ndure the thought of a roommate but
necessity offered no alternative. She reached the room first and
arranged all her belongings in her accustomed careful and orderly way.
She sat by the window lonely and miserable, trying to read, when the
roommate came. She was a rosy-cheeked, laughing, vivacious girl who
greeted her as if she had always known her and did not seem to notice
that she received monosyllabic replies. Before an hour had passed the
shy, self-conscious girl was down on her knees helping her new friend
unpack her trunk and talking to her more naturally than she had ever
talked with anyone before.

The new roommate was a very wise girl, a little older than most girls
entering college. She knew that the girl with whom she must live was shy
the moment she caught sight of her and felt the dread with which she had
waited her coming. From the time she was fourteen until she left for
college she had helped her father make strangers in his church and
congregation feel "at home." She knew just how.

During the first trying days every one greeted the shy girl cordially
and then gave their attention to the wide-awake, interesting roommate.
But the roommate always included her. "How was it, Clara? I don't just
remember what was said," she would say, suddenly turning to the girl who
blushed but answered and found she could, to her great surprise. Under
the warmth of her roommate's confidence in her and pride in her
scholarship and the ease with which she conquered the most difficult
subjects she learned to forget herself. A great longing to help the
girls who found things hard came to her and they gladly accepted her
help and loved her for her sympathy. The months wrought a marvelous
change and though she found it difficult in the presence of the critical
family to talk naturally at first, still the things she had to tell
proved so interesting that they forgot to criticize and she forgot
herself while they listened. At the High School Seniors' banquet she
spoke for her college and her brother declared it the best speech made.

She is a graduate now and all traces of the old awkwardness have left
her. She is reserved but easy, simple and gracious in meeting those whom
her work calls her to meet and her eye and her heart alike are open for
the self-conscious girl wherever she meets her. If she were to try all
her life, she tells me, she could never express her gratitude for what
that roommate did for her.

What was it t