ou thought about it. _It seemed as though Miss Lizzie did it to be
mean._

Then Emmy Lou's cheeks grew hot. She put the thought quickly away that
she might forget it; but the wedge was entered. Teachers were no longer
_infallible_. Emmy Lou had questioned the motives of pedagogic deism.

And so Emmy Lou and Hattie were separated. But there were three new
little girls near Emmy Lou. Their kid button-shoes had tassels. Very few
little girls had button-shoes. Button-shoes were new. Emmy Lou had
button-shoes. She was proud of them. But they did not have tassels.

The three new little girls looked amused at everything, and exchanged
glances; but they were not mean glances--not the kind of glances when
little girls nudge each other and go off to whisper. Emmy Lou liked the
new little girls. She could not keep from looking at them. They spread
their skirts so easily when they sat down. There was something alluring
about the little girls.

At recess Emmy Lou waited near the door for them. They all went out
together. After that they were friends. They lived on Emmy Lou's square.
It was strange. But they had just come there to live. That explained it.

"In the white house, the white house with the big yard," the tallest of
the little girls explained. She was Alice. The others were her cousins.
They were Rosalie and Amanthus. Such charming names.

Emmy Lou was glad that she lived in the other white house on the square
with the next biggest yard. She never had thought of it before, but now
she was glad.

Alice talked and Amanthus shook her curls back off her shoulders, and
Rosalie wore a little blue locket hung on a golden chain. And Rosalie
laughed.

"Isn't it funny and dear?" asked Alice.

"What?" said Emmy Lou.

"The public school," said Alice.

"Is it?" said Emmy Lou.

And then they all laughed, and they hugged Emmy Lou, these three
fluttering butterflies. And they told Emmy Lou she was funny and dear
also.

"We've never been before," said Alice.

"But we are too far from the other school now," said Rosalie.

"It was private school," said Amanthus.

"And this is public school," said Alice.

"It's very different," said Amanthus.

"Oh, very," said Rosalie.

Emmy Lou went and brought Hattie to know the little girls. All the year
Emmy Lou was bringing Hattie to know the little girls. But Hattie did
not seem to like the little girls as Emmy Lou did. She seemed to prefer
Sadie when she could not have Emmy Lou