Tabitha caught her breath, then said slowly, "It isn"t very pretty, perhaps; but--one gets used to their name so they don"t mind it."
"Well, I must say if I had such an odd name as that I would change it.
_I_ never could get used to it; but then, some people haven"t as sensitive natures as others."
Tabitha made no reply, but with a queer sense of rage in her heart she walked across to the dresser and bent to open the lower drawer where she had carefully laid the few things her small grip had contained.
"Here," exclaimed Chrystobel sharply, "don"t touch that drawer! That is mine. How dare you!" For Tabitha in her start of surprise had jerked the drawer free from the dresser and it fell with a bang in the middle of the floor, disclosing to view a disorderly array of garments which did not belong to Tabitha.
"What have you done with my things that were in there?" demanded the black-eyed girl indignantly. "I was here first and had the right to make first choice. It makes no difference to me, though; the drawers are just the same size and I would as soon have the other."
Without waiting for a reply, she reached for the upper drawer, but before she had a chance to open it, Chrystobel caught and held it shut as she cried angrily, "My things are in there, too. What did you expect--to keep the whole dresser for yourself?"
"That seems to be what you want," retorted Tabitha, thoroughly enraged.
"What have you done with my things?"
"They are in the top drawers. You aren"t ent.i.tled to more than two."
"I"m ent.i.tled to a big one and a little one, Chrystobel Clayton, just the same as you are, and I intend to have them, what"s more!"
"Miss Pomeroy said it didn"t make any difference which two drawers I took for my own--"
"She didn"t say you could have both the big ones, and you aren"t going to have them, so now!"
s.n.a.t.c.hing up the drawer on the floor, she emptied its contents on the nearest bed and turned to restore it to its place in the dresser, but the angry Chrystobel stopped her and tried to take it from her hands, declaring, "That belongs to me, and you shall not have it, I say!"
Tabitha promptly inverted the disputed piece of property and sat down upon it, saying quietly, though her eyes flashed dangerously, "Get it if you can!"
But her companion dared not make the venture, for the clenched hands looked too formidable, and the spoiled Chrystobel was an arrant coward; so she stood beside the dresser glowering at the triumphant girl astride the drawer, and at last finding vent for her anger in the spiteful remark, "Your name fits you exactly. All cats scratch!"
"Well, your name doesn"t fit you at all," was the ready reply, "and I was mistaken when I said you were the prettiest girl I had ever seen. I take it all back. You"re as ugly as sin!"
"Are you going to give up that drawer?"
"No, not if I have to sit on it all night. You can"t be a pig if you are going to room with me. I took only what was my right. You have no business to claim both big drawers."
"I didn"t want to room with you anyway--"
"Neither did I want you!"
"I shall tell Miss Pomeroy!" threateningly.
"I wish you would!"
"There goes the gong for tea!"
"I am willing. I"ll go without supper before I will give up this drawer, and you may as well understand that first as last."
"You are perfectly hateful! You aren"t even decently polite."
"I can"t see that _you_ have more than your share of manners."
"You are as horrid as your name."
"You are a great deal worse than yours!"
"Girls, girls! What is the reason that you are not down in the dining hall?" Miss Pomeroy, stately, majestic and stern, stood unannounced in the doorway.
"She won"t let me have a drawer to put my things in," began the girl with curly hair and the handsome face.
"That"s a lie!" screamed Tabitha, bouncing to her feet and dancing up and down in furious pa.s.sion.
"Tabitha Catt! I am surprised at you!" exclaimed the princ.i.p.al, looking sorrowfully at the angry child. "Chrystobel, what is all this racket about?"
"I put my things in the dresser, and she said I had taken her drawer and couldn"t have it."
"She did take my drawer--"
"Tabitha, I am talking to Chrystobel now."
"She took both big drawers and--"
"Tabitha!"
"Expected me to have just those two little ones in the top--"
"Tabitha!"
"She said you said she could have her choice and--"
"Will you listen to me?"
"She dumped my things out of the drawer--the bottom one--and poked them in those little mites of ones. It isn"t fair--"
"Tabitha Catt!"
"For her to have two big ones and me two little ones, but--"
"Tabitha, leave the room until I call you again!"
"She wouldn"t give up either one," and in a perfect storm of grief and anger, Tabitha swept out of the room, her expostulations still pouring in a torrent from her quivering lips; and throwing herself flat on the hall floor, she buried her face in her arms.
For some minutes Miss Pomeroy"s low, even voice could be heard in the little room at the end of the corridor, interrupted occasionally by Chrystobel"s sullen tones; then Tabitha was summoned again, and with reddened eyes she entered the door to learn her fate.
"Tabitha, Chrystobel is sorry she took your belongings out of the bottom drawer without asking your leave, and she has put them back as she found them--"
"She has opened every blessed thing and peeked at it," was Tabitha"s indignant comment as she saw the mussed-up contents of the lower drawer, now restored to its place in the dresser.
"Tabitha!" Miss Pomeroy"s lips twitched, but her voice was very stern, and the maid from Silver Bow flushed redder than ever, and contritely cried,