sobs; "but I am trying, I truly am, but it does just seem
as if I should die if I could n't see my mamma. Oh, if I was only home
again. Can't I possibly go home to-morrow, Aunt Emma? Do say yes, or
I can't live all night."

"There, dear, don't cry so hard," said Aunt Emma, wiping away her
tears. "You will feel better to-morrow, Ruby darling. You will be so
busy getting your lessons that you will not have time to think about
anything else, and then when night comes again, you will remember that
you have come away with me so that your dear mamma can get well and
strong again, and the braver you are, the sooner she will improve. You
had forgotten that, had n't you, dear? You know you are helping to
make her well here at school. I know you can't help crying some. I
shall not think you are not brave because you do, but I know you are
going to stop very soon and cuddle up and go to sleep, and wake up as
happy as a little bird."

Ruby wiped away her tears after a time, and Aunt Emma went to bed with
her, that the little girl might feel loving arms about her, and not
remember how far she was away from home and from her mother and father.

CHAPTER XIV.

SCHOOL.

At half-past six the next morning, the rising-bell sounded through the
house, and Ruby sat up in bed and rubbed her eyes, trying to remember
where she was, and what the bell was.

It did not take her very long to remember, and she jumped out of bed
quite happy again, and wondering what the first day of school would be
like.

By the time she was all dressed, and had put on one of her pretty new
school dresses, the bell rang again, and as Ruby followed Aunt Emma out
into the hall, she saw that all the other doors down the long
passage-way were opening, and the girls were coming out, some of them
fastening their collars, as if they had not had quite time enough to
dress.

They went down to the dining-room and sat in their chairs around the
sides of the room while Miss Chapman read morning prayers. Miss
Chapman was seated in her large chair at the end of the room when the
girls entered, looking, as Ruby thought to herself, like a queen upon
her throne. As they came in one after another, each one said, "Good
morning, Miss Chapman," and she answered them.

Some of the girls, those who had been there the year before, made a
little courtesy as they entered, but the new scholars were too shy to
even try to do this, and they only said "Good morning,"