“It matters this, Elizabeth; that this is the thing you are to do now; and to do it to the best of your ability.”
“Perhaps I am, Grandmother.”
“You do not think that, Elizabeth.”
Blue Bonnet changed the subject. “And, please, when may I have Mamma’s letters?”
“I think I shall say—when you have earned them, Elizabeth.”
The next morning, Blue Bonnet started in with the determination to earn those letters before the week was out. Before the week was out, she had slipped back into her old, careless ways.
The most delightful of companions out of school, in school her example was hardly of the best. She took her failures as lightly as her successes; and seemed more and more disposed to view Miss Rankin’s rules and regulations with good-natured impatience, rather than with respect.
Miss Rankin often wondered if anything would rouse the girl’s dormant sense of personal responsibility; and, wondering, was more than once tempted to put the question to the test; and then a sudden glance from Blue Bonnet’s blue eyes would plead all unconsciously for another trial.
Still, Miss Rankin knew that, sooner or later, matters were bound to come to a climax.
Others knew it too; chief among them Sarah. “Elizabeth,” she said one afternoon, “don’t you think it would be nice if we could study together?”