neck,
and given her a hug which took her breath.

"Oh, you dear!" cried Peggy. "I never was so glad to see anybody in my
life. Here, take this chair, Bertha. Oh, it was just lovely of you to
come in. You knew I would be forlorn, I know that was why you came. But
why didn't you go on the straw-ride? I supposed of course you had gone."

"One question at a time," pleaded Bertha; "and I can't answer any if you
destroy my breathing apparatus, Hippolyta."

"Why Hippolyta?"

"Oh; she was Queen of the Amazons, don't you know? Only because you are
so strong, my dear."

"No," said Peggy, dolefully. "I never heard of her. Margaret would know,
but I am awfully stupid, I told you I was. Do you have rhetoric,
Bertha?"

"Not this year. I had it the first two years. It's not so bad; in fact,
I was rather fond of it."

Peggy gazed at her in such unfeigned amazement that Bertha could not
help laughing; but there was never any sneer in Bertha's laugh. "Come!"
she said. "Now we'll sit down and study our prettiest. See! I have a lot
of Greek to do. Peggy, don't look like that! What is the matter?"

Peggy had recoiled in horror, her blue eyes opened to their widest
extent.

"Greek!" she cried. "You don't--I sha'n't have to take Greek, shall I?
because I would rather die, and I should die!"

"Nonsense! no, I don't know that you will have to take it at all. What
course have you taken,--scientific? Oh, no, you don't have Greek in
that. What have you had to-day?"

"Geometry! Of course that was splendid."

"Oh, indeed! was it?"

"Why, yes; I just love geometry. I could do it all day, but we only have
it one hour." And Peggy looked injured.

"Well," said Bertha, "you are a queer girl, Peggy Montfort. But there'll
be one happy person in this school, and that is Miss Boyle."

"I don't understand you! Don't most girls,--don't you like geometry,
Bertha?"

"My dear, I regard everything in the shape of mathematics with terror
and disgust. I don't know any geometry, nor any algebra. I've been
through them both, and the more I learned, the more I didn't know. As to
arithmetic, I know that four quarts make a gallon, and that really is
all my mind is equal to. But if you won't let me study my Greek, Peggy,
I shall go home again to the Nest."

"Oh, I do! I will!" cried poor Peggy; and there was silence for a time,
both girls studying in earnest, the silence only broken by the turning
of a page, or a heartfelt sigh from Peggy as she dea