"Poor child," she shouted into the other's reluctant ears, "I hate to waken you, but open your eyes and tell me if you think we're nearly there?"
"Where?" murmured Katherine and sank back into the peace of slumber.
"Why, there, THERE, at your home--will--you--wake--up?" Each of the last words was accompanied by more vigorous shaking, "as--I--said--" shake, shake, "I--hate--to--waken--you--"
"Yes, you do," reproached Katherine in perfectly normal tones, turning staring mockingly at her room-mate. "Yes, you hate it--I thought you were a wreck, you shook me so hard."
"I am a wreck after all that difficulty to make you wake up," declared Peggy serenely. "Now, let's hurry and go to breakfast."
"Do you know what your new name is going to be as soon as we get back to school?" threatened Katherine.
"Oh," said Peggy, "well, I'll look you up one in the dictionary,--maybe in the _Latin_ dictionary, and then you'll never know what it means and can't pay me back for it."
It is surprising how quickly two girls can be ready for breakfast when they hear the waiter crying out "Last--call for breakfast--" through a rocking train.
Grape-fruit, coffee, and toast was what they ordered, and then they laughed to find that every other girl in the diner was eating exactly the same thing. For grape-fruit, coffee, and toast is the college and school girl train-breakfast the country over.
"I feel as if I'd been away a hundred years," said Katherine excitedly as the train at last pulled into the station. "Oh, they'll all be down at the train, I wired them to. And how proud I'll be to show them you, Peggy, and tell them that you are the one they've heard so much about in all my letters since the very first, which was full of your rose-tree episode."
The porter had already gone ahead with their bags, and they, peering eagerly out of the windows as they made their way to the platform, sought to catch a glimpse of Katherine's family.
As they stepped off it seemed to Peggy that a veritable whirlpool engulfed them. On every side were enthusiastic people kissing her and Katherine indiscriminately. And she in her gladness to get there and her happiness in meeting with such friendly acceptance kissed them back with impartial enthusiasm, Katherine's mother and father, her younger sister, an aunt, and three "kid brothers"--these were the reception committee that were now hustling the girls to the big waiting automobile that belonged to Katherine's father and overwhelming them with expressions of pleasure and welcome.