For one thing, Neale felt his position keenly. He was the oldest scholar in his class. Miss Shipman considered him her brightest pupil, but the fact remained that he really should have been well advanced in high school. Ruth Kenway was only a year older than Neale.
His size, his good looks, and his graceful skating, attracted the attention of the older girls who sought the Milton Pond for recreation.
"There's that Neale O'Neil," said Carrie Poole, to some friends, on this particular afternoon, when she saw the boy putting on his skates. "Don't any of you girls know him? I want him at my party."
"He's dreadfully offish," complained Pearl Harrod.
"He seems to be friendly enough with the Corner House girls," said Carrie. "If they weren't such stuck-up things——"
"Who says they're stuck up?" demanded her cousin Lucy. "I'm sure Aggie isn't."
"Trix says she is. And I must say Ruth keeps to herself a whole lot. She's in my class but I scarcely ever speak to her," said Carrie.
"Now you've said something," laughed Eva Larry. "Ruth isn't a girl who puts herself forward, believe me!"
"They're all four jolly girls," declared Lucy.
"The kids and all."