curly hair was what I had
always wished for, and never expected to have; so you can imagine how
delighted I was. There, see how nicely your hair looks now that I have
braided it. Have you a ribbon to tie the ends?"

By the time Maude had found a ribbon and Mrs. Boardman had tied it at
the ends of the braids, it was time for her to hurry away and look
after some of the other girls; but Maude's face wore a very different
expression from the tearful, angry one that had been upon it when she
first heard that her hair must be braided. There was a wistful look in
her eyes that made Mrs. Boardman turn back and give her a kiss. "We
are going to be good friends, are we not, Maude?" she said. "And you
are going to be so good that I shall be very proud to say, 'Maude is
one of my special friends.'"

"Yes, ma'am, I will try to be good," Maude answered. "Thank you," she
added, with unusual gratitude.

She was looking quite cheerful when Ruby came in.

"I was afraid you were lonesome, Maude," she exclaimed, "and I came to
go down to dinner with you. When is your room-mate coming, do you
suppose?"

"I don't know," Maude answered. "Mrs. Boardman said she thought she
would come to-night, or maybe to-morrow morning."

"Are you glad you are going to have some one in the room with you?"
asked Ruby.

"I don't know," Maude answered. "If she is nice, I will be glad, and
if she is n't nice, I spose I shall be sorry. How did you like school
this morning?"

"Ever so much," Ruby answered, enthusiastically. "Did n't you?"

"Not very much," Maude replied. "I think the lessons are awfully hard."

Ruby was very much tempted to say something that would have sounded
rather boastful, but she checked herself.

It had been on the tip of her tongue to exclaim,--

"Why, if you think your lessons are hard, in a class like yours, what
do you suppose mine must be, when I am in with such big girls;" but she
only said,--

"I spose the first day everything seems harder; but when we get used to
the teachers and the lessons, they won't seem so hard."

The dinner-bell rang, and Ruby exclaimed,--

"Oh, I am so hungry. It just seems as if I had not had anything to eat
for a year. Let's hurry and go down before the rest, Maude."

But everybody else was hungry, too, so Ruby and Maude were by no means
the first of the stream of girls that hurried into the dining-room.

CHAPTER XVII.

LEARNING.

I suppose you can hardly fancy a