“I can’t see through it, Puss; it’s really most extraordinary. But I can’t believe they don’t like you; a nice, pretty little girl like you ought to make friends at first sight. And you always have done so.”
“I know it, papa; I never had anybody act like this before. Please say I needn’t go any more.”
“Patty, my dear child, I can’t consent to take you away from the school at once, though I am very, very sorry for you. The whole thing seems so strange, and I can’t believe but that it will straighten itself out in a day or two. Now I’ll tell you what we’ll do. If you’ll go to school the remainder of this week and try your best to do your part toward bringing about a better understanding, I’ll promise you that if you don’t succeed by the end of the week you needn’t return next Monday. I know it will be hard for you, but I think it only just to give the school a fair trial, and I don’t want you to decide after only one day’s experiences.”
Patty looked disappointed, but she had a brave heart, and, too, she had implicit confidence in her father’s judgment.
“All right, papa,” she said; “I’ll do it. I hate like fury to go back there to-morrow. But I will. And I’ll do my part, too; I’ll try my very best to make the girls like me, but if they don’t act differently by Friday, I’ll give up the fight.”
“That’s my own brave girl; and truly, Patty, I believe it will be all right in a day or two. It’s preposterous to think that a lot of schoolgirls should unanimously agree to dislike you. I’m sure there is some explanation. Either you exaggerate their natural hesitation toward a comparative stranger, or else there is a serious misunderstanding somewhere.”
“Then you don’t think it’s because I came from the country, papa?”
“Nonsense! you weren’t brought up in the back woods. Vernondale is too near New York to be as countrified as all that. I don’t suppose you talked bad grammar, or displayed uncouth table-manners.”
“No,” said Patty, smiling; “I tried to behave like a little lady; but apparently I didn’t succeed.”
“Well, don’t think another thing about it,” said her father; “just go right along every day this week; and if you don’t want to go—go because I want you to. Clinch your hands and grit your teeth, if necessary; but march along each day like my brave little soldier, and somehow I think we’ll conquer in the long run.”