upon
her pretty travelling-dress.

Perhaps if Ruby had not been thinking about her mother just then, she
would have been very angry at Maude's words, and the two children would
have begun to quarrel at once; but thinking of her promise to her
mother, the very last thing, that she would really try to be good, and
do just what she knew was right, Ruby controlled the hasty words, and
said pleasantly,--

"Well, even if my dresses are not as pretty as yours, Maude, the girls
won't think that it is your fault. Here comes Aunt Emma. Won't she be
surprised to find that I know somebody here in this strange place?"

Aunt Emma was quite as surprised as Ruby had supposed she would be, and
presently Maude's mamma came up, and was very glad to find that Maude
was going to have an old friend for a school-fellow.

"Ruby is a good little girl, and she will keep Maude straight, I hope,"
she said to Ruby's aunt; and it was all Ruby could do to keep from
looking as proud as she felt, to think that Maude's mamma should say
that she was a good little girl.

Ruby did not feel as if she quite deserved the praise, but it was very
pleasant nevertheless. She made up her mind that she would really try
to be good and keep from getting angry at Maude when she said provoking
things, and if possible she would help Maude to be good instead of
doing wrong things that she proposed.

By this time all the trunks were in the wagon and on their way to the
school; and Ruby and Maude, with Aunt Emma and Mrs. Birkenbaum, set out
to walk, for it was not a very great distance.

The two little girls walked together in front, and the ladies came
after more slowly.

"I wonder what boarding-school will be like," said Ruby presently.

"I suppose it will be perfectly dreadful," said Maude. "I know some
girls that went to boarding-school once, and they told me that it was
awful. They never had enough to eat, and they had to study all the
time, and they got so homesick that they tried to run away, but the
teacher caught them and brought them back again."

Ruby looked horrified.

"Do you spose that was really true that they did not have enough to
eat?" she asked.

"Of course it's true, for these girls told me so," Maude answered. "I
have brought a whole lot of cake and candy in my trunk, and I will give
you some when I eat it, Ruby. My mamma is going to send me a box every
month, so they sha'n't starve me, anyway."

Ruby turned back and exclaimed,