"Mad at me? What for?" asked the surprised new scholar.

"Why, that seat was Rosy Ball's. Rosy has gone away to see her sister
married and she's coming back to-morrow. If you hadn't come in to take
her place, Rosy would have been let sit beside Julia again, of course,
although like enough she's fallen behind the class. Miss Cramp is very
strict."

"But I didn't know that. I couldn't help it," cried Ruth.

"Just the same, Julia says she doesn't like you and that you're a
nobody-- that Jabe Potter has taken you in out of charity. And Julia
pretty nearly bosses everything and everybody around this school. Her
father, Mr. Semple, you see, is chairman of the school board."

Her plain-spoken friend never realized how much she was hurting Ruth
by telling her this. Ruth's pride kept her up, nor would she make
further overtures toward friendship with her classmates. She
determined, during those first few days at the district school, that
she would do her very best to get ahead and to win the commendation of
her teacher. There was a splendid high school at Cheslow, and she
learned that Miss Cramp could graduate pupils from her school directly
into the Cheslow High. It was possible, the teacher assured her, for
Ruth to fit herself for such advancement between that time and the
fall term.

It seemed as though Ruth could never make her crotchety old uncle love
her. As time passed, the loss of his cash-box seemed to prey upon the
miller's mind more and more. He never spoke of it in the house again;