dy hard."

"Teacher's pet," whispered the boy across the aisle, but Tabitha was
soaring in the realms of bliss and the teacher's smile, so she did not
hear or care what the others might say. The world was growing very
bright and she was finding how sweet the days could be.

CHAPTER IV

THE NAME CAUSES TABITHA TROUBLE

"Tabitha!"

The child was curled in a forlorn heap on the little front stoop which
took the place of piazza to their cottage, staring with gloomy eyes
toward the radiant sunset, but for once unaware of the glorious beauty
of the skies. Her heart was very heavy. In two days more the school was
to give their first exhibition--that was what Miss Brooks called it--in
the town hall; and all the parents and friends were invited to come and
hear them speak the pieces and sing the songs they had been learning
ever since school had commenced, six weeks before. Miss Brooks thought
it helped the scholars to have public exercises occasionally, for it
brought the parents in closer touch with their boys and girls and
encouraged the children to do better work; so she had planned to have
these exhibitions every six weeks or two months in the _town hall_. The
school house was too small to seat many visitors if all the scholars
were present.

Tabitha was to recite a long selection all by herself, and she had taken
great pride in learning it with appropriate gestures, conscious of the
fact that she was the best speaker in the room, and happy in the
teacher's unstinted praise and her playmates' envious admiration.

But now! Miss Brooks had asked the girls to wear white dresses, and
Tabitha had none! What a calamity! She had expected to wear her new
green gingham. It wasn't a very pretty color, to be sure, or very
becoming, but she had coaxed Aunt Maria to make it after the fashion of
Carrie's dainty dresses and was delighted with the result. Now the rest
of the girls would be in white, and it would look dreadful to have one
green dress in the splendid array on the platform. What could she do?

It was useless to ask for a white gown, and even if there were any
possibility of getting the new material it was too late to make it up in
time for the exhibition, for Aunt Maria wasn't a great success as a
seamstress, and it took her a long time to make a dress. Why, she had
worked more than a week on the green gingham, and that was just tucked!
If there could be a white dress it would have to have ruffles on it; all