e has gone. I saw her walking
down the road with Cassandra Weldon."

"And who is she?"

"The head girl of the school; and such a splendid creature! I am glad
she is taking up Ruth. It isn't possible for every one to notice her;
although, for my part, I have no patience with that sort of false pride.
Of course, a lot of the foundation girls are very common; but when one
sees a perfect lady like Ruth one ought to recognize her."

"Of course," said Kathleen, fidgeting a little as she walked.

"And how did you get on?" asked Alice, noticing the dejected tone of
her voice.

"I got on abominably," said Kathleen.

"What class are you in?"

"I don't know. I am with a lot of babies; I suppose I am to be a sort of
caretaker to them. There wasn't anything to learn. I am going to write
to father. I can't stay in that horrid school."

"Oh, yes, you can. You will get to like it very much after a time. You
have never been at school before, and of course you find it irksome."

"Is it irksome?" cried Kathleen. "Is it that she calls it? Oh, glory!
It's purgatory, my dear, that's what it is--purgatory--and I haven't
done anything to deserve it."

"But you want to learn; you don't want to be always ignorant."

"Bedad, then, darling, I don't want to learn at all. What do I want to
know your sort of things for? I could beat you, every one of you, and
the teachers, too, in some accomplishments. Put me on a horse, darling,
and see what I can do; and put me in a boat, pet, and find out where I
can take you. And set me swimming in the cold sea; I can turn
somersaults and dive and dance on the waves, and do every mortal thing
as though I were a fish, not a girl. And give me a gun and see me bring
down a bird on the wing. Ah! those things ought to be counted in the
education of a woman. I can do all those things, and I can mix whisky
punch, and I can sing songs to the dear old dad, and I can comfort my
mother when her rheumatics are bad. And I can love, love, love! Oh, no,
Alice, I am not ignorant in the true sense; but I hate French, and I
hate arithmetic, and I hate all your horrid school work. And I never
could spell properly; and what does it matter?"

"Everything," replied Alice. "You can't go about the world if you are
stupid and ignorant."

"Can't I?" exclaimed Kathleen, and she flashed her eyes at Alice and
made her feel, as she said afterwards, quite uncanny.

The Tennants were, after all, not a large family. They consist