GETTING SETTLED.
Both Ruby and Maude felt very shy when they went downstairs and saw so
many girls whom they did not know at all. They were very glad that
among all those strange girls there was at least one whom they each
knew.
"Was n't it the funniest thing that we should happen to come to the
same boarding-school?" whispered Maude, as she took Ruby's hand and
walked up and down the porch, while the scholars who had already come
and felt very much at home, looked at them half curiously and half
shyly, no doubt wondering whether they would be pleasant schoolmates or
not.
Aunt Emma found that Ruby was quite contented to stay with Maude, so
she went back upstairs, where she still had some little things to do,
and Mrs. Birkenbaum finished unpacking Maude's things, for she had to
go away that afternoon, and wanted to unpack Maude's trunk before she
left.
Ruby and Maude walked up and down the porch for a time and then they
went down upon the lawn. There was a large lawn in front of the house,
where the girls usually played. In one corner of it there was a
croquet set, and as this was something new to Ruby, she looked at the
hoops with a great deal of interest, while Maude, who had a set at home
explained the game to her.
"I will show you how to play it, and we will play together sometimes,"
Maude said.
There was plenty of room to play tag, and puss in the corner, and Ruby
thought the trees grew in just the right places for that game. She
wondered if there had been a school there when they were planted, and
if Miss Chapman had planted them so that they would be nice for puss in
the corner.
The house was quite large, and when Ruby and Maude walked around the
lawn towards the back of the house, they found the schoolhouse, which
was connected with the rest of the house by a long covered passage-way,
so that the girls could go backward and forward in wet weather without
getting wet.
The school-room was not open, but the children looked through the
window, and saw the teacher's desk at one end, blackboards hung upon
the walls, and long rows of desks and seats for the scholars.
On the other side of the school-room was the garden, with vegetables
and flowers, and some pear-trees that were laden with fruit.
"Those pears look nice, don't they?" said Maude. "I wonder if they
will let us have some. Perhaps Miss Chapman keeps them all for
herself. We will have some anyway, won't we, Ruby. Well, I guess we
have seen everything now. I think I will go upstairs and see if mamma
has finished unpacking my trunk."
Ruby was quite willing to go into the house, for she was sure that by
this time Aunt Emma would have emptied her trunk, and she might write
her letter home.
"I was just coning to look for you, Ruby dear," said Aunt Emma, as her
little niece opened the door. "You can write to your mamma now, if you
like, and you will just have time to write a nice long letter before it
is supper-time."
Ruby untied the ribbon about her neck, took the little key off, and
opened the desk, with a feeling of pride. She was quite sure that
there could not be a prettier desk in all the world than this one which
Orpah had given her, and she was very anxious to show it to Maude, and
surprise her with its beauty.
"What shall I write my letter on first, Aunt Emma?" she asked.
"Here is a piece of paper and a pencil you can use, and then you can
copy it afterwards," said Aunt Emma; so Ruby sat down at a little table
by the window, and wrote to her mother.
[Illustration: RUBY WRITING A LETTER HOME.]
When she had finished her letter and Aunt Emma had looked it over, and
corrected the few mistakes in spelling that she found, Ruby opened the
desk, and putting it upon the table, took out some of her pink paper,
which she thought was the prettiest, and carefully copied the letter.
"This ought to be a very nice letter, written on such a beautiful desk,
with a silver pen-holder, ought n't it, Aunt Emma?" she asked.
"Yes, dear, and I am sure your mamma will think it is very nice," her
aunt answered.
Ruby was very proud when she finished copying it without one single
mistake. She did not usually have the patience to work so carefully
but she felt as if such a desk deserved great care on the part of its
owner.
Would you like to hear her letter? Here it is:
MY DEAR MAMMA AND PAPA,--I am writing this letter to you on a beautiful
new desk that Orpah gave me. That was what was in the package she made
me promise not to open. We had a very pleasant journey. There was a
very kind old gentleman on the cars, who talked to me and told me
stories, and he told the boy with a basket to let the little lady
choose what she wanted, and I chose a big pear. I divided it with Aunt
Emma and the old gentleman. When I was sleepy I put my head down on
his shoulder the way his little grand-daughter does, and I went to
sleep and I slept ever so long, though I thought it was only a little
while. It is nice to ride in the cars, but it takes a long time. I
like this school. I like Miss Chapman. She has white hair like
grandma. Her eyes are blue. I shall be good, for I like her very
much. But I shall be good anyway, because I promised you. I do want
to see you, mamma, and papa, too. Aunt Emma has unpacked my trunk, and
my things are all put away. Maude Birkenbaum is here. She was at the
station at the same time I was, and we walked up together. I mean to
be good. Her mother said she hoped I would be a help to Maude, and I
mean to try to be good, instead of doing things she wants me to do. I
love you a whole heartful, mamma and papa. Please write me a long
letter soon. I hope you will soon be well again, mamma. I shall seal
this letter with my new sealing wax, and you must pretend it is a kiss.
Your loving RUBY.
Ruby was so impatient to use her new sealing-wax outfit that she found
it very hard work to finish her letter carefully, and write the last
words just as well as she had written the first one.
"Do you think 'Ruby' looks as well as 'My dear Mamma and Papa'?" she
asked Aunt Emma, carrying the paper over to her.
