and love you better than I do
anybody in the world, except my mother."

"Do you _really_, Willie?"

"Yes, I do. I always think, when I come home--Now I'm going to see
Gerty; and everything that happens all the week, I think to myself--I
shall tell Gerty that."

"I shouldn't think you'd like me so well."

"Why not?"

"Oh, because you're so handsome, and I an't handsome a bit. I heard
Ellen Chase tell Lucretia Davis, the other day, that she thought Gerty
Flint was the worst-looking girl in the school."

"Then she ought to be ashamed of herself," said Willie, "I guess she
an't very good-looking. I should hate the looks of _her_ or any _other_
girl that said that."

"Oh, Willie!" exclaimed Gerty, "it's true."

"No, it an't _true_," said Willie. "To be sure, you haven't got long
curls, and a round face, and blue eyes, like Belle Clinton's, and
nobody'd think of setting you up for a beauty; but when you've been
running, and have rosy cheeks, and your great black eyes shine, and you
laugh so heartily, I often think you're the brightest-looking girl I
ever saw in my life: and I don't care what other folks think, as long as
I like your looks. I feel just as bad when you cry, or anything's the
matter with you, as if it were myself, and worse."

Such professions of affection by Willie were frequent, and always
responded to by a like declaration from Gerty. Nor were they mere
professions. The two children loved each other dearly. That they loved
_each other_ there could be no doubt; and if in the spring the bond
between them was already strong, autumn found it cemented by still
firmer ties; for, during Emily's absence, Willie filled her place, and
his own too; and though Gerty did not forget her blind friend, she
passed a most happy summer, and made such progress in her studies at
school that, when Emily returned in October, she could hardly understand
how so much had been accomplished in so short a time.

Miss Graham's kindly feeling towards her little _protege_ had increased
by time and absence, and Gerty's visits to Emily became more frequent
than ever. The profit derived from these visits was not all on Gerty's
part. Emily had, during the previous winter, heard her read
occasionally, that she might judge of her proficiency; now she had
discovered that the little girl had attained to a much greater degree of
excellence. She read understandingly, and her accent and intonations
were so admirable that Emily found rare