ing to be good, that she
did not fret because she could not do as she wished that very minute.
She put the things back in her desk, closed it, and locked it with the
pretty little key, and said,

"Aunt Emma, I do wish I had a little ribbon so I could wear this key
around my neck."

"I have a nice little piece of blue ribbon that I will give you as soon
as I open my trunk," Aunt Emma said; and very soon Ruby had the cunning
little key tied fast around her neck, where she could put up her hand
and feel it every now and then, and think of the pretty gift, and above
all of the sealing-wax, which was the chief charm of the desk.

CHAPTER XIII.

GETTING SETTLED.

Both Ruby and Maude felt very shy when they went downstairs and saw so
many girls whom they did not know at all. They were very glad that
among all those strange girls there was at least one whom they each
knew.

"Was n't it the funniest thing that we should happen to come to the
same boarding-school?" whispered Maude, as she took Ruby's hand and
walked up and down the porch, while the scholars who had already come
and felt very much at home, looked at them half curiously and half
shyly, no doubt wondering whether they would be pleasant schoolmates or
not.

Aunt Emma found that Ruby was quite contented to stay with Maude, so
she went back upstairs, where she still had some little things to do,
and Mrs. Birkenbaum finished unpacking Maude's things, for she had to
go away that afternoon, and wanted to unpack Maude's trunk before she
left.

Ruby and Maude walked up and down the porch for a time and then they
went down upon the lawn. There was a large lawn in front of the house,
where the girls usually played. In one corner of it there was a
croquet set, and as this was something new to Ruby, she looked at the
hoops with a great deal of interest, while Maude, who had a set at home
explained the game to her.

"I will show you how to play it, and we will play together sometimes,"
Maude said.

There was plenty of room to play tag, and puss in the corner, and Ruby
thought the trees grew in just the right places for that game. She
wondered if there had been a school there when they were planted, and
if Miss Chapman had planted them so that they would be nice for puss in
the corner.

The house was quite large, and when Ruby and Maude walked around the
lawn towards the back of the house, they found the schoolhouse, which
was connected with the rest of