what I had
to have done to my hair."
Maude stood up and helped to pat the bed straight and flat again. She
knew that, as Mrs. Boardman had said, she would have to obey the rules,
whether she wanted to or not, and she did realize that it would be much
more sensible to follow them willingly than to be in disgrace and be
forced into compliance. And there was a better feeling than that in
her heart, too.
She felt that she was in a place where no one cared for her clothes nor
for the little airs she liked to put on, whenever she found any one to
admire her, but where she would be valued just for herself, and for her
behavior. In that one morning she had noticed how little girls who had
not thought of themselves, but only of pleasing others, had found
friends at once, while no one had seemed to care for her society; and
she realized that if she was to have any love she must try to deserve
it.
Mrs. Boardman was the one person who seemed willing to be her friend,
and who tried to help her do right, and was patient with her
ill-temper; and selfish little Maude was grateful for the first time in
her life for kindness, and she did not want to disappoint any one who
thought that she meant to be good.
She would try to be good, at any rate, even if it was not very pleasant.
After the bed was in order again, she stood still while Mrs. Boardman
brushed her hair out and braided it for her.
"I must tell you what happened to my hair," she began cheerfully. "I
had had typhoid fever, and my hair was all dropping out, so that the
doctor said it must be shaved off. I did not want to have it shaved
one bit, for it was quite long and had been thick, but of course I had
to do as my mother said, and have it shaved. Oh, I felt so badly about
it. I cried and cried the day it was all shaved off, and when I first
looked at myself in the glass afterwards, I was almost frightened, I
looked so dreadfully. Did you ever see any one's head after the hair
had been shaved off?"
"No, ma'am," answered Maude.
"Well, then, you cannot imagine what it looks like. My head looked
more like a ball than anything else, and where the hair had been it was
perfectly smooth and bald, and there was only a purplish look to show
where it had grown. I ran away and hid myself in the barn and cried
harder than ever. But I had something nice happen to make up for all
this."
"What was it?" asked Maude.
"When my hair grew again it was curly, and
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