EAT TEMPTATION

About this time Ruth suffered a great temptation. She was so little
given to covetousness or envy, that other girls of her class might have
dresses, jewelry, and many other things dear to girlish hearts, without
Ruth's being at all disturbed.

Her one great, overmastering passion was for Independence! She envied
none of her mates anything but _that_.

Now she fell under temptation, and this was the way of it: Ruth belonged
to the picked class that the physical instructor had chosen for
exhibition gymnasium work at the mid-winter entertainment. This year
there were to be important visitors at the school, and Mrs. Tellingham
wished to make the occasion a more than ordinarily successful
entertainment.

The class of twenty girls, selected from the best of the seniors and
juniors, was to drill, dance, and go through other gymnastic exercises.
And it was agreed among them that each girl should have a brand new
costume, although this was no suggestion of either the teacher or Mrs.
Tellingham.

The class invented this idea itself. It was agreed--nineteen in favor,
at least--to appear at the entertainment in a brand new outfit. And how
could Ruth say "No?"

Every girl in the class but herself had only to write home for money and
order the uniform. As it chanced, Ruth had plenty of money to pay for a
costume. Helen, who was one of the number, knew Ruth had that fifty
dollars in gold that Uncle Jabez had given the girl of the Red Mill the
day she left home.

This was the temptation: Ruth had promised herself never to use that
money. She had a small sum left from her vacation money, and she was
making that do for incidentals, until she could earn more in some way.
She was already tutoring both Nettie Parsons and Ann Hicks in their more
advanced textbooks, and they were paying her small sums for this help.

But she could not earn enough in this way--nor in any other--to buy the
new gymnasium costume. And there were the five ten-dollar gold pieces
lying in a little jeweler's box in the bottom of her trunk.

She went with Helen to the dressmaker in Lumberton, when Helen ordered
_her_ new costume. "Why don't you let her fit you now, too, Ruth?"
demanded Miss Cameron.

"Oh, there is plenty of time. Let us see first how well she makes
yours," Ruth returned, with a forced laugh.

She knew she could not wear her usual costume with the picked class
without looking odd. The girls had decided on crimson trimmin