Dorothy's sweet eyes suddenly flashed.

"Doesn't she think my papa would keep Aunt Charlotte's house as
comfortable as ours?" she said.

"Oh, 'tisn't that!" laughed Nina, "she said she felt obliged to find out
if the cottage was a healthy place for a private school to be in, before
she could say that Arabella might belong to the class! Did you ever hear
anything like that?"

"Well, what makes her let Arabella come to our school?" queried blunt
little Mollie; "she could go to the public school. I guess we wouldn't
mind."

"Mamma says we must be kind to Arabella," said Dorothy, "so I think we
mustn't speak like that." "I'll be kind to her when she comes," said
Mollie, "because your mamma wishes it, but _now_, before school begins,
I'm going to say that I just _wish_ Arabella was going to the other
school."

The others felt, as Mollie did, that the class would be quite as
pleasant if Arabella attended the public school, but they did not like
to say so.

* * * * *

The few days of waiting were past, and now the first day of school had
come. The door of the pretty stone cottage stood wide open, as if
assuring a welcome to the little pupils who would soon arrive, while the