ngs we can give that only cost us a
little trouble, and do more good than the bestowal of money. It is one
of the greatest lessons of life."

Miss Aldred smiled upon her pupil, and a warm glow sped through Helen's
frame.

"Then I have my mind quite set upon teaching some day. Perhaps I take
that from my father, who was a teacher. I saw so little of him, but this
year I've wondered a good deal what he really was like, and if we should
not have been splendid friends on these lines. I believe he was
disappointed about my not being a boy, and it's funny"--with a bright
merry laugh. "I've never wanted to be a boy at all. I think girls are
nicer."

"The loveliest being to me is a fine, broad, sweet-minded, cultured
woman, and I am very glad she is beginning to be thought of as the ideal
woman. You have many years before you reach real womanhood, which comes
later and is richer than it was twenty years ago. But you are taking
some excellent steps along the way."

"Oh, thank you for the praise," said Helen pressing her hand.

If the steps were not in Latin and French she could go bounding along,
she thought. In that respect she did not inherit her father's facility
nor his love for the abstruse and difficult.

"I suppose I am superficial," she said to herself ruefully. "But why
shouldn't one delight in the things one loves best?"

That was one charm about Miss Craven to her. She reveled in poetry. The
other girls were full of nonsense chatter in the spare half hours, but
they two often slipped away under some tree and read and discussed.
There was a fund of romance in each one, though temperament and
surroundings had been so different, the one so afraid to express her
inmost thought, the other so fearless, not even minding being laughed
at.

Every day seemed more crowded with all things.

"I'm glad I don't have to think about a graduation gown, or any gown,"
laughed Helen. "My clothes come ready-made, and all I have to do is to
put them on."

"But wouldn't you like to choose sometimes?" asked one of the girls. "I
shall choose my graduation gown and my wedding gown."

"Oh, no you won't. Graduation gowns have to be pretty much alike, and
wedding gowns must be in the prevailing fashion. In fact, I think there
is very little you _do_ choose in this life. There's someone just in
front always who lays down the law, and though you may think you will
get your own way you find oftener it is the way of someone else."

"If