavia fell right into line, and could discount anyone of the crowd. "Splendifiorous, glorioutious and scrambunctious," were plainly hard to beat, and no one seemed willing to try. Cologne had a way of saying things in a jerky little jump that suggested bumping noses, Amy Brook fairly strangled with dashes and other unexpected shorts stops, while Nita Brant "wallowed" in such exclamations⁹ as:
 
"Fine and dandy! Perfectly¹⁰ sugary! Too killingly¹¹, dear, for anything!"
 
It was Cologne who declared Nita "wallowed" in slang, because the Nicks had decided¹² that no ready-made slang should be used at meetings, and Nita persisted in ignoring the rule. Each new term brought the season's current phrases back in the custody¹³ of the sandy-haired Nita and now, on the first night, her companions took precious good care to remind her of the transgression¹⁴.
 
Altogether Dorothy found it difficult to keep track of anything like conversation, and was forced to say "yes" and "no" ............