Part 6 (2/2)

While Ruby pulled the basting-thread out, and wound it on a spool as Miss Abigail had taught her, half wishi+ng that she had not said anything about the other verses, since she ail repeated some more of the verses she had learned when she, too, was a little girl like Ruby:--

”'Coh you can boast such a train; For hly endowed, Is not half so conceited nor vain

Let ay bird, that a suit of fine clothes Is a sorry distinction atby those Who only such graces can boast

The nightingale certainly wears a plain coat, But she cheers and delights with her song; While you, though so vain, cannot utter a note, To please by the use of your tongue

The hawk cannot boast of a plu and clear is her eye; And while you are strutting about all the day, She gallantly soars in the sky

The dove may be clad in a plainer attire, But she is not selfish and cold; And her love and affection old

So you see, Mister Peacock, you h you can boast such a train; For hly endowed, And not half so conceited and vain'”

”I think I like that ever so ail finished, and handing back the sleeve, fro-threads

”Now can I go over to Ruthy's, Miss Abigail? Aunt Emma told me that I must ask you before I went away anywhere, for fear you would want me”

”No, I shall not want you any ail answered, as she scrutinized the sleeve to see whether Ruby had left any bastings in it ”Now re your heart upon your fine clothes Clothes do not make people, and if you are not a well-behaved child, polite and respectful to your betters, it will not make any difference to any one hoell you may be dressed”

”Yes ' that little girls in Miss Abigail's tiirls she knew, and wondering whether Miss Abigail looked as tall and thin when she was a little girl as she did now, and whether she used to be just as proper and precise

It was so funny to think of Miss Abigail as a little girl that Ruby laughed aloud at the thought, as she looked for her little friend She was quite sure of one thing: if she had been a little girl when Miss Abigail was a little girl, she would not have chosen her for a friend

Ruthy was the only little girl in all the world that she could wish to have always for a friend, for who else would be alilling to give up her oay, and yield so patiently to i

CHAPTER VIII

READY

Ruby thoroughly enjoyed all the preparations that were being reat many ti ry s which Ruby was to take with her

Of course she did not get intothese busy days,--there was no ti else to think about that she devised plans forbefore she was to start Miss Abigail had finished all that she had to do; she had bidden Ruby good-by, with a long lecture upon how she ought to behave when she was at school, so as to set a good example to her school-mates, and reflect credit upon her father and iven her, and then she had concluded by giving Ruby so that I am afraid she valued much more than the advice,--a pretty little house-wife, of red silk, which she hadin it that Ruby would need if she wanted to take any stitches

When Ruby saw it she was sorry that she had twisted about soof the long talk which preceded it

Then Miss Abigail had tied on her large black bonnet, and Ruby had watched her going down the road with a sense of relief that there would be no ers and still colder scissors, and no ood behavior However, she was so pleased and surprised by the pretty gift that she felt ail than she would have believed it possible

Ruby's old dresses had been made over until they looked just like new ones, and the last stitches had been taken in her new ones, and little white ruffles were basted in the necks, so that they were all ready to put on Everything had been carefully folded up and packed in her trunk,--not only her clothes, but the little farewell gifts that her friends had brought her

She had a nice pencil-box, filled with pencils and pen-holders, two penwipers, as well as a box of the dearest little note-paper, just the right size for her to write upon, with her initial ”R” at the top of the paper