"I used to think that you hated Gerald," she said to her cousin one day, "and he seemed so kind and polite to you, and so cross to me, that I grew jealous and couldn't bear you;" and Ruth was somewhat amused to overhear Julia remark to a friend that she thought she (Ruth) "had really improved of late."
Study, lessons, classes, essays, and practice were again the important matters to which attention was directed daily, and there was little time for recreation or amusement until Easter, when Gerald returned for a few days, and there was a fortnight's respite from the apparently endless round of school duties.
A day's excursion of about ten miles into the country, in search of primroses and other wild flowers, greatly revived Ruth's longing for home. It seemed so strange to think that the Cressleigh woods were studded with primroses and anemones, and that she would not gather them nor see the woods until the flowers had all vanished.
One more term's work, and then—hurrah for home! Such were her thoughts when she returned to school again after her brief holiday; and as it would probably be her last term, she determined to work with redoubled vigour and energy to acquire the knowledge which she would afterwards be able to impart to her young brothers and sisters.
Miss Elgin's coolness and distrust considerably abated, when she saw Ruth working diligently and bearing with patience the petty taunts and slights of her school-fellows. Her influence was greater than it had been. She no longer found fault with the other girls in the spirit of the Pharisee, but spoke compassionately, knowing what it was to be tempted and to fall, and her companions were more inclined to follow the example of one who was striving to do right than to be influenced by the precepts of a self-sufficient paragon.
There were still many slips and shortcomings, but she neither concealed nor made light of them; she simply confessed herself in the wrong and began again in the strength which comes from above.
So the term passed, and Ruth, who believed that her school-days were nearly over, began to take a mournful pleasure in thinking, "This is the last time I shall ever do this or that," and drew many plans for her future life.
Miss Elgin said that it was a pity for her to leave school when she was learning so much and making such satisfactory progress; but Ruth somewhat propitiated her by saying that she would work hard and keep up her studies at home.
But how little we know what the future will bring!
Just before the holidays, Ruth received a letter which contained the alarming news that one of the younger children was ill with scarlatina, and that she would be obliged to postpone her return home for at least a few weeks. She was anxious to go at once and help her mother in her work of nursing, but her parents would not allow her to run the risk of entering the infected house.