e, primary, and Dot
was made welcome by several little girls whom she had met at Sunday
school during the summer. Then Ruth hurried to report to the principal
of the Milton High School, with whom she had already had an interview.

Tess found her grade herself. It was the largest room in the whole
building and was presided over by Miss Andrews--a lady of most uncertain
age and temper, and without a single twinkle in her grey-green eyes.

But with Tess were several girls she knew--Mable Creamer; Margaret and
Holly Pease; Maria Maroni, whose father kept the vegetable and fruit
stand in the cellar of one of the Stower houses on Meadow Street; Uncle
Rufus' granddaughter, Alfredia (with the big red ribbon bow); and a
little Yiddish girl named Sadie Goronofsky, who lived with her
step-mother and a lot of step-brothers and sisters in another of the
tenements on Meadow Street which had been owned so many years by Uncle
Peter Stower.

Agnes and Neale O 'Neil met in the same grade, but they did not have a
chance to speak, for the boys sat on one side of the room, and the girls
on the other.

The second Kenway girl had her own troubles. During the weeks she lived
at the old Corner House, she had been looking forward to entering school
in the fall, so she had met all the girls possible who were to be in her
grade.

Now she found that, school having opened, the girls fell right back into
their old associations. There were the usual groups, or cliques. She
would have to earn her place in the school, just as though she did not
know a soul.

Beatrice, or "Trix" Severn, was not one of those whom Agnes was anxious
to be friendly with; and here Trix was in the very seat beside her,
while Eva Larry and Myra Stetson were across the room!

The prospect looked cloudy to Agnes, and she began the first school
session with less confidence than any of her sisters.

CHAPTER IX

POPOCATEPETL IN MISCHIEF

Miss Georgiana Shipman was a plump lady in a tight bodice--short, dark,
with a frankly double chin and eyes that almost always smiled. She did
not possess a single beautiful feature; yet that smile of
hers--friendly, appreciative of one's failings as well as one's
successes--that smile cloaked a multitude of short-comings.

One found one's self loving Miss Georgiana--if one was a girl--almost at
once; and the boldest and most unruly boy dropped his head and was
ashamed to make Miss Georgiana trouble.

Sometimes boys with a lo