A Dear Little Girl at School

in Ben, however, was already up and dressed and had been down some time when the two finally descended to the lower floor. This was made known by reas

have done. It is so cosey and warm down here,

"for I'm hungry, for one. W

ts to be provided for. "As long as there are so many eggs," she said, "we can have muffins or somet

ur and stuff and I'll make the muffins. There is a royal fir

ttie look

I've served my apprenticeship, I can assure yo

asket mother sent," Edna assured him. "We d

ng and set the table,

off her hands in this summary manner, though she said to

nd help when the servant goes out. He has told me all about it. And as for its being polite, I remember mother said it was always more polite

not at all pretty, but with a kind face, big blue eyes and sandy hair. She was dressed very plainly, but her clothe

offee just suited him. "I never saw fresher eggs than your

," she returned, "when the

aid," returned B

to Cousin Ben's ways, but N

cleared away there was a consultation upon what should be done next. "There'

don't suppose I can expect mo

wy. There is scarcely any use in even a sleigh while these drifts are so high. Ande,

l," she

the house, and then I'll come back again." They watched him ploughing through the snow, but because he had been there and was coming back it seemed

nearer. "I do believe it is mother," exclaimed Nettie, joyfully. And sure enough the sleigh did stop before the door, a man got out, and t

ived quite a distance from the station, but she had at last been able to get some one of the neighbors to

ghter, "and that you were not alone at all, I should have been muc

ized it as Mrs. MacDonald's, for it was driven by her coach-man, though in it sat Cousin Ben. He had come back as he promised, but in great stat

e in Mrs. MacDonald's slei

e heard where you were and all about it, she said she would send over her sleigh and I could go for you and Nettie in it, and so as that seemed a good arra

" returned Edna, "for now she has

woman, who had taken this little house in the country because she could live there more cheaply, and because in such a place as she could afford in the city her little daughter would not be surrounded by pleasant influences. Nettie w

the Neighborhood Club did nothing. Its numbers were dwindling, for when it was learned what good times the rivals had at their meetings, there was more than one deserter. For some reason, Clara Adams had picked out Edna as the prime cause of all this. She had never forg

power to make Edna appear to disadvantage, by all sorts of mean innuendoes, by sly hin

," said Dorothy indignantly, when a specia

't be a tattle-ta

to me," returned Dorothy. "She knows bett

don't cheat in my lessons, and he knows I don't, whatever Clara may say,

declared Dorothy, "and if this k

lipped into her seat after the exercises had begun. Miss Newman left the drawing on the board and made no reference to it, using a smaller board for what was necessary. She was far less attractive than Miss Ashurst, and had a dry little way with her, which many of

oked pale and awe-stricken. Never before had they any recollection of Mr. Horner's coming into t

, some dropped their heads, Clara Adams, with a little smile of indifference, began to play with her pencil. Mr. Horner glared at her. "Put that down!" he said,

last," spok

that," said Mr. Horn

. "I think I was the first, Mr. Horne

ne in the room

Mr. H

he board?" He poin

Mr. Ho

id not

catch of her breath, "I wouldn't do

you mean, Margaret," said M

ng," repeated M

l answer," said Mr. Horner. He began putting the question, going f

he older girls," said Miss N

nk it would be very easy to know who did it," she said, "

by that?" asked Mr

is only one girl who can come into the s

h headway I shall take other means of finding out who did this very unladylike and unkind thing." Then he gave them such a lecture as none of them forgot and if the G. R.'s did not

t had never happened; but one day the last of the week, the girls were

ed, "and you may even make them as humorous as you choose, but I want some little attempt, no matter how sligh

s showed their drawings to one another. It was as much as they could do to keep from laughing outright, they were so very funny, but they signed their names in the corner as Miss Newman directed them

s led into the room the next morning by Mr. Horner. Her eyes were swollen with crying and she wore a rebellious expression when Mr. Horner announced, "Clara Adams wishes to make a public a

le thing that had ever happened to any of them and Edna felt so sorry for the culprit that all resentment vanished altogether. She forgot ent

lara could have made the figure on the board. She had come very early, had slipped upstairs before anyone else and had gone out again to return later and thus hoped to avoid any suspicion. It happened, too

no opportunity of making it as unpleasant for her teacher as she could in the thousand and one ways a sly and unprincipled girl can, and her little pin-pricks were so annoying, that finally Dorothy and Edna, who had not particu

r, but it was not within Edna's heart to be unkind to anyone, and she mad

Clara's most adoring adherents who still called her "a pet" and said she was at the bottom of all Clara's trouble. This seemed a very strange way to look at it, but poor Clara was so blinded by jealousy and rage that she saw nothing in the right light. Edna wondered if she would ever cease to dislike

don't want to go with such a horrid story-telle

t a word, bu