the
best and loveliest person in the world. I can never do half enough,
Willie, to repay her for all her goodness to me; and yet, she is so
pleased with little gifts, and so grateful for trifling attentions, that
it seems as if everybody might do something to make her happy. I found a
few violets in the grass yesterday, and when I brought them to her she
kissed and thanked me as if they had been so many diamonds; and little
Ben Gately, who picked a hatful of dandelion-blossoms, without a single
stem, and then rang at the front-door bell, and asked for Miss Ga'am, so
as to give them to her himself, got a sweet smile for his trouble, and a
'thank you, Bennie,' that he will not soon forget. Wasn't it pleasant
in Miss Emily, Willie?

"Mr. Graham has given me a garden, and I mean to have plenty of flowers
for her by-and-by--that is, if Mrs. Ellis doesn't interfere; but I
expect she will, for she does in almost everything. Willie, Mrs. Ellis
is my _great_ trial. She is just the kind of person I cannot endure. I
believe there are some people that other people _can't_ like--and she is
just the sort I can't. I would not tell anybody else so, because it
would not be right, and I do not know that it is right to mention it at
all; but I always tell you everything. Miss Emily talks to me about her,
and says I must learn to love her, and _when I do_ I shall be an angel.

"There, I know you will think that is some of Gerty's old temper; and
perhaps it is, but you don't know how she tries me; it is in little
things that I cannot tell very easily, and I would not plague you with
them if I could, so I won't write about her any more--I will try to love
her dearly.

"You will think that now, while I am not going to school, I shall hardly
know what to do with my time; but I have plenty to do. The first week
after we came here I found the mornings very dull. You know I am always
an early riser; but, as it does not agree with Miss Emily to keep early
hours, I never see her until eight o'clock, full two hours after I am up
and dressed. When we were in Boston, I always spent that time studying;
but this spring, Miss Emily, who noticed that I was growing fast, and
heard Mr. Arnold notice how pale I looked, fancied it would not do for
me to spend so much time at my books; and so, when we came to D----, she
planned my study-hours, which are very few, and arranged that they
should take place after breakfast, and in her own room. She always
advis