ve often saw,' I'll say 'I have
invariably observed.' I suppose I could say it now, but it doesn't
seem to fit the rest of me; and I'll be sittin' here now plannin' my
work for to-morrow, and all the children are wonderin' hard what I'm
thinkin' of. Now I'll purtend school is out. There's three little
girls out there in the hall waitin' to take me hand home, nice little
things about the size I used to be meself. I may as well send them
home, for I won't be goin' for a long time yet." She went into the
hall and in a very precise Englishy voice dismissed her admiring
pupils. "I am afraid I will be here too long for you to wait, childer
dear," she said, "I have to correct the examination papers that the
Entrance class wrote on to-day on elementary and vulgar fractions,
and after that I am goin' for a drive with a friend"--she smiled, but
forgot about the gold filling. "My friend, Dr. Clay, is coming to
take me. So good-bye, Ethel, and Eunice, and Claire," bowing to each
one.

Pearl heard the scamper of little feet down the stairs, and kissed
her hand three times to them.

"I'll just see if he's coming," she murmured to herself, going to the
window.

He was coming, in her imagination and in reality. Dr. Clay was
driving up to the school, looking very handsome in his splendid
turn-out, all a-jingle with sleigh-bells. Pearl was so deep in her
rainbow dream she tapped gaily on the window. He looked up smiling
and waved his hand to her.

Just then Miss Morrison came out and he helped her into the cutter
and they drove away. At the same moment Miss Watson with the
gold-filled teeth, and the merry widow puffs, disappeared and Pearl
Watson, caretaker of the Millford School, in a plain little serge
dress, beginning to wear in spite of sateen sleeve protectors, turned
from the window with a sudden tightening of the heart, and sought the
refuge of her own seat, and there on the cool desk she laid her head,
sobbing softly, strange new tears that were not all pain!

CHAPTER VII

THE SECOND CHANCE

For age is opportunity no less
Than youth itself, though in another dress,
And as the evening twilight fades away
The sky is filled with stars, invisible by day.

_----Longfellow._

PEARL, having taken her resolve to leave school, did not repine, and
no one, not even her mother, knew how hard the struggle had been. It
all came out afterward that, John Watson, too, in his quiet way, had
been thinking of t