expected to notice when these things wear shabby."

Miss Henry came and sewed a week, making new dresses and contriving
and turning to make the best of several old ones. Monday morning,
when school opened, the three Willis girls started off brave in new
ginghams and Doctor Hugh assured them that he was proud of them.

"I wish I was in high school," said Rosemary wistfully, as Jack
Welles joined them at the first corner.

"Two more years, and you will be," he consoled her. "I'll be a
senior then, and I'll see that no one steps on you, Rosemary."

"Oh, nobody will," said Rosemary confidently.

And indeed she looked quite capable of taking care of herself. There
was little of dependency about Rosemary and her lovely soft eyes
were balanced by the firm white chin. "She is easily hurt, but her
pride helps her to hide that," Winnie was fond of saying, "and don't
be after forgetting that there's red in her hair, under the gold!"

The Eastshore school was a splendid type of the modern school,
housing in one building the primary, grammar and high school
grades. Built on the extreme edge of the town, it faced an acre
play-ground, evenly divided among the three schools. Principals and
teachers were the best obtainable and indeed the State Board of
education was fond of using Eastshore school as a model for others
to follow. Mrs. Willis had often declared that she would never have
sent her son to boarding school had the public school then been as
excellent as that which Rosemary and her sisters attended.

This morning Rosemary was to enter the seventh grade in the grammar
school, Sarah would be in the fourth primary and Shirley, having
"graduated" from the kindergarten the year before, would attain the
dignity of a seat in the first grade. Separating at the broad door,
they were swept into the different streams that carried them up
different stairways and into different classrooms and it was noon
before they saw each other again. Few of the pupils went home to
lunch and a large, light airy room on the third floor was set aside
for their use as a lunch room. A corner table was reserved for
teachers and here a small group usually gathered not only to eat and
exchange comment, but to keep an eye on the lunchers and subdue the
noise when it rose to a shout. The high school students had their
own lunch room, but the grammar and primary grades shared a room
together.

"Well, what kind of people are in your room?" demanded Sarah