Kathleen's face had turned crimson. She looked from Mrs. Weldon to
Cassandra, and then she looked at Ruth. Suddenly her eyes brimmed up
with tears.

"I don't think I can ever change my way," she said. "I am sorry if I am
rude and not understood. Perhaps, after all, I am mistaken, about Ruth;
perhaps she is not my real proper affinity. I am a very unhappy girl. I
wish I could go back to mother and to my dad. I shouldn't be lonely if I
were in the midst of the mountains, and if I could see the streams and
the blue sea. I don't know why Aunt Katie O'Flynn sent me to this horrid
place. I wish I was back in the old country. They don't talk as you talk
in the old country and they don't look as you look. If you put your
heart at the feet of a body in old Ireland, that body doesn't kick it
away. I will go. I don't want your tea. I don't want anything that you
have to offer me. I don't like any of you. I am sorry if you think me
rude, but I can't help myself. Good-bye."

"No, no; stay. Stay and visit with me, and tell me about the old country
and the sea and the mountains," said Mrs. Weldon.

But Kathleen shook her head fiercely, and the next moment left the room.

"Poor, strange little girl," thought the good woman. "I see she is about
to heap unhappiness on herself and others. What is to be done for her?"

"I like her," said Ruth. "She is very impulsive, but she is------"

"Oh, yes," said Cassandra, "she has a good heart, of course; but I
foresee that she is up to all sorts of mischief. She doesn't understand