AN OLD ACQUAINTANCE.
There were several cars, and a great many people got out of them, for
this was a junction, and some who were not going to stop here got out
that they might take a train that would carry them where they wanted to
go.
"We must wait till I see about our trunks," said Aunt Emma; and leaving
Ruby in a safe corner, she went to look after the baggage and give the
checks to the expressman who was waiting to take the trunks up to the
school.
Ruby stood very still looking about her. It was a very busy place, and
there was a good deal to see. After the train upon which she had come
had drawn out of the station and gone puffing and panting upon its way,
so that she could not see her friend the kind old gentleman any more,
another train came into the station that was going the other way, and a
few people got off, while a great many of those who were waiting in the
station got upon it.
A lady with a little girl and a great many bags and bundles got off
this last train, and perhaps you can guess how surprised Ruby was when
she found it was some one whom she knew.
I wonder if you could guess who it was. I do not believe you could, so
I will tell you. It was Maude Birkenbaum and her mother who had come
upon this other train.
[Illustration: RUBY MEETING MAUDE AT THE STATION (missing from book)]
"Oh, I so wonder if she is going to boarding-school too," thought Ruby.
"I never, never spected to see that girl again, but I don't know but
what I am maybe a very little glad to see her, for I don't know one
single other of the girls here, and it would be so lonesome for a
while. She sha'n't make me do bad things now anyhow, for I am ever so
much older than I was when she got me into so many troubles that
summer."
Ruby had been told not to go away from the place where Aunt Emma had
left her, so even to speak to Maude she would not leave it; but she did
not need to, for in a few minutes Mrs. Birkenbaum went to the
baggage-room, and Maude walked about looking around her.
In a little while her eyes fell upon Ruby, and she rushed forward with
an exclamation of pleasure.
"Why, Ruby Harper!" she exclaimed, quite as much surprised at seeing
Ruby as Ruby had been to see her. "I never thought of your being here.
What are you doing here anyway?"
"I am going to boarding-school," answered Ruby, "and that is my trunk;"
and she pointed to her pretty little black trunk, which the expressman
was putting upon the wagon, that was getting quite a load of baggage by
this time.
"I wonder if you are going to the same school that I am," said Maude.
"I do hope you are, for then we can have such good times together. I
am going to Miss Chalmer's Home Boarding-School for Young Ladies.
Where are you going?"
"I don't know," admitted Ruby, unwillingly. It had never occurred to
her to ask her Aunt Emma the name of the school; indeed I do not think
that she knew that any school had a particular name any more than the
school at home did. That was always called the school, and so Ruby had
thought that this new school was simply a boarding-school. How
dreadful it would be if Maude was going to a Boarding-School for Young
Ladies, and she herself should be going to a school for children.
"You don't know," echoed Maude. "How funny. You are just as funny as
ever, Ruby Harper. I never heard of any one starting out to go to
boarding-school without knowing where they were going."
"Well, I did n't need to know, or I should have asked," said Ruby, with
some dignity. "I came with my Aunt Emma, and she is a teacher in this
school that I am going to, and so I did not have to know anything about
it. She brought me with her."
"Oh," said Maude, in more respectful tones.
To have an aunt who taught in a boarding-school was a great thing in
Maude's eyes, and it made her less inclined to patronize Ruby.
"I do hope it is the same school," she went on presently, really glad
in the bottom of her selfish little heart to see some one whom she had
known before, for this was her first time too of leaving home. "We
will have such nice times together, and I have ever and ever so many
things to show you. You just ought to see all the dresses I have
brought with me."
"And so have I," Ruby answered. "My trunk is just full of them, and I
had a dressmaker sewing them for a whole week before I came away from
home."
"Did you?" asked Maude, and Ruby was pleased to notice that she spoke
as if this fact made her have a higher opinion of Ruby. "I thought
your mamma always made your dresses."
"She always used to, but she is sick now," said Ruby, and the lump rose
in her throat again at the thought that she was miles away from her
mother. "So we had Miss Abigail Hart come and stay a whole week and
sew on them all the time."
"You must have a nice lot then," said Maude. "I am glad, for if we are
going to be friends, I should not like to have the other girls think
that you looked old-fashioned and as if you came from the country;" and
foolish little Maude tossed her head, and looked complacently down upon
her pretty travelling-dress.
Perhaps if Ruby had not been thinking about her mother just then, she
would have been very angry at Maude's words, and the two children would
have begun to quarrel at once; but thinking of her promise to her
mother, the very last thing, that she would really try to be good, and
do just what she knew was right, Ruby controlled the hasty words, and
said pleasantly,--
"Well, even if my dresses are not as pretty as yours, Maude, the girls
won't think that it is your fault. Here comes Aunt Emma. Won't she be
surprised to find that I know somebody here in this strange place?"
Aunt Emma was quite as surprised as Ruby had supposed she would be, and
presently Maude's mamma came up, and was very glad to find that Maude
was going to have an old friend for a school-fellow.
"Ruby is a good little girl, and she will keep Maude straight, I hope,"
she said to Ruby's aunt; and it was all Ruby could do to keep from
looking as proud as she felt, to think that Maude's mamma should say
that she was a good little girl.
