"How can you thrash your arms round in bed?" Miss Mullaly queried.
"You don"t have to. It isn"t like gymnastics."
"Well, do tell us, Polly! I"m just crazy to begin!" Miss Crilly laughingly shook Polly"s shoulders.
"There are so many of them," Polly drew a long, laughing breath, "I hardly know which to take first. There is one for the legs--that would help in walking. But you"ll have to lie down first."
Miss Crilly and Miss Major hurried to the floor, Miss Mullaly following.
"Oh, lie on the bed!" cried Miss Sterling.
"This is all right." a.s.serted Miss Crilly. "Go on, Polly!"
"You want to turn just a mite on your right side. Now make your right leg firm, and put your left toes against the top of your right foot,--yes, that"s it!--and tense the muscles of your left leg--hard! Now relax! Tense again! Relax! You mustn"t do it too long at first, but that"s the way--tense and relax, ten times on this side and ten on the other."
"Whew! takes some strength! Why don"t you try it, girls? It"s fun! Miss Sterling will let you have her bed--we"ll make it over afterwards. Try it. Mis" Albright, and you, Miss Leatherland, it"ll do you good!"
"Yes, go ahead, as Miss Crilly says," urged Miss Sterling. "I"ve practiced that, and I think it has made me stronger."
Polly"s cla.s.s was increased to five, but the others could not be induced to make any attempt.
"There"s another that"s pretty good," went on Polly. "It"s for both sides, alternate, but you can learn it on your right. Bend up your left knee, and take your left ankle in your left hand--now pull hard, leg and hand both! That"s right. Pull and then relax.
Here"s another; bend your knee--the upper one, and take it in both hands and pull hard! Relax, and then pull again."
"I wish there was an exercise to make thin folks fatter," observed Miss Mullaly.
"I know some that"ll make your cheeks plump and round," said Polly.
Little squeals of doubt greeted the announcement.
"I don"t believe they"d make my face round," laughed Miss Leatherland.
"Yes, they would! Wouldn"t they, Miss Nita?"
"I can"t swear to it, as Polly does; but this I do know--it plumps and pinks them for a little while. Polly says her aunt told her that after enough practice the plumpness would stay."
"Oh, what is it?" queried Miss Mullaly eagerly.
"I"ll try it on Miss Leatherland if she"ll let me," offered Polly.
"It will be more of a test on her, because she is thinnest."
"Certainly you may, but I can"t quite believe it will do what you say it will."
"Just you wait"" chuckled Polly. "First you must smile, a big, big smile! Not quite hard enough!--Yes, that"s better! Now, while I press my hands against your cheeks and ma.s.sage them this way, you must open and shut your mouth--no, wider than that!--a little wider--just as wide as you can! Keep on smiling all the time!
"There! now I"ll let you look in the gla.s.s--see how your cheeks have plumped out! Oh, but you lock pretty!"
"Doesn"t she!" Miss Crilly jumped up, the better to see. "Look!
everybody! My, how pretty!"
""Pretty!"" scorned Miss Leatherland. Yet the pink rose higher.
"Polly! is this the right way?" Miss Mullaly was doing her best, but not well enough to satisfy the instructor.
"The middle of your hand must come up high on your cheek,"
explained Polly. "Yes, that"s it! And twenty-five times you must open and shut your mouth."
"Polly," broke in Miss Sterling, "when you can, I wish you"d tell Mrs. Prindle how to make her hair grow."
"Yes," added Mrs. Prindle, "she says you know a way of ma.s.saging the scalp, and my hair is so thin!"
"You"ll have to take it down, I guess--so you can get at it all over," said Polly.
"Do you know it will really help it?"
"Grandaunt Susie said her hair was so thin you could see through it, and when she was at our house it was as thick as--as thick as mine."
"Oh, I"m going to try that--my hair"s all coming out!" Miss Lily drew her pins from the thin coil.
Mrs. Grace and Mrs. Adlerfeld made their heads ready for manipulation.
"You just put your hands this way, right up under your hair,"--Polly spread out her fingers,--"and clutch at the scalp hard, as if you were going to pull it off. Go all over the head, again and again for five minutes--two or three times a day. Aunt Susie says it will make the hair grow like fun."
"Oh, Miss Polly, will you be so kind as to show me just how it goes, please?" Miss Twining was shaking down her scanty locks.
"It"s very easy," Polly smiled. She liked the shy, gentle Miss Twining. "This is all there is to it," working her hands under the soft blond hair. "The only trouble is, it tires the hands out pretty quick."
"Oh, yours must be tired! I should not have asked you!"
"No, no! Mine are all right. I was thinking only of yours. Now, try it yourself. Yes, that"s the way! You have it!"
"Polly!" Miss Crilly was on the floor, hugging her knee.
"I"m here!" laughed Polly.
"Do you know anything that will scare away a double chin?"
"Yes, I do!"
"Oh, jolly! What is it?"
"I"d like to hear about that!" spoke up Miss Castlevaine.
Polly thought a moment.
"You"ll have to lie down--flat on your back--no, you go over on the bed, Miss Castlevaine, and I"ll tell you how to do it."
"Don"t get up, Mis" Albright!" cried Miss Crilly. "I can learn how here just as well!" She lay back, her eyes on Polly.