open till to-morrow but we will tuck you in somewhere for
to-night. I am so sorry for you, but we just haven't a bit of room after
to-morrow. Sit down on the porch and rest yourself," said the lady.

She brought her a glass of milk and then left her alone with her thoughts.
How could she go home? Perhaps there would never come a time when she
could be spared again. Was there no way in which she could stay?

Ten minutes later, a little girl in a short red calico dress went down the
steps and along the street, looking for a doctor's sign. When she found
it, she rang the bell and asked for the doctor.

"Please, sir," she said, "I thought you might know some one who wanted a
girl to work for them. I want to go to school this term and I have earned
the money to come. And now that I am here, there is no place for me and I
must walk the thirty miles back. But I am willing to work. I will work for
nothing if only I can go to the school in the afternoon. Sir, I just must
be a teacher and I just must stay now and get started."

The doctor whistled a little tune before he answered. "And tell me how you
earned the money to come." Then he whistled another tune as she talked.
"Stay here to-night," he said. "I will find out at the school just how
much they will let you come in the afternoons. I am sure you can find work
enough, so don't worry."

And sure enough, he found a place for her and so she started with the rest
on the very first morning. She was radiantly happy till she heard a boy
say,

"Look at the red dress that is coming in! Better loan her a red
handkerchief to piece it down with."

Then she knew that she was different from the rest. Her shoes were coarse
and rough. Her hair looked, oh, so different. Her hands were red and big.
She was here where she had longed to come but oh, how unhappy she was! She
was almost ready to cry. Instead she shook her head proudly and said to
herself, "I will be a teacher. What do I care if they laugh?"

The lessons were very hard, for her preparation was not good; every minute
that she could spare she must spend on getting ready for the next day, so
she had little time to be lonely. But she still minded the fact that her
clothes were so very different. Many a good cry she had in the quiet of
her little room as she looked at the red dress laid out for the coming
day.

The term sped by and she was making good. Oh, if she could only stay! But
she had no money except the little that the