her as
if they were saying: "The stuck-up thing!" "Thinks she's smart, don't
she?"

Many of them should have gone to meet her and made her welcome, for she
was not of our district and really their guest. Shelley did go, but I
noticed she didn't hurry.

The choosers began at once, and Laddie was the first person called for
our side, and the Princess for the visitors'. Every one in the room
was chosen on one side or the other; even my name was called, but I
only sat still and shook my head, for I very well knew that no one
except father would remember to pronounce easy ones for me, and besides
I was so bitterly disappointed I could scarcely have stood up. They
had put me in a seat near the fire; the spellers lined either wall, and
a goodly number that refused to spell occupied the middle seats. I
couldn't get a glimpse of Laddie or the home folks, or worst of all, of
my idolized Princess.

I never could bear to find a fault with Laddie, but I sadly reflected
that he might as well have left me at home, if I were to be buried
where I could neither hear nor see a thing. I was just wishing it was
summer so I could steal out to the cemetery, and have a good visit with
the butterflies that always swarmed around Georgiana Jane Titcomb's
grave at the corner of the church. I never knew Georgiana Jane, but
her people must have been very fond of her, for her grave was scarlet
with geraniums, and pink with roses from earliest spring until frost,
and the bright colours attracted swarms of butterflies. I had learned
that if I stuck a few blossoms in my hair, rubbed some sweet smelling
ones over my hands, and knelt and kept so quiet that I fitted into the
landscape, the butterflies would think me a flower too, and alight on
my hair, dress, and my hands, even. God never made anything more
beautiful than those butterflies, with their wings of brightly painted
velvet down, their bright eyes, their curious antennae, and their
queer, tickly feet. Laddie had promised me a book telling all about
every kind there was, the first time he went to a city, so I was
wishing I had it, and was among my pet beauties with it, when I
discovered him bending over me.

He took my arm, and marching back to his place, helped me to the deep
window seat beside him, where with my head on a level, and within a
foot of his, I could see everything in the whole room. I don't know
why I ever spent any time pining for the beauties of Georgiana Jane
Tit