comb topped it like a coronet.

Miss Tabitha's nose was red and rasped with the cold; her thin lips
were blue, and her bony hands were numb; but she set copies in
writing-books with stern patience. Not one to yield to a little fall
in temperature was Tabitha Hanks. Moreover, she kept a sharp eye on
the school, and she saw every scholar who entered, while not seeming
to do so.

She saw Comfort Pease when she came shyly in, and at once noticed
something peculiar about her. Comfort wore the same red tibet dress
and the same gingham apron that she had worn the day before; her
brown hair was combed off her high, serious forehead and braided in
the same smooth tails; her blue eyes looked abroad in the same sober
and timid fashion; and yet there was a change.

Miss Tabitha gave a quick frown and a sharp glance of her gray eyes
at her, then she continued setting her copy. "That child's up to
something," she thought, while she wrote out in her beautiful shaded
hand, "All is not gold that glitters."

Comfort went forward to the stove, which was surrounded by a ring of
girls and boys. Matilda Stebbins and Rosy were there with the rest.
Matilda moved aside at once when she saw Comfort, and made room for
her near the stove.

"Hullo, Comfort Pease!" said she.

"Hullo!" returned Comfort.

Comfort held out her numb right hand to the stove, but the other she
kept clenched in a little blue fist hidden in her dress folds.

"Cold, ain't it?" said Matilda.

"Dreadful," said Comfort, with a shiver.

"Why don't you warm your other hand?" asked Matilda.

"My other hand ain't cold," said Comfort. And she really did not
think it was. She was not aware of any sensation in that hand, except
that of the gold ring binding together the third and fourth fingers.

Pretty soon the big girl with red cheeks came in. Her cheeks were
redder than ever, and her black eyes seemed to have caught something
of the sparkle of the frost outside. "Hullo!" said she, when she
caught sight of Comfort. "That you, Comfort Pease?"

"Hullo!" Comfort returned, faintly. She was dreadfully afraid of this
big girl, who was as much as sixteen years old, and studied algebra,
and was also said to have a beau.

"Got that gold ring" inquired the big girl, with a giggle, as she
held out her hands to the stove.

Comfort looked at her as if she was going to cry.

"You're real mean to tease her, so there!" said Matilda Stebbins,
bravely, in the face of the big girl