, early in June it was"--the child hung her head
and spoke almost inaudibly--"you laughed at me and called me a LITTLE
DUTCHIE!" She looked up bravely then and spoke faster, "And for that,
it's just for that I don't like you like all the others do a'ready."

"Laughed at you!" Miss Lee was perplexed. "You must be mistaken."

But Phoebe shook her head resolutely and told the story of the pink
rose. Miss Lee listened at first with an incredulous smile upon her
face, then with dawning remembrance.

"You dear child!" she cried as Phoebe ended her quaint recital. "So you
are the little girl of the sunbonnet and the rose! I thought this
morning I had seen you before. But you don't understand! I didn't laugh
at you in the way you think. Why, I laughed at you just as we laugh at a
dear little baby, because we love it and because it is so dear and
sweet. And DUTCHIE was just a pet name. Can't you understand? You were
so quaint and interesting in your sunbonnet and with the pink rose
pressed to your face. Can't you understand?"

Phoebe smiled radiantly, her face beaming with happiness.

"Ach, ain't that simple now of me, Miss Lee?" she said in her
old-fashioned manner. "I was so dumb and thought you was makin' fun of
me, and just for that all summer I was wishin' school would not start
ever. And I was sayin' all the time I ain't goin' to like you. But now I
do like you," she added softly.

"I am glad we understand each other, Phoebe."

Miss Lee was genuinely interested in the child, attracted by the
charming personality of the country girl. Of the thirty children of that
school she felt that Phoebe Metz, in spite of her old-fashioned dress
and older-fashioned ways, was the preeminent figure. It would be a
delight to teach a child whose face could light with so much animation.

"Now, Phoebe," she said, "since we understand each other and have become
friends, gather your books and hurry home. Your mother may be anxious
about you."

"Not my mother," Phoebe replied soberly. "I ain't got no mom. It's my
Aunt Maria and my pop takes care of me. My mom's dead long a'ready. But
I'm goin' now," she ended brightly before Miss Lee could answer. "And
the road's all down-hill so it won't take me long."

So she gathered her books and kettle, said good-bye to Miss Lee and
hurried from the schoolhouse. When she was fairly on the road she broke
into her habit of soliloquy: "Ach, if she ain't the nicest lady! So
pretty she is and so kind!