l that it gave the beholder a
certain sense of being in a district heaven. She was poor in
arithmetic and weak in geometry, but if you gave her a rose, a bit of
ribbon, and a seven-by-nine looking-glass she could make herself as
pretty as a pink in two minutes.

Safely sheltered behind the pines, Miss Dearborn began to practice
mysterious feminine arts. She flew at Rebecca's tight braids, opened
the strands and rebraided them loosely; bit and tore the red, white,
and blue ribbon in two and tied the braids separately. Then with
nimble fingers she pulled out little tendrils of hair behind the ears
and around the nape of the neck. After a glance of acute disapproval
directed at the stiff balloon skirt she knelt on the ground and gave a
strenuous embrace to Rebecca's knees, murmuring, between her hugs,
"Starch must be cheap at the brick house!"

This particular line of beauty attained, there ensued great pinchings
of ruffles; the fingers that could never hold a ferule nor snap
children's ears being incomparable fluting-irons. Next the sash was
scornfully untied, and tightened to suggest something resembling a
waist. The chastened bows that had been squat, dowdy, spiritless, were
given tweaks, flirts, bracing little pokes and dabs, till,
acknowledging a master hand, they stood up, piquant, pert, smart, alert!

Pride of bearing was now infused into the flattened lace at the neck,
and a pin (removed at some sacrifice from her own toilette) was darned
in at the back to prevent any cowardly lapsing. The short white cotton
gloves that called attention to the tanned wrists and arms were
stripped off and put in her own pocket. Then the wreath of pine-cones
was adjusted at a heretofore unimagined angle, the hair was pulled
softly into a fluffy frame, and finally, as she met Rebecca's grateful
eyes, she gave her two approving, triumphant kisses. In a second the
sensitive face lighted into happiness; pleased dimples appeared in the
cheeks, the kissed mouth was as red as a rose, and the little fright
that had walked behind the pine-tree stepped out on the other side
Rebecca, the lovely.

As to the relative value of Miss Dearborn's accomplishments, the
decision must be left to the gentle reader; but though it is certain
that children should be properly grounded in mathematics, no heart of
flesh could bear to hear Miss Dearborn's methods vilified who had seen
her patting, pulling, squeezing Rebecca from ugliness into beauty.

N