stration on
page 235. It could not be found.

HELEN GRANT'S SCHOOLDAYS

CHAPTER I

HELEN

It had been a great day for the children at Hope Center the closing day
of school, the last of the term, the last of the week. The larger boys
and girls had spent the morning decorating the "big" room, which was to
be the assembly-room. At the Center they were still quite primitive.
There were many old or rather elderly people very much opposed to
"putting on airs." Boys and girls went to school together, but they
wouldn't have called it co-education. So the main room where various
meetings and occasional entertainments were held, was always known by
the appellation "big."

It was very prettily trimmed with the shining sprays of "bread and
butter," and wild clematis, and the platform was gay with flowers. Seats
were arranged on either hand for the graduating class, and the best
singers in school. There was a very good attendance. Closing day was
held in as high esteem as Washington's Birthday, or Decoration Day.
Christmas was only partly kept, the old Hope settlers being an offshoot
of the Puritans, and the one little Episcopalian chapel had almost to
fight for its Holy days.

The first three seats in the audience-room were full of children in
Sunday attire. The girl graduates were in white, with various colored
ribbons. The boys' habiliments had followed no especial rule. But they
were a bright, happy-looking lot, taking a deep interest in what they
were to do. The boys had an entertaining historical exercise. One began
with a brief account of causes leading to the revolution. Another
followed with the part Boston played, then New York, then Philadelphia,
Virginia, and the surrender of Cornwallis; afterward, two or three
patriotic songs, several recitations--two distinctly humorous--another
song or two, and then Helen Grant's selection, which was "Herve Riel," a
poem she had cut from a paper, that somehow inspired her. Diplomas were
then distributed, and the "Star Spangled Banner," sung by everybody,
finished the exercises.

Helen was fourteen, well-grown and very well-looking, without being
pretty enough to arouse anyone's envy. "A great girl for book-learning,"
her uncle said, while Aunt Jane declared "She didn't see but people got
along just as well without so much of it. It had never done a great deal
for Ad Grant."

Helen had a bright, sunny nature--well, for that matter, she had a good
many sides to