Part 17 (1/2)

It had not occurred to Ruby before that she could please any of the teachers by showing thehtful of the recess when one of the girls had drawn on her slate a funny caricature of Miss Ketchum, with the two little curls that she wore on each side of her forehead standing up like ears, and her glasses on crookedly She ain, but try to help her in every way she could by being good herself and setting others a good example

CHAPTER XVIII

MISADVENTURES

By the time Ruby had been at school a week she was quite happy, and had been so good that Aunt Emma wrote home to her father and irl, or one who un to be quite proud of herself for being so good, and quite enjoyed coirls, who could not learn their lessons as quickly as she did, and who did not try so hard to be good and not give the teacher any trouble

If Ruby's irl that this was the very ti, for it was generally when Ruby had the highest opinion of herself that her pride had a fall

If any one had told Ruby upon this particular h out loud in school, and h at Miss Ketchum, she would not have believed it, and yet that is just exactly what she did Still, I think you will hardly blame Ruby when I tell you how it happened

It was quite true that, as Agnes had said, Miss Ketchum was apt to be absent-minded sometimes She was so interested in her studies that she soot anything connected with her scholars' lessons, yet she soot little matters about her dress

She wore her hair in a rather unusual way, and when it was brushed back and arranged she would pin a little round curl upon either side of her face This otten to pin one of these curls on, and as soon as the girls noticed it, they were very much amused

If Miss Chapman had noticed it when she opened the school she would probably have reminded Miss Ketchuirls told her; so the curl was stillwhen Ruby went up with the rest of the class to the desk, to recite her grammar lesson

She was not quite sure that she knew it, and she had been studying so hard up to the last irls had been laughing behind their books and desk-covers, and had not even looked at Miss Ketchuan

Ruby was at the head of the class, and so the first question came to her,--

”What is an adverb?”

Ruby looked up at her teacher, and was just about to anshen her eyes rested upon the place where the curl ought to have been Miss Ketchum's hair was very thin just there, and the contrast between the round curl on one side of her head and the eht of what she was doing she had laughed aloud

Miss Ketchu in her appearance which could be a, and as she had often been tried by ht that Ruby was deliberately intending to be rude, and very naturally she was much provoked at her One could hardly have expected her to think anything else, for it was not very pleasant to have one of her scholars look straight at her and then burst out laughing

Poor Miss Ketchurew as red as Ruby's own, and she said very sternly,--

”I am surprised at you, Ruby I did not know that you could behave so badly You ra the school the rest of the day Next, what is an adverb?”

Poor Ruby was too miserable to try to explain, and she did n't like to tell Miss Ketchum that she had left her curl off; so she took her book and went over in the corner, feeling corace

After a while the door opened, and Aunt Emma looked in, to call one of her pupils for her rave surprise upon her face when she saw Ruby sitting there by herself irl h If she had noticed thecurl before she ca it suddenly drove the adverb quite out of her head, and before she had knohat she was about she had laughed

It see time to recess, and it was all that Ruby could do to keep the tears out of her eyes It was the first tirace at school, and she felt it keenly It would have been bad enough if it had happened in school at home, but to have it happen here was doubly hard

Ruby was sure she could never be happy here again, never, after having to stay up there all the race before the whole school

At last the recess-bell rang, and the other scholars went out to play, and Ruby and Miss Ketchurammar lesson in a few moments, Ruby,” said Miss Ketchu Ruby with her gra to keep the tears out of her eyes long enough to study

She did not know nor care just nohat an adverb was, and it is very hard to study with a great lump in one's throat, and tears in one's eyes If she had really meant to be race, but Ruby really had not intended to do wrong, and she would not have done anything toin the world if she had had tilance at her as she went out, for she had understood hoas, and she hoped that during recess tiether, Ruby would tell Miss Ketchuhed