t was my trouble in those days: I
acted on impulse often, as schoolgirls are apt perhaps to do, and so I
was not ready to stand this sudden temptation. I tied on my bonnet,
gathered up my little purse tightly in my hand; and although the day was
cold, the sun was shining brightly, and my heart was so full of hope and
anticipation that I scarcely thought of what I was doing, as I took a
thin little jacket instead of the warm cloak my mother had made me for
winter wear. I hurried out of the house, when there was no one to notice
me, for the maids were careless in the housekeeper's absence, and had
slipped off for the moment--at any rate, they said afterward they never
saw me;--so off I went.

"I caught the eight o'clock train just in time; which I considered most
fortunate. How often afterward did I wish I had missed it! And reasoning
within myself as the wheels bore me away, that it was perfectly right to
spend the money to go home, for my father had been quite willing for me
to take the treat with Mrs. Ferguson and the others, I settled back in
my seat, and tried not to feel strange at travelling alone."

"Oh dear me!" exclaimed the girls, huddling up closer to Miss
Salisbury's knees. Miss Anstice paced back and forth; it was too late to
stop the story now, and her nervousness could only be walked off.

"But I noticed the farther I got from the boarding school, little doubts
would come creeping into my mind,--first, was it very wise for me to
have set out in this way? then, was it right? And suddenly in a flash,
it struck me that I was doing a very wrong thing, and that, if my father
and my mother knew it, they would be greatly distressed. And I would
have given worlds, if I had possessed them, to be back at Mrs.
Ferguson's, studying my philosophy lesson. And I laid my head on the
back of the seat before me, and cried as hard as I could."

Amy sniffed into her handkerchief, and two or three other girls coughed
as if they had taken cold, while no one looked into her neighbor's face.

"And a wild idea crossed my mind once, of rushing up to the conductor
and telling him of my trouble, to ask him if I couldn't get off at the
next station and go back; but a minute's reflection told me that this
was foolish. There was only the late afternoon train to take me to the
school. I had started, and must go on."

A long sigh went through the group. Miss Anstice seemed to have it
communicated to her, for she quickened her pace ne