"I should have asked her myself if you hadn't.

It would have been a wretched Christmas for her to be left at school.

I never saw anyone so pleased!" The Cuckoo was indeed looking radiant at the golden prospect in store for her.

Much to her surprise, everybody had been particularly nice to her that morning.

Several girls had given her their addresses and asked her to write to them, Miss Bowes had been kindness itself, and even Miss Teddington, whose conduct was generally of a Spartan order, when bidding her good-bye in the study, had actually bestowed an abrupt peck of a kiss, a mark of favour never before known in the annals of the school.
To be sure, she had followed it with a warning against relapsing into loud laughter in other people's houses; but then she was Miss Teddington! Ulyth lived in Staffordshire, and the journey from North Wales was tedious; but what schoolgirl minds a long journey?
To Rona all was new and delightful, and to Ulyth every telegraph-post meant that she was so much nearer home.