in.

Madge was not cheerful this afternoon. Hugh had wounded her pride, and
stirred her sleeping passions. It was very ungenerous conduct, in a lad of
his age, to treat an unfortunate child with scorn. Madge ought not to have
allowed her temper to be ruffled. But, alas, poor child! she had not been
taught to keep her evil temper under control. So she brooded over Hugh's
conduct. The more she thought of it, the more chafed and angry she felt.

Guy helped Carrie and his sister put on their skates. Jessie had never had
a skate upon her foot before. Carrie had learned to use them a little the
previous winter. Hence, she glided off something like a swan, while Jessie
hobbled and slipped, and tumbled for a long time in vain attempts to keep
upright on the ice.

Carrie was so taken up watching the laughable attempts of her friend, that
she took no notice of poor Madge. Guy and Jessie were so busy, the former
teaching, and the latter learning, that they too forgot her. Poor child!
this neglect stung the wound which Hugh's act had caused, and so, with
many a frown and pout, she quietly stole from the hollow to a deeper one
in which, by seating herself on a low stump, she could remain unseen.

"They is all proud," mused Madge, half aloud. "I heard that You, or Hugh,
whatever they call him, say 'beggar's brat.' I know he meant me, and I
know he went off cause I was with 'em. And there's them gals; they don't
care for me a bit. Drat 'em! I wish mother would go away from here."

This was very foolish talk for Madge. Had she looked on the kind side of
her new-found friends, and thought of their gifts to her, and of the
pleasant home they had given her and her mother for the time-being, and of
their gentle words, she would have seen so much to be grateful for, that
there would have been no room in her heart for unhappy feelings. But Madge
forgot all these things. She saw nothing but Hugh's scorn and Jessie's
neglect. With these she tortured herself. It was just as foolish as if she
had taken some sharp thorns and scratched her arms and cheeks with them.

While Madge was thus making herself miserable, Jessie was making rare
progress with her skating. After a few awkward falls and a few bumps and
bruises, she learned "_the how_," as Guy called it; and then, though still
awkward, oh! how joyously she sped across the little pond chasing after
Guy and Carrie, and shouting until the welkin rang again.

"Capital fun, isn't it?" said she