ton, however. And tell me about the servants. I
know there's a servants' hall like in English books, so I suppose they
have a lot. If there's a butler, I almost envy you, for that would be
good practice for me, because most plays have a butler and a French
maid. I shall probably be French-maided to the limit if I ever get a
start, though I'd rather be a slavey or a chimney-sweep!

"Do you leave your shoes outside the door at night? I should never
remember. The first day I was here I made my own bed! The chambermaid
nearly fell over.

"Do tell me a lot to write to auntie (that's my stepmother); I have
always told her everything I'm thinking about, and now it will be
rather difficult for I only think now about the stage and Cousin Julia
and you, Elsie-Honey. I hope you think of me?"

CHAPTER XIII

"Oh, Miss Moss, I think I can come earlier to-morrow afternoon and stay
longer," said little Mattie Howe eagerly. "It's been such a good week
for drying clothes that mother's way ahead on her work, and she'll mind
the baby herself. Charles Augustus is going to take back the last load
this afternoon with his cart."

"That's nice for you, Mattie, but I shan't be here. Miss Stewart's
coming back to-morrow," replied Elsie.

The child's bright, thin little face clouded.

"Oh, dear, oh, dear, these changes are most too much for me, I
declare!" she cried. "I mean changes-_back_ is. The change that
brought you here, Miss Moss, was just sweet. Only I wish it had turned
into a _stay_."

Elsie drew the little thing close to her. At the moment she herself
almost wished it had been a _stay_.

"I wonder if that's my _hard_," prattled the child. "Mother says
everybody, even rich people, have hard things to bear. Do you bleeve
so, Miss Moss?"

Elsie looked startled.

"Why, Mattie, I hardly know," she faltered. "Ye-es, I suppose every
one does, really."

"Even you, Miss Moss?"

Elsie couldn't answer. On a sudden that first day she and Elsie Moss
had been together came back to her. She recalled Elsie's fresh grief
for the death of her mother and her own sense of remissness, and the
class motto that signified through hardships to the stars. Since she
had been at Enderby, things had been disagreeable enough almost to make
up for her former immunity. And yet, she hadn't been here ten days,
and she didn't really have to endure it. Furthermore, she was to
escape from it very shortly.

"No, Mattie, I don