She took Beth to the great class-room where the seventh and eighth worked, and the fifth and sixth joined them for recreation and preparation, and where also the Bible lessons were given by Miss Clifford to the whole school.
There were a good many girls of various ages in the room, who all looked up.
"This is a new girl," Miss Bey said, addressing them generally,—"Miss Beth Caldwell. Please to show her where to go and what to do."
She glanced round keenly as she spoke, then left the room; and at the same time a thin, sharp-looking little girl with short hair rose from the table at which she was sitting and went up to Beth.
"I'm head of the fifth," she said. "Has Bey been examining you? What class did she put you in?"
"The sixth," Beth said.
"I should have thought you'd have been in the third at least," the head of the fifth piped, "you're so big. Here are some sixth girls—Jessie Baker, Ina Formby, Rosa Bird."
The sixth girls were sitting at a round table, with their little desks before them, writing letters. One of them pulled out a chair for Beth. They had just returned from the holidays, and were in various stages of home-sickness—some of them crying, and the rest depressed; but they welcomed Beth kindly, as one of themselves, and inspected her with interest.
"You can write a private letter to-day, you know," Rosa Bird said to Beth.
"What is a private letter?" Beth asked.