ld take the trouble to
help her correct her faults as Mrs. Boardman did.
Maude had never really loved any one before in all her life. She had
valued others only for what they did for her, but now she was learning
to love from a better reason than that. She really tried to please
Mrs. Boardman by obeying the rules and trying to study her lessons, and
though it was hard for her to keep up with her class, Mrs. Boardman
encouraged her because she could see that Maude was really doing her
best.
If Maude grew discouraged, and began to think that it was of no use for
her to try to learn, that she would never be able to learn her lessons
and get up to the head of any of her classes, Mrs. Boardman would tell
her how much she had improved since she first came, and encourage her
to try again.
For the first few weeks Maude found herself frequently in disgrace. It
seemed almost impossible for her to understand that she must obey
without arguing the point, and that she must not be quarrelsome nor
selfish in her intercourse with the other scholars. If Maude had been
in a large school where she would not have had any one to help her, she
might not have improved so much; but in this little school, where it
was more like a family than a boarding-school, she was helped to
conquer herself just as wisely as she could have been by a wise mother.
When at last she really learned that no one cared for her father's
money nor her mother's servants, nor her own jewelry, which she was not
allowed to wear, and had to content herself with exhibiting, she began
to wish that there was something about herself which should win the
love of her schoolmates.
She had made such an unpleasant impression upon them at first that they
were not very anxious to make friends with her, but as they saw that
she was really trying to make herself pleasant, they were more willing
to invite her to join in their games and share their amusements.
She did not talk so much about her possessions, and tried to care more
about others and their happiness. But all this was hard work. It is
not an easy matter to be selfish and wilful and then all at once become
thoughtful of others, and of their comfort; and many and many a night
Maude sobbed herself to sleep, quite discouraged with the efforts she
had to make to do things that seemed to come as a matter of course to
the other girls.
Mrs. Boardman had grown to love the lonely little girl, when she saw
how much
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