"We've been so busy unpacking and settling that we haven't even thought
about it till now. Do you like your school, Betty?"

"Yes, I do, lots!" exclaimed Betty heartily. "I'm just through
kindergarten this spring, I am, and next fall I'm first year."

"Then I think you must be just about where Mary Jane will be," said Mrs.
Merrill.

The two little girls ran skipping ahead, talking about what they would do
and where they would sit and all the things that girls plan for school.

But when Mrs. Merrill took Alice and Mary Jane over the next morning, it
didn't work out as planned. Alice was entered and found herself in the
very same room and only two seats away from Frances, which seemed perfect.
But there wasn't room for Mary Jane! The kindergarten was crowded, very,
very crowded, and new little folks weren't allowed to come in. Miss
Gilbert, the teacher, talked with Mary Jane a while and Mary Jane told her
all the work she had done and all the things she had learned about.

"I really think, Mrs. Merrill," said the teacher finally, "that your
little girl is ready for the first grade. She seems very well prepared.
But they don't take new first graders so late in the year. Why don't you
keep her out of school the rest of this term and then next year, enter her
in the first grade?"

Mrs. Merrill thought that was a fine plan. There would be so many new
sights to see and things to learn in the city that Mary Jane would find
plenty to do.

But Mary Jane was keenly disappointed. "I wanted to stay in Betty's room,"
she explained to the teacher. "She asked me to sit by her this morning,
she did, and I promised yes I would."

"Then I'll tell you what you may do," suggested the teacher kindly. "Two
of our folks are absent this morning so we have enough chairs to go
around. Wouldn't you like to stay with Betty and visit? And then just a
little before time for school to be out, Betty can take you up to your
sister's room and she can bring you home."

Mrs. Merrill agreed that that was a fine plan, so Mary Jane went to the
cloak room to hang up her hat and her mother hurried back home.

At first Mary Jane felt very strange in the new school room. There were so
many children there and the songs were new and the games were new and
everything seemed different. She almost--not really, but _almost_--wished
she had gone home with her mother. And then, after singing three songs
Mary Jane didn't know, the children made a big circle and