her chord, and then, oh, Ruby wished that the floor might open and
let her go through into the cellar,--she forgot that she had to wait a
bar for Agnes to play her little run, and began on her bass.

It was Agnes's quick wit that saved Ruby from mortification that she
would have found it hard ever to forget.

"Keep right on, Ruby. Don't stop for anything," she whispered softly.

Ruby's first impulse had been to take her hands off the keys, and
perhaps run away as she liked to do when things went wrong; but Agnes'
whisper reassured her, and she kept steadily on. Agnes left the run
out, and started in with the air, and so no one but Miss Emma, Agues,
and Ruby knew that any one had made a mistake. Of course it would have
been prettier if the little run that Agnes had practised so faithfully
for weeks might have been played where it belonged, but it did not
really spoil the piece, and Ruby breathed a sigh of relief when the
leaf was turned over, and she found that everything was going smoothly.

"You were so good, Agnes," she whispered, when they went back to their
seats. "I thought that I might just as well stop as not, when I had
made such a perfectly dreadful mistake. I wonder if every one knew it."

"No, I am sure no one suspected it," Agnes returned comfortingly. "No
one but your aunt knew, and she could see how it happened, and I am
sure she liked it a great deal better than having us stop and start all
over again."

All the rest of the evening's exercises passed off very smoothly; the
girls presented Miss Chapman with a handsome inkstand, and she
expressed her approval of their faithfulness in study during the fall
months, and then presented the prizes, and then came the part of the
entertainment that most of the girls liked the best of all,--the
refreshments.

Ruby was not at all sleepy when bed-time came, and she wished that she
could start for home at once without waiting for morning to come, but
sure as she was that she should not go to sleep all night, but that she
should lie awake and talk to Ruthy, she had hardly put her head on her
pillow before her eyes closed and she was sound asleep.

The next thing she knew was that her aunt was trying to waken her, and
telling her that they must hurry to be ready for the train, as they had
several things to do before they could start.

It did not take long to waken Ruby then, you may be sure.

And so she went home again, to find her dear mother looking al