Ruby did not feel as if she quite deserved the praise, but it was very
pleasant nevertheless. She made up her mind that she would really try
to be good and keep from getting angry at Maude when she said provoking
things, and if possible she would help Maude to be good instead of
doing wrong things that she proposed.
By this time all the trunks were in the wagon and on their way to the
school; and Ruby and Maude, with Aunt Emma and Mrs. Birkenbaum, set out
to walk, for it was not a very great distance.
The two little girls walked together in front, and the ladies came
after more slowly.
"I wonder what boarding-school will be like," said Ruby presently.
"I suppose it will be perfectly dreadful," said Maude. "I know some
girls that went to boarding-school once, and they told me that it was
awful. They never had enough to eat, and they had to study all the
time, and they got so homesick that they tried to run away, but the
teacher caught them and brought them back again."
Ruby looked horrified.
"Do you spose that was really true that they did not have enough to
eat?" she asked.
"Of course it's true, for these girls told me so," Maude answered. "I
have brought a whole lot of cake and candy in my trunk, and I will give
you some when I eat it, Ruby. My mamma is going to send me a box every
month, so they sha'n't starve me, anyway."
Ruby turned back and exclaimed,--
"Aunt Emma, do they give the girls enough to eat at this school?"
Aunt Emma laughed.
"Why, of course they do," she answered. "Whatever put that notion into
your head, Ruby? The girls have all they can eat of good, wholesome
food, and it is just as nice as it is at home."
Ruby looked contented, and went on again.
"I did n't spose you would go and ask your aunt about what I said,"
Maude remarked presently in rather annoyed tones. "Now don't tell her
one single word about the cake and candy I have in my trunk, or she may
tell the other teachers, and they will take it away from me. I know
all about what things the teachers will do at boarding-school."
"I guess my auntie would n't do anything mean," Ruby answered rather
hotly. "Anyway, Maude, perhaps this boarding-school is n't like the
one that those girls went to. Aunt Emma said it would be ever so nice
here, and she ought to know, for she has lived here ever since I was a
little bit of a girl. I was only three years old when she began to
teach here."
"Perhaps it is nice, and then perhaps again she has got used to it, and
don't notice that it is n't pleasant," said Maude. "Anyway, I am ever
so glad that you are here, Ruby, for it will be ever so much pleasanter
having somebody I know."
"Turn the corner now, Ruby," called Aunt Emma, as the little girls came
to the corner of a street, and going around the corner they found that
they were close to the school.
Both the children were sure that it must be the school even before Aunt
Emma said,--
"Here we are, girls. Does it not look like a pleasant place?"
It did, indeed, look very pleasant, and even Maude, who was disposed to
find fault, could not raise any objection to the large, rambling brick
house, with wide porches running all around it, shaded with vines, and
surrounded on every side by large lawns and a pretty garden.
A row of great elms spread their wide branches upon both sides of the
street, and just opposite the school stood a pretty church, with its
spire reaching up among the trees, and ivy climbing over its stone
walls.
Several little girls about as large as Ruby and Maude, as well as a few
older ones, were amusing themselves upon the lawn, and they all looked
very happy.
"Well, Maude, this is n't as bad as you thought it was going to be, is
it?" asked Maude's mamma.
"No," admitted Maude. "It looks nice enough outside, but remember,
mamma, if I don't like it I am going to run away and come home."
Aunt Emma looked at Maude, when she heard the little girl talking this
way, and began to feel sorry that she had come, if she was going to say
such naughty things. She did not want Ruby to have for a friend a
little girl who would be more likely to help her get into mischief than
to help her be good.
Maude looked up and saw Miss Emma's eyes fixed upon her with grave
disapproval, and then she remembered that she had been talking about
running away before one of the teachers.
"Oh, I don't really mean that," she said. "I won't run away, for papa
said if I stayed and was good he would give me a watch that really goes
and keeps time, for Christmas."
"I am glad you did not mean it," said Miss Emma. "You need not be
afraid of being unhappy if you are good and obey the rules. Of course
you will miss your mamma and papa for a little while, but you will soon
be so interested in your studies and play that you will be contented, I
hope. Our little girls are all very happy after the first few days."
Just then they entered the gate, and Ruby felt quite shy as she took
hold of her aunt's hand, and stayed close beside her.
There were so many strange little girls that Ruby thought she would
never get acquainted with all of them. She was not used to feeling
shy, but then she had never seen so many strangers before. They went
up the steps, upon the shaded porch,--where two little girls were
sitting in a hammock reading, and looked as if they were birds in a
nest,---and rang the bell. Aunt Emma raised the great knocker upon the
front door and rapped loudly.
Ruby was quite interested in looking at the knocker while they were
waiting for the door to be opened. It was a lion's head, and it looked
very fierce with its open mouth and sharp teeth. She wondered if she
could reach it and rap with it if she stood on tiptoe, and she was just
going to ask Aunt Emma to let her try, when the door opened, and a maid
took them into the parlor.
Ruby looked about her with wondering eyes. So this was boarding-school.