[Gutenberg 36313] • Witch Winnie's Mystery, or The Old Oak Cabinet / The Story of a King's Daughter

"For those who have not read the first volume of this series, "Witch Winnie, the Story of a King's Daughter." We four girls, Adelaide Armstrong, Milly Roseveldt, Emma Jane Anton, Nellie Smith, had been chums at boarding school. (Let it here be explained that although my name is Nellie, I am never called anything but Tib by my friends.) We occupied a little suite of apartments in the tower, consisting of a small study parlor from which opened two double bedrooms and one single one. Our family was called the Amen Corner, because our initials, arranged as an acrostic, spelled the word Amen, and because we were a set of little Pharisees, prigs, and "digs," not particularly admired by the rest of the school, but exceedingly virtuous and preternaturally perfect in our own estimation. This was our status at the beginning of our first school year together, and the change that came over us, owing to the introduction into our circle of Witch Winnie, the greatest scape-grace in the most mischief-making set of the school, the "Queen of the Hornets," has already been told. A quieting, earnest influence acted upon Winnie, and a natural, merry-hearted love of fun reacted on us, and we were all the better for the companionship."