she needed a friend, and how grateful she was for the kindness
which was shown her; and sometimes she would ask Miss Chapman to let
Maude spend the night with her, when she found that the little girl was
very homesick and discouraged.

Perhaps because she had never known before what it was to have a friend
who really wanted to help her make the most of herself, Maude loved
Mrs. Boardman with all her heart, and she really tried and kept on
trying, so that she should not disappoint the one who took so much
interest in her.

Mrs. Boardman could see how the little girl improved from one week to
another, and though there was still much room for improvement, and it
might take months and perhaps years to undo the effect of Maude's early
training in selfishness, yet there was a great deal that was very sweet
and lovable in her character, hidden away under all the dross; and Mrs.
Boardman knew that if she kept on trying to improve, some day she would
be a very sweet girl, and one who would win love from all around her.

Every hour Maude learned something that was of use to her, for she had
much more to learn than many of her schoolmates. In the first place
she had always thought that work was something that belonged only to
servants, and that a lady would not know how to do anything about the
house; but here Miss Chapman insisted upon each little girl's caring
for her own room, and insisted that the work should be carefully and
well done, and the general feeling among the girls was that it was
something to be proud of when their rooms won commendation from Mrs.
Boardman.

Maude no longer felt that it was a disgrace to be obliged to make her
own bed, but on the contrary, she took a great deal of pride in making
it so well that when Mrs. Boardman went around to look at the rooms
after the girls had gone into school, she could find nothing to
reprove, but on the contrary could leave a little card with "Good"
upon the pillow.

Once a week there was a cooking-class which the girls attended in turn,
and Maude was as proud as any of the other girls could have been upon
the day when she made a plate of nice light biscuit all by herself, for
supper; and she looked forward with a good deal of pleasure to the time
when she should show her mother how much she could do.

Miss Chapman did not believe in education making little girls useless
at home, but she tried to have them taught practical things as well as
the more ornamental o