hem home, in order to be present at this entertainment.

It was given to show the improvement of the scholars during the term,
and all the girls had some part to take in it.

To some of them this was a great trial, but Ruby delighted in showing
off, and she was perfectly happy when she found that she was to take
part three times. It added to her pleasure to have her father write
that he would surely be there, for he was coming to bring her home, as
Aunt Emma was going somewhere else for her Christmas holidays. So Ruby
practised and studied with all her might, as happy and as good a little
girl as you could find anywhere, enjoying school-life more every day.

Ruby was to play the bass part in a duet with one of the older girls,
and she had taken lessons such a little while that this seemed a very
great thing to her. She was always ready to practise, so that she
should be sure to know her part perfectly, and she went about the house
humming the tune, until Aunt Emma declared laughingly that she fully
expected to hear Ruby singing it in her sleep.

Besides this, Ruby was to recite a piece alone, and to take part in a
dialogue; so you can see that she had quite a good deal to do. She
would have been quite willing to do more, however, and she looked
forward very eagerly to the evening of the entertainment.

The dialogue was quite a long one, and Ruby studied it every morning
while she was getting dressed, pretending that her aunt and the stove
were the other two characters in the piece. To be sure, neither of
them said anything, for Aunt Emma was busy getting dressed, and the
stove was silent, of course; but Ruby knew what they should say, for
she had studied the piece so much that she knew the other parts nearly
as well as her own; so she said for them what should be said when their
part came, and then repeated her own speeches. There was no danger
that Ruby would not be fully prepared when the great evening came.

It did not seem possible, now that she looked backward, that she had
really been away from home so long. Each day had been so full of
duties and pleasures, and had passed so rapidly, that they had gone
almost before Ruby knew that they had commenced, and now there were
only very few marks left to be scratched out upon the girls' calendars.

Ruby was very sorry for Agnes. Her mother lived so far away that it
was not possible for her to go home until the long summer vacation
came, so Agnes had to spen