oardman hurried away, giving Maude a motherly little squeeze as she
passed her.

Maude stood looking at her trunk for a few moments after Mrs. Boardman
had gone away, rather undecided what to do with her dresses. Fifteen
minutes before she had quite made up her mind that she was going home
and that nobody in all the world should make her stay at
boarding-school now that she had made up her mind that she did not like
it, but Mrs. Boardman had taken it for granted that she was a good,
brave little girl who wanted to do just what was right, and somehow
Maude did not want to disappoint her.

Usually Maude's one aim in life was to do just what she chose, and to
have her own way in

[Transcriber's note: page 159 missing from book]

[Transcriber's note: page 160 missing from book]

CHAPTER XV.

BEGINNING SCHOOL.

The school-room was very cheerful and pleasant. There were windows on
both sides of the room, and all the space between the windows was
covered with blackboards or maps.

Ruby began to feel really happy when she sat down on a bench with the
new scholars, waiting to be examined by Miss Chapman and assigned to a
class. She loved study, and was always happy during school-hours, and
generally very good, too, for she was too busy to get into mischief,
and too anxious to have a good report to wilfully break any rules. "I
wonder if you are as far advanced as I am," whispered Maude, as she sat
down beside Ruby.

It was on the tip of Ruby's tongue to tell her that she had been at the
head of her class for a long time at home, but she remembered in time
to check herself that it was not at all probable that whispering was
allowed here more than in any other school, and that she might break a
rule the very first thing if she should answer.

One by one Miss Chapman called the girls up to the desk where she sat,
and questioned them about their studies and the books they had used,
and Miss Ketchum, at her side, wrote down the answers in a little book.
Then the girls were assigned a seat, and Miss Ketchum took their books
to them, and showed them what the lesson would be.

Ruby was very much pleased when she found that she was to be in the
class with girls who were, most of them, larger than herself, and as
she was not at all shy, she could answer all the questions Miss Chapman
asked her, very fluently, so that the teacher had a very good idea of
what the little girl really knew.

Some of the new scholars we