Urged by my sister Althea, Annie Page took the offered seat,
and down the slide we plunged like a shot, all the company watching our
venture with intense interest and not a little anxiety. The flight took
the breath away, but we sailed over the brook and out to the thin snow
on the meadow in one grand swoop, without a bump or a break on the way.
Annie was delighted and thanked me, over and over for giving her such a
surprising pleasure.
Under the circumstances I thought Althea might be the next girl to make
the trip, and, on the way up the hill, I gave the Old Colonie call,
which she recognized and answered. Annie noticed the whistle and the
reply, and asked what it meant, and when I explained the signal, she
said, "I would like to learn that." I immediately repeated it until she
caught the notes, and presently the strain was echoed all over the
Knoll, and from that moment it became the call of the school. From that
moment, too, Annie Page became the one girl of the place for me. She
held that position in my regard until three years later, when she and
her sister went to live with their parents in Italy.
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