“Yes, Elizabeth, and I hope you will like it, too.”
“If I don’t I suppose I can stop going,” Blue Bonnet said thoughtfully; and Miss Clyde let the remark pass.
Blue Bonnet followed her aunt upstairs, with heart beating faster than usual. Here and there, through open doors, she caught glimpses of different classrooms. Should she have to sit at one of those little cramped-up desks?
Presently, Miss Clyde stopped before a glass door, on which was printed in large black letters, “Principal’s Office.” A moment later, Blue Bonnet was being presented to a tall, scholarly looking man who spoke to her very pleasantly, hoping she would enjoy her school life in Woodford.
“I understand from your aunt that you have never been to school, Miss Elizabeth,” he added.
“But I’ve had tutors,” the girl answered. “The last one was fine—he was there a good while; he only went away last June.”
Mr. Hunt turned to a little table standing by one of the windows. “Will you sit down here, Miss Elizabeth? I should like to see how much those tutors have taught you, so as to decide where to place you.”
Blue Bonnet stood her examination very well. She had a bright intelligent mind; and her instruction, though not at all systematic according to Miss Clyde’s ideas, had been fairly thorough. In some of her studies, those she liked best, she was ahead of most girls of her age, and the daily drill her aunt had given her the past three weeks had proved most beneficial.
She came home that afternoon, jubilant. “I’m in Kitty’s class, Grandmother,” she announced, delightedly. “All of us tea-party girls are in the same class. The teacher’s name is Miss Rankin. I’m afraid she looks rather determined.”
For the first few days Blue Bonnet enjoyed the novelty of school life thoroughly. Her classmates found her delightfully amusing, more so than her teacher did. She was so frankly astonished over all the little rulings of the classroom. “What a lot of things there are to remember!” she told Kitty.