e when the crops were in.

School commenced the 1st of September sharp. It was hot, of course.
Summer generally does lap over. The boys who had shouted themselves
hoarse with joy when school closed, made the street and the playground
ring with delight again. If they were not so fond of studying they liked
the fun and good-fellowship. And when they marched up and down the long
aisles singing:

"Hail Columbia, happy land;
Hail ye heroes, heaven-born band.
Who fought and bled in freedom's cause!"

you could feel assured another generation of patriots was being raised
for some future emergency. Oh, what throats and lungs they had!

Mrs. Underhill had been around to see Mrs. Craven, and liked her very
well indeed. So the little girl was to go to school with Josie and Tudie
Dean.

Some new people had come in the street two doors below. Among the
members was a little girl of seven, the child of the oldest son, and a
large girl of fourteen or so, two young ladies, one of whom was teaching
school, and the other making artificial flowers in a factory down-town,
and two sons. The eldest one was connected with a newspaper, and was in
quite poor health. His wife, the little girl's mother, had been dead
some years. The child was rather pale and thin, with large, dark eyes,
and a face too old for her years and rather pathetic. And when Mrs.
Whitney came in a few days later to inquire where Mrs. Underhill sent
her little girl to school, she decided to let her grandchild go to Mrs.
Craven's also.

"She's quite a delicate little thing and takes after her mother. I tell
my son, she wants to company with other children and not sit around
nursing the cat. But Ophelia, that's my daughter who teaches down-town,
where we used to live, says the public school is no place for her. And
your little girl seems so nice and quiet like."

Nora, as they called her, was very shy at first. Hanny went after her,
and found the Deans waiting on their stoop. Nora never uttered a word,
but looked as if she would cry the next moment. Mrs. Craven took her in
charge in a motherly fashion, but it seemed very hard for her to
fraternize with the children.

Mrs. Craven lived in a corner house. The entrance to the school was on
Third Street, and the schoolroom was built off the back parlor, which
was used as a recitation-room for the older class. There were about
twenty little girls, none of them older than twelve. At the end of the
yard was a v