That was Ruby's test whether she had been careful in writing a letter,
to look and see whether the last words were as carefully written as the
first ones. Sometimes, if she had not been very careful, one would not
think that the same little girl had written all the letter. The first
few lines would be so very neat and carefully written, and the last
ones would be straggly, and of different heights and wandering all
across the pages.
But this time Ruby had been very careful indeed. She had left just the
same margin all the way down the left-hand side of her page, and she
had been careful in dividing her words, so when Aunt Emma had looked it
all over very carefully, she could say that it was just as nice as Ruby
could possibly have written.
Then Ruby folded it and put it into one of her new envelopes; and then
came the most exciting part of all. Ruby had never been very fond of
letter-writing before, but she thought she would be perfectly willing
to write a letter every day, if she might always seal them up with wax.
She put the little pond-lily candlestick out upon the table, on a
folded piece of paper, which Aunt Emma told her she had better put
under it lest the melted wax should drop upon the table-cloth, and then
she took out her little box of colored tapers, and tried to decide
which one she should use first.
She decided upon the pink one, because that matched the color of the
paper she had been using; and so she took out a pink taper, and set it
in the candlestick. It fitted very snugly, so there was no danger of
its falling out.
Aunt Emma showed her how to open the little silver match-box that Ruby
had not discovered before in the outfit, and she lighted the taper, and
then held a stick of green sealing-wax in the flame.
When the end had grown quite soft in the heat, Ruby watched it
carefully, and let the big drop at the end fall just at the right time,
and in just the right place upon her envelope. Then she pressed the
seal down upon it, and you can guess how proud she was when she saw her
initial in the wax.
"Won't mamma be surprised when she gets this letter?" she asked
gleefully. "She will wonder where I got the wax, and I am sure she
will hardly believe that I made such a nice seal the very first time I
ever used it."
[Transcriber's note: page 145 missing from book]
[Transcriber's note: page 146 missing from book]
her, which made a very great difference; and then she was very much
interested in listening to the talk of the girls who had been there
before, as they crowded about Aunt Emma and told her of what they had
been doing during their vacation.
Maude was not at all pleased when she found that no one paid any
particular attention to her, and she sat by herself with a very
discontented look upon her face.
One of the girls came up to her after a time, and asked her if she
would like to take part in a game, but Maude refused, sullenly, and
after that no one else spoke to her.
"I shall go home just as soon as mamma can come and get me," she said
to herself. "I don't like this place one single bit. No one pays a
bit of attention to me, and my dress is ever so much nicer than any one
else's. I think Ruby might come and sit by me, instead of staying with
her aunt, so I do."
But Ruby was very happy where she was. She had not forgotten Maude,
and when they had first gone into the sitting-room, she had invited
Maude to come and sit beside her; but as Maude had refused, wishing
Ruby to come over to her, she had concluded that Maude wished to be by
herself, and was listening to the talk going on about her, without
thinking any more about Maude.
At eight o'clock all the girls went up to bed, and Miss Chapman told
them that in half an hour a bell would be rung, and that then they must
put their lights out, and not talk any more to one another that night.
Some of the girls who were tired had gone to bed earlier, but most of
the scholars had stayed downstairs until that hour. The next day would
be the first day of regular school, and Miss Chapman told them that she
hoped they would all sleep well so as to be fresh for their studies in
the morning.
When Ruby was in her room, she realized for the first time with all her
heart how much happier she was than those girls who had come quite
alone. If she had not Aunt Emma she did not know what she should have
done, she should have been so lonely. As it was, all her chatter
stopped as she began to get undressed, and though Aunt Emma talked on
about everything that she thought would interest her little niece, yet
Ruby's answers grew more and more infrequent, and Aunt Emma guessed
that she was thinking about home, and the dear ones there from whom she
had never been separated so long before.
Ruby was really a brave little girl, and when she felt the lump
swelling in her throat again she kept swallowing it back, and trying to
think only of how pleased her papa would be when he should hear that
she had been good and had not cried to come home; but when at last she
knelt down to say her prayers in her little white night gown, the tears
would come.
"I want mamma, oh, I want mamma," she sobbed.
Aunt Emma took her up tenderly in her arms, and kissed and comforted
the little girl as tenderly as she could; but no one could take the
place of mother, and though Ruby tried to stop crying, the tears came
fast and thick.
"You may think I am not trying to be brave, Aunt Emma," said Ruby,
through her sobs; "but I am trying, I truly am, but it does just seem
as if I should die if I could n't see my mamma. Oh, if I was only home
again. Can't I possibly go home to-morrow, Aunt Emma? Do say yes, or
I can't live all night."
"There, dear, don't cry so hard," said Aunt Emma, wiping away her
tears. "You will feel better to-morrow, Ruby darling. You will be so
busy getting your lessons that you will not have time to think about
anything else, and then when night comes again, you will remember that
you have come away with me so that your dear mamma can get well and
strong again, and the braver you are, the sooner she will improve. You
had forgotten that, had n't you, dear? You know you are helping to
make her well here at school. I know you can't help crying some. I
shall not think you are not brave because you do, but I know you are
going to stop very soon and cuddle up and go to sleep, and wake up as
happy as a little bird."
Ruby wiped away her tears after a time, and Aunt Emma went to bed with
her, that the little girl might feel loving arms about her, and not
remember how far she was away from home and from her mother and father.