WILD ROBIN AND OAK-LEAF.
[LINNÆA;]
THE STORY OF A FRIENDSHIP.
CHAPTER I.
“What a thing friendship is, world without end!”—Browning.
Yes, Linnæa March was the dunce of the school. She was neither pretty nor attractive, nor did she seem to wish to be either. Nobody understood Linnæa. She made friends with no one, and no one made friends with her. Even the teachers said she was a girl nothing could be done with, and concluded to leave her alone.
One new governess, Miss Golding, had brought a look of interest to the girl’s face over a story of Indian life, and had determined to follow up her advantage and make friends with this solitary pupil; but her next advance had been met with such decided coldness that Miss Golding went over to the opinion of the other teachers, that “it was best to leave Linnæa March alone.”
The truth of the matter was that Linnæa had overheard a remark from the lips of the wit of the school—“Golding is trying to cultivate the March hare. Don’t you wish she may succeed?” This name had been given her by the same girl, Marion Edwards, very soon after she came to school. Marion was not a girl who actually meant to be unkind, but she had a ready tongue, and, when she saw a chance to make a witty remark, did not trouble herself to consider anyone’s feelings.