Kitty was so startled that she forgot her disfigured face and looked up; and when she had once looked, and her eyes met the kind eyes gazing into hers, she did not mind, for they were misty too with sympathy.
"You remind me so of the day that I first went away to school,
Katherine. You are Katherine, aren't you?"
"Yes," murmured the owner of the name; "but they always call me Kitty at home, all but Aunt Pike."
"May I call you Kitty?"
"Please do," said Kitty eagerly.
"Well, dear, I want you to unpack your things now, and try to make your room less bare and unhomelike. It will look so different when you have your own pretty things about it, and will seem more your own."
"I don't want it to," said Kitty miserably. "It isn't home, and it never could be; in fact, I don't want it to."
"Oh, come now, Kitty dear, don't talk like that; call up your courage, and make the best of things. It is only for a time, only for a little time," said wily Miss Hammond; "but however short it is, it is always better to try and make it a pleasant time to look back upon. Think of that, Kitty; always when you are hesitating and feel tempted to be disagreeable, or to make things disagreeable, think of the future, and what the present will be like to look back upon."
Kitty was impressed. She looked up with a brighter, more interested face.
"Have you a mother and father?"