Up in front the geography class was bounding Asia very eagerly and rapidly. They had all the air of people who had recently escaped from some great peril. We did not pay them much attention for we were too much occupied with each other. Oh, the glory of having a friend, the secrets that we confided that morning behind the desk cover, the horse-hair rings which we exchanged in token of undying affection, the dear human delight of finding some one who is your own age, and who loves you!
School lost its terrors for me in a very short while. With Grace Armitage beside me I was willing to dare all things, and when half past ten came I went quite happily hand-in-hand with her in the little procession down the sunny street. It was so odd to look at my home from the outside, to see Norah hanging out the wash, the twins playing in the garden, and even grandmother sewing composedly at a window, just as if it were an ordinary day, and I had not gone to school for the first time. But my mother remembered, and when we passed the door she came running out and waved to me.
After that life resolved itself into a series of school days. Every morning I went gayly off with my books, feeling a new sense of importance, and every afternoon I came running home, with a budget of news to tell my mother. There were many things to puzzle me in the new world. For instance, I could never understand, why, when the spelling lesson was particularly hard, Janet McLarin would always show a great anxiety to hear about Miss Lucy's childhood.
"Oh, Miss Lucy," she would cry, clasping her hands together, "tell us about when you were a little girl!"
Then there would come a perfect chorus from the whole class.
"Oh, do, Miss Lucy! Do tell us about when you were a little girl!"
"Tell us about the little cloak your mother made out of a shawl," Cebelia would say, invitingly.
Even Grace would add her quota.
"Tell about your mother's party dress, and how she first met your father."
"Yes, yes," the others would clamor. "And tell us about her pink coral beads, and how they were lost, and he found them!"