Understood Betsy

s carved inside, another big H. P. with a little A. P. under it. What a lot of children must have sat there, thought the little girl as she arranged her books and papers.

y stumbled along, reading aloud a sentence or two apiece, until your turn came to stand up and read your sentence or two, which by that time sounded just like nonsense because you'd read it over and over so many times to yourself before your chance came. And often you didn't even have a chance to do that, because the teacher didn't have time to get around to you at all, and you closed your book a

d called Ellen on one side, and Ralph on the other. Ellen was very pretty, with fair hair smoothly braided in two little pig-tails, sweet, blue eyes, and a clean blue-and-white gingham dress. Ralph had very black eyes, dark hair, a big brui

" said the teache

at all well. What was not familiar was that the teacher did not stop him after the first sentence

," said th

ntence, and paused, like a caged lion pau

said th

next sentence and stopp

e teacher, looki

ghed out good-naturedly. "What is the matter with yo

e page and then another page, and that was the end of the selection. She had never read aloud so much in her life. She was aware that everybody in the room had stopped working to listen

said Eliz

this class," said the teacher. She took a bo

t an old woman who would hang out an American flag, even though the town was full of rebel soldiers. She read faster and faster, getting more and more excited, till she broke out with "Halt!" in such a loud, spirit

see how it came out," said the teach

ng along in the third reader. After this you'll recite ou

reading her page in a slow, careful little voice, Elizabeth Ann was feeling miserably that she must explain to the teacher why she couldn't read with the seventh-grade children. Oh, how she wished she c

"I can't be allowed to read in the seventh reader. I don't write a bit well, and I never

nything about it! You haven't recited yet." She turned away and began to write a list of words on the boa

e put her hands over her ears, and her mind on her spelling. She wanted to make a good impression with that lesson. After a while, when she was sure she could spell them all correctly, she began to listen and look around her. She always "got" her spelling in less time than was allowed the class, and usually s

id Elizabeth Ann, wondering

reading. She's getting on so much better than the rest of the class that I hate to have her lose her time

hild leaning on her knee. And yet she was not exactly afraid, either, because Molly was such a shy little roly-poly thing, with her crop of yellow curls, and her bright blue eyes very serious as she looked hard at the b

up closer; and the two children put their heads together over the printed page, Elizabeth Ann correcting Molly very gently indeed when she made a mistake, and waiting patiently when she hesitated. She had so fresh in her mind her own suffering from

th Ann. "Why, she does beautifully

a grown-up person, "do you suppose she could go into the second reader, w

eginning of a new year, after you'd passed a lot of examinations. She had not known that anybody could do anything else. The idea that everybody took a year to a grade, no matter what! was so fixe

ed arithmetic with all her might, and she really didn't understand a thing about it! By long experience she had learned to read her teachers' faces very accurately, and she

x 8. He answered, without drawing breath, 72. Elizabeth Ann shuddered at his accuracy. Ellen, too, rose to the occasion when she got 6 x 7, which Elizabeth Ann could sometimes remember and sometimes not. And then, oh horrors! It was her turn again! Her turn had never before come more than twice during a mental arithmetic lesson. She was so startled by the swiftness with which the question went around that she balked on 6 x 6, which she knew pe

I guess you'd better recite with Eliza for a while. She's doing second-grade work. I shouldn't b

She felt really dizzy. What crazy things the teacher sai

sked the teacher, seei

at all. If I'm second-grade arithmetic and seventh-gr

ool. You're just yourself, aren't you? What difference does it make what grade you're in! And what's the us

izabeth Ann, feeling very much as though s

matter?" asked

e to another, and she was ever so startled to get a little glimpse of the fact that she was there to learn how to read and write and cipher and generally use her mind, so she could take care of herself when she came to be grown up. Of course, she didn't re

d a red sweater, and ran outdoors herself. "Who's on my side!" she called, and the children came darting out after her. Elizabeth Ann had dreaded the first recess time with the strange children, but she had no time to feel shy, for in a twinkling she was on one end

other side back. And all the time everybody was shouting and yelling together with the excitement. Betsy was screaming too, and when a wagon passing by stopped and a big, broad-shouldered farmer jumped down laughing, put the end of the rope over his shoulder, and just walked off with the whole lot of them till he h

and just climbed into the back of the wagon and grabbed the reins the very moment they broke into a trot. The children laughed, and Ralph shouted after him, "Hi, there, Uncle Nate! Who's not so smart as he thinks he is, now!" He turned to the lit

y never once, had any grown-up, passing the playground of the big brick building, dreamed of such a thing as stopping for a minute to play.

izabeth Ann felt all her shyness come down on her like a black cloud, drying up her mouth and turning her hands and feet cold as ice. Into one of these cold hands she felt small, warm fingers slide. She looked down and there wa

afraid. Ralph skipped across, swinging the pail to show how easy it was for him. Ellen followed more slowly, and then-oh, don't you wish Aunt Frances could have been there!-Betsy shut her teeth together hard, put Molly ahead o

school. Ellen took a drink and offered the cup to Betsy, very shyly, without looking up. After they had all three had a drink they

point which she had never spoken of, because Aunt Frances didn't really c

and tired of always seeing them with that old, bright-yellow hair! I

" she said. "And that lovely old doll your folks have has

aid Elizabeth

unt Abigail and

etsy, thinking this was the ve

ic. They let me take her down once when I was there with Mother. And Mother said she guessed, now a little girl had come there to live, they'd let her have her down all the time. I'

t her teeth together ha

just then the school-bell rang and they went back, little Molly helping

told enough about their school for one while. It was only a poor, rough, little district scho