re. Well, I
am glad she has one friend; no doubt she needs it. Most of the girls
aren't so ready to say nice things of her as they were of Miss Ashurst."

"I know it," replied Edna, "and that is one reason Dorothy and I stand
up for her. We say suppose we were as--as ugly as that, and had to go a
long, long way to school every day to teach horrid girls who didn't be
nice to us, how would we like it?"

"She looks like a cross old thing," returned Celia rather flippantly.

"She isn't exactly cross, but she isn't the kind you can lean up against
and say 'what a pretty tie you have on,' as we did with Miss Ashurst.
Celia, I am afraid Miss Newman never will get married."

Celia laughed. "Perhaps she doesn't want to. Everyone doesn't, you
know."

This was rather beyond Edna's comprehension, and she sat pondering over
the extraordinary statement till the car reached the station. She
arrived early in the school-room on Monday morning to find Miss Newman
already there. She looked up with a smile as the little girl entered. "I
brought back your umbrella," she said. "I don't know what I should have
done without it. I left my sister rather worse than usual and I wanted
very much to get home as soon as possible."

"Is your sister ill?" asked Edna

"She is never very well. When she was a little girl, younger than you,
she fell and hurt her spine. She has never been well since, and at times
suffers very much."

"How was she this morning?" asked Edna sympathetically.

"She was much better. I left her sitting on the porch in the sun. She
can walk only a few steps, you see, and sometimes has to be lifted from
place to place."

"Who lifts her?" Edna was much interested at this peep into Miss
Newman's life.

"I do when I am there, for I know just how to do it without hurting
her."

"Will she sit there all day where you left her?"

"Oh, no, for she has a wheeling chair and the old woman who lives with
us can wheel her in when she is ready to go."

"Tell me some more." Edna leaned her elbows on the table and looked at
her teacher with a wistful look. She did feel so very sorry for this
poor sister who could not walk.

"She is a very cheerful, bright person," Miss Newman went on, "and
everyone loves her. She is very fond of children and is continually
doing something for those in the neighborhood. It is far from being a
wealthy street, and back of us there are many very poor people. At
Christmas we had a tree for the ones