get a
sudden "crush" on Ruth Kenway, and then as quickly forget her.
Friendship for her was based upon respect and admiration for her sense
and fine qualities of character.

Agnes fought her way as usual to the semi-leadership of her class, Trix
Severn to the contrary notwithstanding. She was not quite as good
friends with Eva Larry as she had been, and had soon cooled a trifle
toward Myra Stetson, but there were dozens of other girls to pick and
choose from, and in rotation Agnes became interested in most of those in
her grade.

Tess was the one who came home with the most adventures to tell. There
always seemed to be "something doing" in Miss Andrews' room.

"We're all going to save our money toward a Christmas tree for our
room," Tess announced, long before cold weather had set in "for keeps."
"Miss Andrews says we can have one, but those that aren't good can have
nothing to do with it. I'm afraid," added Tess, seriously, "that not
many of the boys in our grade will have anything to do with that tree."

"Is Miss Andrews so dreadfully strict?" asked Dot, round-eyed.

"Yes, she is--awful!"

"I hope she'll get married, then, and leave school before I get into her
grade."

"But maybe she won't ever marry," Tess declared.

"Don't all ladies marry--some time?" queried Dot, in surprise.

"Aunt Sarah never did, for one."

"Oh--well----Don't you suppose there's enough men to go 'round, Tess?"
cried Dot, in some alarm. "Wouldn't it be dreadful to grow up like Aunt
Sarah--or your Miss Andrews?"

Tess tossed her head. "I am going to be a suffragette," she announced.
"They don't have to have husbands. Anyway, if they have them," qualified
Tess, "they don't never bother about them much!"

Tess' mind, however, was full of that proposed Christmas tree. Maria
Maroni was going to bring an orange for each pupil--girls and boys
alike--to be hung on the tree. Her father had promised her that.

Alfredia Blossom, Jackson Montgomery Simms Blossom, and Burne-Jones
Whistler Blossom had stored bushels of hickory nuts and butternuts in
the cockloft of their mother's cabin, and they had promised to help fill
the stockings that the girls' sewing class was to make.

Every girl of Tess' acquaintance was going to do something "lovely," and
she wanted to know what _she_ could do?

"Why, Sadie Goronofsky says maybe she'll _buy_ something to hang on the
tree. She is going to have a lot of money saved by Christmas time,"
declared Tes