and some of
them were so shy that their lips only moved, and not even the girl next
to them could hear what they were trying to say.

After prayers came breakfast, and then the girls went upstairs to make
their beds and put their rooms in order. There were sixteen girls
altogether, and two teachers besides Miss Chapman and Miss Emma, as the
girls called her. There was Miss Ketchum, and Mrs. Boardman, who was
really the matron, though the girls always thought of her as a teacher,
and she sometimes taught a class if any of the other teachers were ill
or away.

Mrs. Boardman went around to the rooms and told the girls how the rooms
were to be kept, and she was such a motherly, warm-hearted body that
very often if she found a homesick girl in her room she would know just
how to cheer and comfort her, and help her to dry her tears.

Poor little Maude was really very unhappy. Her room-mate had not come
yet, so she was all alone in her room, and when Mrs. Boardman went in
she found her packing her trunk again, with her tears falling fast and
thick upon her dresses. For once she did not care whether they were
spoiled or not. All she thought of was to go home again as fast as she
could, and it had not entered her head that she might not be permitted
if she really made up her mind to go.

Before Mrs. Birkenbaum had gone, she had told Miss Chapman that Maude
would probably want to come home, and that they would have hard work
keeping her, as she was used to having her own way, so Mrs. Boardman
was not very much surprised when she saw what Maude was doing.

Maude did not look up when the teacher entered the room. She was very
homesick, poor child, and then besides her desire to see her father and
mother, she was very much aggrieved because no one had paid any special
attention to her. She had been used to having people make a great deal
of her because her clothes were so fine, and here no one had seemed to
notice nor care whether she was better dressed than the others or not.

This was a new experience to the little girl, and she did not like it.
Even Ruby had been more noticed than she had been, and she had always
looked down upon Ruby because she lived in the country, and did not
have fashionable clothes. It was quite too hard to bear, and Maude
determined to go home.

"Wait a minute, my dear," said Mrs. Boardman, pleasantly. "That is n't
what you ought to be doing just now. This is the time to make beds,
and as