feel as if in
her they should ever find a friend.

Agnes and her cousins were placed in a large room in the third story;
this room contained three beds, one of which was taken possession of by
Grace and Effie, another was occupied by two little girls, of the names
of Carrie and Ella Holt and Agnes was, for the present, alone. Mrs.
Wilkins, the housekeeper, informed her, however, that Mrs. Arlington
expected a new scholar soon, who was to be her bed-fellow. For some
reason or other, the new scholar did not arrive at the time expected,
and it was not till Agnes and her cousins had been some weeks at the
school, and had began to feel quite at home there, that they were made
aware, by the advent of an old hair trunk and a band-box, that the sixth
occupant of their room had arrived.

The new scholar's name was Ruth Glenn. She was a strange-looking girl;
very tall and thin, with a pale, greenish cast of complexion; coal-black
eyes, very much sunken in her head; hair as black as her eyes, and
colorless lips. When she smiled, which was very seldom, she displayed a
fine set of teeth, her only redeeming feature. Her manners were as
strange as her appearance. When she spoke, which was only when
absolutely necessary, or in reciting her lesson, there was a constant
nervous twitching about her bloodless lips; and she had a peculiar way
of pulling at her long, thin fingers, as if it was her full intention to
pull them off.

We cannot help being influenced by first impressions; and though Agnes
felt the sincerest pity for this strange, awkward, shy girl, and did
her best to make her feel at her ease, she could not but feel sorry that
she was to be her bed-fellow. Ruth Glenn sat by herself in the
school-room, always intently occupied with her book, having no
communication with her school-mates, and always seizing on the moment of
dismissal from the school-room to retire to her own apartment. And yet,
as far as the girls could judge, she was full of kindness and generosity
of feeling, evinced by many little quiet acts which one school-mate may
always find it in her power to do for another.

One night, the third or fourth after the arrival of Ruth Glenn at the
school, the girls sleeping in the room with her were suddenly aroused
from sleep by loud and piercing screams from little Carrie Holt. Agnes
sprang up, and was by her side in a moment. As she left her bed she
perceived that Miss Glenn was not there.

"What is the matter, Carri