of white braid and
large white pearl buttons to her gray jacket, in order to make it a
little more "dressy." Her gray felt hat had a white feather on it, and
a white tissue veil with large black dots made her delicate skin look
brilliant. Rebecca thought how lovely the knot of red hair looked under
the hat behind, and how the color of the front had been dulled by
incessant frizzing with curling irons. Her open jacket disclosed a
galaxy of souvenirs pinned to the background of bright blue,--a small
American flag, a button of the Wareham Rowing Club, and one or two
society pins. These decorations proved her popularity in very much the
same way as do the cotillion favors hanging on the bedroom walls of the
fashionable belle. She had been pinning and unpinning, arranging and
disarranging her veil ever since she entered the room, in the hope that
the girls would ask her whose ring she was wearing this week; but
although both had noticed the new ornament instantly, wild horses could
not have drawn the question from them; her desire to be asked was too
obvious. With her gay plumage, her "nods and becks and wreathed
smiles," and her cheerful cackle, Huldah closely resembled the parrot
in Wordsworth's poem:--

"Arch, volatile, a sportive bird,
By social glee inspired;
Ambitious to be seen or heard,
And pleased to be admired!"

"Mr. Morrison thinks the grammar will be returned, and lent me
another," Huldah continued.

"He was rather snippy about my leaving a book in the hall. There was a
perfectly elegant gentleman in the office, a stranger to me. I wish he
was a new teacher, but there's no such luck. He was too young to be the
father of any of the girls, and too old to be a brother, but he was
handsome as a picture and had on an awful stylish suit of clothes. He
looked at me about every minute I was in the room. It made me so
embarrassed I couldn't hardly answer Mr. Morrison's questions straight."

"You'll have to wear a mask pretty soon, if you're going to have any
comfort, Huldah," said Rebecca. "Did he offer to lend you his class
pin, or has it been so long since he graduated that he's left off
wearing it? And tell us now whether the principal asked for a lock of
your hair to put in his watch?"

This was all said merrily and laughingly, but there were times when
Huldah could scarcely make up her mind whether Rebecca was trying to be
witty, or whether she was jealous; but she generally decided it was