"How about Prue, Polly?" she inquired seriously.
She turned back to the laughing group of girls.
"Aunt Jane's Poll-parrot says that Prue couldn't hit the side of a barn door, and he advises her to serve lemonade on the side lines."
"Just to show you that that bird is a fraud, I'll make a bull's-eye tomorrow."
A shout greeted her threat. Prue had never even hit the target, but every year she tried again, for the hope that she might some day make the archery team for the old wing burned bright in her heart.
"What's the gossip about the new wing?" Ann inquired. "It would be simply terrible if they got the cup this year."
Gladys frowned and shook her fist at imaginary Polly.
"That's the trouble with the new wing," she said. "They're so beastly efficient, and they really have good material to work with."
"Meaning that we haven't?" Ann inquired indignantly.
"No, but they have six in the old team back this year, and we have only three. Gwen's really upset about it. Of course, as captain of sports, she has to be neutral, but everybody knows she wants the old wing to get it."
"I heard the Red Twins bragging awfully," Daphne said. She had been at Hilltop for a week now and had found her place already. She was so thoroughly likeable that the girls gave her their instant affection. "The twins and Taffy are just like old girls," was a constant phrase.
"Were there ever two girls as bumptious as those two?" Gladys demanded.
"I know of only one other," she replied. "She was an impudent little wretch, named Gladys Manners."
"Hum, I knew you were going to say that," Gladys replied, her temper not one bit ruffled. "And it's almost true. I was an awful smarty, but then I was only ten years old."
"And it didn't take you long to reform, I'll say that for you," Ann admitted.
"It couldn't have, because butter wouldn't melt in her mouth my first year," Prue laughed at a sudden memory now two years old. "If I even raised my voice above a whisper, the little imp would remind me that I was a new girl, and here I was a whole year older than she was."
"Mercy, we must be careful, Jan," Phyllis said, and Janet nodded.
"Do you suppose we've been here long enough to call Taffy down if she's noisy?" she inquired. "I'd just love to call Taffy down."