"I'm going down to get Sallie," said Marion. "Don't put your things on yet, please; she wants to see you."
Marion ran off, returning in a few moments with Sarah Brown, who, the moment she saw her teacher, threw open her arms, and gave her a most emphatic hug.
"Now you look just as you ought. I'm perfectly delighted you're going, and your hair is beautiful,—that band is so becoming."
"That is all Marion's doings; in fact, I owe all my 'fine feathers' to her, and without them I should not be such a 'fine bird' as you seem to think me;" and Miss Christine laughed her dear, little laugh, that her scholars loved so well, and glanced affectionately at the group of admiring girls about her.
"You are not a 'fine bird' at all," exclaimed Sarah, in her most enthusiastic way; "you are just a dear, white dove."
"O Sarah! a white dove in black silk and blue satin—rather incongruous," said Miss Christine.
The girls all joined Miss Christine in her laugh; but nevertheless protested that Sarah's simile was not a bit exaggerated.
"Well now, Miss Christine," said Marion, "if you are ready, I'll go down and tell Biddy to put her things on."
"Biddy isn't going with me," replied Miss Christine, who seemed very busily engaged enveloping her head in a cloud, bringing it so far over her face that not a vestige of her hair was visible.
"Why, you're not going alone?"