ght and
ruddy was her bloom. "She's a thousand times prettier than you, you
little no eyed thing! But what makes her so pale and thin? I wonder--and
what makes her look so scared?"

"It is because her mother is dead," said an orphan child, taking Helen's
hand in one of hers, passing the other softly over her smooth hair.

"Mittie has lost her mother too," replied Cherry-cheeks, "and she isn't
pale nor thin."

"Mittie don't care," exclaimed several voices at once, "only let her
have the head of the class, and she won't mind what becomes of the rest
of the world."

A scornful glance over her shoulder was all the notice Mittie deigned to
take of this acknowledgment of her eagle ambition. Conscious that she
was the favorite of the teacher, she disdained to cultivate the love and
good-will of her companions. With a keen, bright intelligence, and
remarkable retentiveness of memory, she mastered her studies with
surprising quickness, and distanced all her competitors. Had she been
amiable, her young classmates would have been proud of the honors she
acquired, for it is easy to yield the palm to one always in the
ascendant, but she looked down with contempt on those of inferior
attainments, and claimed as a right the homage they would have
spontaneously offered.

Mr. Hightower, or as he was called Master High-tower, was worthy of his
commanding name, for he was at least six feet and three inches in
height, and of proportional magnitude. It would have looked more in
keeping to see him at the head of an embattled host rather than
exercising dominion over the little rudiments of humanity arranged
around him. His hair was thick and bushy, and he had a habit of combing
it with his fingers very suddenly, and making it stand up like military
plumes all over his head. His features, though heavily moulded, had no
harsh lines. Their predominant expression was good nature, a kind of
elephantine docility, which neutralized the awe inspired by his immense
size. On his inauguration morning, when the children beheld him marching
slowly through the rows of benches on which they were seated, with a
long, black ruler under his arm, and enthrone himself behind a tall,
green-covered desk, they crouched together and trembled as the frogs did
when King Log plunged in their midst. Though his good-humored
countenance dispersed their terror, they found he was far from
possessing the inaction of the wooden monarch, and that no one could
resist hi