friend and playmate, some of them proved
disappointing. Nothing could shake her deep affection for honest-hearted
Mary Beck, but in some directions Mary had made up her inexperienced and
narrow mind, and would listen to none of Betty's kindly persuasions. The
Fosters' father had done some very dishonest deeds, and had run away
from justice after defrauding some of the most trustful of his
neighbors. Mary Beck's mother had lost some money in this way, and old
Captain Beck even more, so that the girl had heard sharp comments and
indignant blame at home; and she shocked Miss Barbara Leicester and
Betty one morning by wondering how Henry and Nelly Foster could have
had the face to go to church the very Sunday after their father was sent
to jail. She did not believe that they cared a bit what people thought.

"Poor children," said Miss Leicester, with quiet compassion, "the sight
of their pitiful young faces was enough for me. When should one go to
church if not in bitter trouble? That boy and girl look years older than
the rest of you young folks."

"It never seemed to me that they thought any less of themselves," said
Mary Beck, in a disagreeable tone; "and I wouldn't ask them to my party,
if I had one."

"But they have worked so hard," said Betty. "Jonathan said yesterday
that Harry Foster told him this spring, when he was working here, that
he was going to pay every cent that his father owed, if he lived long
enough. He is studying hard, too; you know that he hoped to go to
college before this happened. They always look as if they were grateful
for just being spoken to."

"Plenty of people have made everything of them and turned their heads,"
said Mary Beck, as if she were repeating something that had been said
at home. "I think I should pity some people whose father had behaved so,
but I don't like the Fosters a bit."

"They are carrying a heavy load on their young shoulders," said Miss
Barbara Leicester. "You will feel differently by and by, about them.
Help them all you can, Mary!"

Mary Beck went home that morning much displeased. She didn't mean to be
hard-hearted, but it had seemed to her like proper condemnation of
wrong-doing to treat the Fosters loftily. Now that Betty's eyes had
filled with tears as she listened, and Miss Leicester evidently thought
less of her for what had been said, Mary began to feel doubtful about
the matter. Yes, what if her father had been like theirs,--could she be
shut up like a