gether all the time, and we
wrote notes and always went about together. She was older than I. But
one day she said things that made me forget I ever liked her a bit. She
wanted to make up afterward, but I _couldn't_; and she writes and writes
me letters, but I never wish to see her again. I am sorry I ever liked
her." Betty's eyes flashed, and her cheeks were very red.

"I suppose it has been hard for her too," said Aunt Barbara; "but we
must like different friends for different reasons. Just try to remember
that you cannot find perfection. I used to know a great many girls when
I was growing up, and some of them are my friends still, the few who are
left. To find one true-hearted friend is worth living through a great
many disappointments."

* * * * *

Two or three weeks went over before Betty ceased to have the feeling
that she was a stranger and foreigner in Tideshead. At first she said
"you" and "I" when she was talking with the girls, but soon it became
easier to say "we." She took great pleasure in doing whatever the rest
did, from joining a class in Sunday-school to carrying round one of the
subscription-papers to pay for some Fourth of July fireworks, which went
up in a blaze of splendor on the evening of that glorious day.

After the garden tea-party, nothing happened, of a social nature, for
some time, although several of the boys and girls gave fine hints that
something might be expected to happen at their own houses. There was a
cheerful running to and fro about the Leicester house, and the high
white gate next the street was heard to creak and clack at least once in
every half-hour. Nelly Foster came seldom, but she was the brightest and
merriest of all the girls when she grew a little excited, and lost the
frightened look that had made lines on her forehead much too soon. Harry
was not seen very often, but Betty wondered a great deal about him, and
fancied him hunting and fishing in all sorts of dangerous places. The
Picknell girls came into the village on Sundays always, and often once
or twice in the week; but it was haying time now, and they were very
busy at the farm. Betty liked them dearly, and so did Mary Beck, who did
not get on with the minister's daughters at all, and had a prejudice, as
we know, against Nelly Foster. These made the little company which
seemed most closely allied, especially after the Sin Book Club became a
thing of the past as an active society.