it must be read and on the morning when the school assembled to hear it
looked pale and wan. It was with very evident effort that she walked to
the front of the platform. Her lips opened but no voice came. Her sister
thought she was going to faint but she pulled herself together and was
able to read in a thin scared voice which could not be heard three seats
away. But those who heard and those who read marveled at the thoughts
which the girl had written in a clear and original fashion. Still when
she left for college she was a misunderstood and unappreciated girl in
her own home and among her neighbors.

It seemed as if she could not endure the thought of a roommate but
necessity offered no alternative. She reached the room first and
arranged all her belongings in her accustomed careful and orderly way.
She sat by the window lonely and miserable, trying to read, when the
roommate came. She was a rosy-cheeked, laughing, vivacious girl who
greeted her as if she had always known her and did not seem to notice
that she received monosyllabic replies. Before an hour had passed the
shy, self-conscious girl was down on her knees helping her new friend
unpack her trunk and talking to her more naturally than she had ever
talked with anyone before.

The new roommate was a very wise girl, a little older than most girls
entering college. She knew that the girl with whom she must live was shy
the moment she caught sight of her and felt the dread with which she had
waited her coming. From the time she was fourteen until she left for
college she had helped her father make strangers in his church and
congregation feel "at home." She knew just how.

During the first trying days every one greeted the shy girl cordially
and then gave their attention to the wide-awake, interesting roommate.