on the part of its
owner.

Would you like to hear her letter? Here it is:

MY DEAR MAMMA AND PAPA,--I am writing this letter to you on a beautiful
new desk that Orpah gave me. That was what was in the package she made
me promise not to open. We had a very pleasant journey. There was a
very kind old gentleman on the cars, who talked to me and told me
stories, and he told the boy with a basket to let the little lady
choose what she wanted, and I chose a big pear. I divided it with Aunt
Emma and the old gentleman. When I was sleepy I put my head down on
his shoulder the way his little grand-daughter does, and I went to
sleep and I slept ever so long, though I thought it was only a little
while. It is nice to ride in the cars, but it takes a long time. I
like this school. I like Miss Chapman. She has white hair like
grandma. Her eyes are blue. I shall be good, for I like her very
much. But I shall be good anyway, because I promised you. I do want
to see you, mamma, and papa, too. Aunt Emma has unpacked my trunk, and
my things are all put away. Maude Birkenbaum is here. She was at the
station at the same time I was, and we walked up together. I mean to
be good. Her mother said she hoped I would be a help to Maude, and I
mean to try to be good, instead of doing things she wants me to do. I
love you a whole heartful, mamma and papa. Please write me a long
letter soon. I hope you will soon be well again, mamma. I shall seal
this letter with my new sealing wax, and you must pretend it is a kiss.

Your loving RUBY.

Ruby was so impatient to use her new sealing-wax outfit that she found
it very hard work to finish her letter carefully, and write the last
words just as well as she had written the first one.

"Do you think 'Ruby' looks as well as 'My dear Mamma and Papa'?" she
asked Aunt Emma, carrying the paper over to her.

That was Ruby's test whether she had been careful in writing a letter,
to look and see whether the last words were as carefully written as the
first ones. Sometimes, if she had not been very careful, one would not
think that the same little girl had written all the letter. The first
few lines would be so very neat and carefully written, and the last
ones would be straggly, and of different heights and wandering all
across the pages.

But this time Ruby had been very careful indeed. She had left just the
same margin all the way down the left-hand side of