Part 15 (1/2)

Ruby hardly knew what to say, so she blushed with pleasure, and did not answer.

”Now you can go,” said Miss Chapman, and so Ruby walked over to the door, opened it, and turned around and stood exactly in the middle of the doorway. Then drawing back her foot, she made a very careful and deep courtesy, and gravely closed the door after her and ran back to Aunt Emma.

”Aunt Emma, there is something I have been thinking about,” she said after she had told her aunt how kindly Miss Chapman had spoken to her.

”This morning I almost got real mad at Maude, for she asked me in such a superior sort of way if I sposed we should be in the same cla.s.s. 'Do you spose you are as far advanced as I am, Ruby?' she said, just as if she thought I was ever so much behind her. I was going to tell her I guessed I was just as smart as she was, but then I remembered it was school and I did n't, for I knew I must n't talk, but you would 't believe with what little girls she is. I am way ahead of her. Well, I did think I would just remind her of what she said, but I guess maybe I had n't better; for she certainly could courtesy when I didn't know the first thing about it, and so that sort of makes us even. She did n't see me run away, but then if she heard some one else say something about it, she would know, and I should n't feel very nice if she should tell me that anyway she knew something that I could n't do without being showed how. Don't you think I had n't better say anything about being ahead of her?”

”I am sure you had better not,” said Aunt Emma, promptly; ”but it is not because of the courtesying, Ruby, it is because it is not a kind thing to boast, or to remind any one else of their failings. You know you would not like it yourself, and that ought to be reason enough for your never doing it to any one else. What is the Golden Rule?”

”Do unto others as you would they should do unto you,” repeated Ruby, promptly.

”Yes; and that means that you should never, never do to any one else anything that you would not like to have done to yourself,” Aunt Emma said.

Just then the dinner-bell rang.

”I know what I will do,” exclaimed Ruby, cheerfully. ”I will go to Maude's room and go down to dinner with her, for I just spect she feels sort of lonesome. I saw her once at recess, and she was all by herself, and had n't any one to play with. I will stay with her till she gets a little more acquainted, and that will be paying attention to the Golden Rule; for if I was all by myself here, and had n't got you, Aunt Emma, I am sure I would be glad if Maude would stay with me;” and Ruby ran off to find her little friend, feeling as happy as if she had not had such a burst of tears but half an hour ago.

CHAPTER XVI.

MAUDE'S TROUBLES.

Poor little Maude had not been enjoying this first day at school. It had begun with tears, and she had just been having another burst of anger, and had thought that she could not possibly stay in such a school another hour. It was a new experience to the self-willed child to have to give up her own way, and submit to regulations that she did not like; and although she had managed the courtesy that had brought Ruby to grief, without the least trouble, as she had been to dancing-school, and could courtesy in the most approved French style, yet she found a great grievance waiting for her as soon as she reached her room.

Mrs. Boardman was waiting for her.

”Maude, I want to help you arrange your hair a little differently,” she said. ”Miss Chapman does not like the girls to wear their hair here at school as you wear yours, flying all over your shoulders. She does not think it neat, nor does she like little girls to pay so much attention to their appearance while they are at school. Of course she wants you to be neat, but not dressed up as if you were going to a party. She likes her scholars to wear their hair braided, and I will help you braid yours now, as I suppose you cannot do it alone if you are not used to it, and you have no room-mate yet to help you.”

Maude looked at Mrs. Boardman in angry amazement.

If there was any one thing of which vain little Maude was prouder than another, it was of the crinkled, waving hair that fell below her shoulders. She rarely forgot it, and was always playing with a lock of it, or tipping her head over her shoulder, like a little peac.o.c.k admiring his fine tail.

”I don't want to wear it braided,” she exclaimed. ”I like it this way.

It would look like ugly little pig-tails if it was braided, and I won't have it that way. Oh, I want to go home. I don't like it here one single bit. I am sure my mamma would n't let me have my hair braided, like a little charity girl.”

Mrs. Boardman was very patient with the spoiled child.

[Ill.u.s.tration: ”MRS. BOARDMAN WAS VERY PATIENT WITH THE SPOILED CHILD”

(missing from book)]

”Hush, dear; I would n't talk that way,” she said. ”I hoped your mamma had spoken to you about it before she went away, for I told her that Miss Chapman would want you to wear your hair differently. She told me that she wanted you to follow all the rules of the school, whatever they were; so I know she wishes you to wear your hair as Miss Chapman requires the others to wear their hair. Now, let me braid it for you, for it is growing near dinner-time.”

But Maude threw herself down the bed, and began to cry.

”And now I must tell you about another rule,” said Mrs. Boardman. ”I expect it will seem to you as if we had a great many rules here; but you will soon get used to them, and then you will not find them burdensome. It is against the rules to sit upon your bed during the day-time. You see it will make the bed look untidy, and that is the reason for this rule. Now, we will straighten the bed out nicely, and then it will be quite tidy again.”

Maude did not move.

”Oh, I must go home,” she sobbed. ”I can't stay here. It is a perfectly dreadful place. I have to do everything I don't like to do and I can't do the least little tiny thing that I like to do, and my beautiful hair will look so ugly, and I just can't stand it.”