Understood Betsy

eable excitement as the little figure was seen approaching down the road. He wore the gray trousers and the little blue shirt; the trousers were a little too long, the shirt a perfect fit. The g

ad been roughly put back from his face, and around his mouth and nose was a small area of almost clean skin, where he had made an attempt at washing his face. But he had made practically no impression on the layers of

appointment, Ralph and the other boys absorbed in a game of marbles near the

cises in the village. Several of the children from each school in the township were to speak pieces in the Town Hall. Betsy was to recite Barbara Frietchie , h

not possible. She shook her head sadly, her eyes on the far-off gleam of white where the boys jumped up and down in their swimming-hole. That was not a good name for it, because there was only one part of it deep enough to swim in. Mostly it was a shallow bay in an arm of the river, where the water was only up to a little boy's knees and where there was almost no current. The sun beating down on it made it quite warm, and even the first-graders' mothers allowed them to go in. They only jumped up and

th that subject. Miss Benton had had Betsy recite all by herself, so she wouldn't be flurried by the others; and to begin with had gone back, back, back to bedrock, to things Betsy absolutely knew, to the 2x

s among the most interesting hours at school. On that day she was standing up at the board, a piece of chalk in her hand, chewing her tongue and thinking hard how to find out the amount of wall-paper needed for a room 12 feet square with two doors and two windows in it, when her eye fell on little 'Lias, bent over his reading book. She forgot her arithmetic, she forgot where she was. She stared and stared, till Ellen, catching the direction of her eyes

uit gawking at 'Lias," he said under his breath. "You make me tired!" Something conscious and shame-faced in his manner made Betsy understand at once what had h

out how nice that was of him, but he frowned again and said, crossly, "Aw, cut

going home with a new cap on his head which she recognized as Ralph's. She just looked at Ralph's bare head, and smiled her eyes at him, keeping the rest of her face sober, the way Cousin Ann

new colt

she said.

nd they're going to let me r

hat be nice!

f little 'Lias with his new clothes and hi

spruce gum?

ve gum!"

morrow, if I don't forget it," said R

mentioned '

Pond and Uncle Henry drew up to the edge of the playground, stopped their horse, and, talking and laughing together, watched the children at play. Betsy looked hard at the big, burly, kind-faced man with the smiling eyes and the hearty laugh, and decided that he would "do" perfectly for 'Lias. But what she decided was to have little importance, apparently, for after all he would not get out of the wagon, but said he'd have to drive right on to the village. Just like that, with no excuse other than a carel

heir heads together for comfort, told each other that there was time enough yet. M

scious in their dark suits, clean collars, new caps (all but Ralph), and blacked shoes, there was no little 'Lias. They waited and waited, but there was no sign of him. Finally Uncle Henry, who was to

out as fast as they had tumbled in, and ran back, Betsy and Ralph at their head. There in the woodshed was little 'Lias, huddled in the corner behind some wood, crying and crying and crying, digging his fists

ome disjointed story which only Ralph could hear ... and then as last and final climax of the disaster, who should come looking over the shoulders of the childre

er?" asked the t

ad some decent clothes. ... First ones he's ever had! And he was plotting on going to the exercises in the Town Hall.

felt. "Yes, he is a darned old skunk!" she said to herself, rejoicing in the ba

rd, brushing the children out of his way, like a giant among dwarfs. She saw him stoop and pick little 'Lias up in his great, stron

a great roar. "He'll go, if I have to buy out the whole town to get him an

ding 'Lias on his lap, took up th

Pond's hand. He was magnificent in a whole suit of store clothes, coat an

he was overcome with shyness by the applause, and for a moment forgot to turn and leave the platform. He hung his head, and, looking out from under his eyebrows, gave a quaint,

side him, very close, sat 'Lias with his lap full of toys, oh, full-like Christmas! In that fleeting glimpse they saw a toy train, a stuffed dog, a candy-box, a pile of pictur

smiling at them all. His eyes looked dazed and radiant. He turned his head as the buggy flashed by to call out, in a shrill, exulting little shout, "Good-

n she saw that he was smiling. She had never seen him smile before. He smiled at her as though he were sure she would understand, and never s

ned; no, not a single thing! But it seemed to