gaily as they could sing:

"Rain! Rain!
Go to Spain!"

Sister Theckla and Sister Angela came to the door of the room,--and
they were so astonished that they could only look at one another and
say to one another: "What do they mean? Where did they learn that?"

And the little girl who had taught the other little girls that much of
the song remembered some more; and so she beat louder than ever on the
window pane and said:

"Rain, rain, rain,
Go away!
And come another day!"

All the little girls laughed more than ever and sang louder than ever:

"Rain, rain, rain,
Go away!
Come again another day!"

Then Sister Angela looked at Sister Theckla and said: "Where did the
child learn that, do you suppose?"

And Sister Theckla said: "She is older than the others. She must have
learned it at home!"

And Sister Angela and Sister Theckla came into the room and they said:
"See, now, what you have done to the windows!"

Sure enough, when the little girls looked at the windows the glass was
all dim and blurred with little damp finger-prints!

* * *
* *
*

It was one day as the sun shone as it did shine most days, that the
same little girl who knew how to sing that song when it rained was
running on the shell-bordered walk, holding Bessie Bell's hand and
running, when her little foot tripped up against Bessie Bell's
foot,--and over Bessie Bell rolled on the walk with the shell border.

Then Bessie Bell cried and cried.

And Sister Mary Felice said: "Bessie Bell, where are you hurt?"

Bessie Bell did not know where she was hurt: she only knew that she was
so sorry to have been so happy to be running, and then to roll so
suddenly on the walk.

Then the little girl said: "She isn't hurt at all. She is just crying."

Sister Mary Felice said: "But you threw her down. You must tell her
you are sorry."

Then the little girl said: "But I didn't mean to throw her down."

"But," Sister Mary Felice said, "you did trip her up, and you must beg
her pardon."

Then Sister Theckla came to take all the little girls to the room where
so many chairs sat in so many rows, and she too said: "Yes, you must
beg her pardon."

Bessie Bell was listening so that she had almost stopped crying, but
now when Sister Story Felice and Sister Theckla both said to the little
girl, "Yes, you must beg pardon," then the little girl began to cry,
too.

Then Bessie Bell grew so sorry again, she hardly knew why, or