Ruby hardly knew what to say, so she blushed with pleasure, and did not answer.
"Now you can go," said Miss Chapman, and so Ruby walked over to the door, opened it, and turned around and stood exactly in the middle of the doorway. Then drawing back her foot, she made a very careful and deep courtesy, and gravely closed the door after her and ran back to Aunt Emma.
"Aunt Emma, there is something I have been thinking about," she said after she had told her aunt how kindly Miss Chapman had spoken to her.
"This morning I almost got real mad at Maude, for she asked me in such a superior sort of way if I sposed we should be in the same cla.s.s. "Do you spose you are as far advanced as I am, Ruby?" she said, just as if she thought I was ever so much behind her. I was going to tell her I guessed I was just as smart as she was, but then I remembered it was school and I did n"t, for I knew I must n"t talk, but you would "t believe with what little girls she is. I am way ahead of her. Well, I did think I would just remind her of what she said, but I guess maybe I had n"t better; for she certainly could courtesy when I didn"t know the first thing about it, and so that sort of makes us even. She did n"t see me run away, but then if she heard some one else say something about it, she would know, and I should n"t feel very nice if she should tell me that anyway she knew something that I could n"t do without being showed how. Don"t you think I had n"t better say anything about being ahead of her?"
"I am sure you had better not," said Aunt Emma, promptly; "but it is not because of the courtesying, Ruby, it is because it is not a kind thing to boast, or to remind any one else of their failings. You know you would not like it yourself, and that ought to be reason enough for your never doing it to any one else. What is the Golden Rule?"
"Do unto others as you would they should do unto you," repeated Ruby, promptly.
"Yes; and that means that you should never, never do to any one else anything that you would not like to have done to yourself," Aunt Emma said.
Just then the dinner-bell rang.
"I know what I will do," exclaimed Ruby, cheerfully. "I will go to Maude"s room and go down to dinner with her, for I just spect she feels sort of lonesome. I saw her once at recess, and she was all by herself, and had n"t any one to play with. I will stay with her till she gets a little more acquainted, and that will be paying attention to the Golden Rule; for if I was all by myself here, and had n"t got you, Aunt Emma, I am sure I would be glad if Maude would stay with me;" and Ruby ran off to find her little friend, feeling as happy as if she had not had such a burst of tears but half an hour ago.
CHAPTER XVI.
MAUDE"S TROUBLES.
Poor little Maude had not been enjoying this first day at school. It had begun with tears, and she had just been having another burst of anger, and had thought that she could not possibly stay in such a school another hour. It was a new experience to the self-willed child to have to give up her own way, and submit to regulations that she did not like; and although she had managed the courtesy that had brought Ruby to grief, without the least trouble, as she had been to dancing-school, and could courtesy in the most approved French style, yet she found a great grievance waiting for her as soon as she reached her room.
Mrs. Boardman was waiting for her.
"Maude, I want to help you arrange your hair a little differently," she said. "Miss Chapman does not like the girls to wear their hair here at school as you wear yours, flying all over your shoulders. She does not think it neat, nor does she like little girls to pay so much attention to their appearance while they are at school. Of course she wants you to be neat, but not dressed up as if you were going to a party. She likes her scholars to wear their hair braided, and I will help you braid yours now, as I suppose you cannot do it alone if you are not used to it, and you have no room-mate yet to help you."
Maude looked at Mrs. Boardman in angry amazement.
If there was any one thing of which vain little Maude was prouder than another, it was of the crinkled, waving hair that fell below her shoulders. She rarely forgot it, and was always playing with a lock of it, or tipping her head over her shoulder, like a little peac.o.c.k admiring his fine tail.
"I don"t want to wear it braided," she exclaimed. "I like it this way.
It would look like ugly little pig-tails if it was braided, and I won"t have it that way. Oh, I want to go home. I don"t like it here one single bit. I am sure my mamma would n"t let me have my hair braided, like a little charity girl."
Mrs. Boardman was very patient with the spoiled child.
[Ill.u.s.tration: "MRS. BOARDMAN WAS VERY PATIENT WITH THE SPOILED CHILD"
(missing from book)]
"Hush, dear; I would n"t talk that way," she said. "I hoped your mamma had spoken to you about it before she went away, for I told her that Miss Chapman would want you to wear your hair differently. She told me that she wanted you to follow all the rules of the school, whatever they were; so I know she wishes you to wear your hair as Miss Chapman requires the others to wear their hair. Now, let me braid it for you, for it is growing near dinner-time."
But Maude threw herself down the bed, and began to cry.
"And now I must tell you about another rule," said Mrs. Boardman. "I expect it will seem to you as if we had a great many rules here; but you will soon get used to them, and then you will not find them burdensome. It is against the rules to sit upon your bed during the day-time. You see it will make the bed look untidy, and that is the reason for this rule. Now, we will straighten the bed out nicely, and then it will be quite tidy again."
Maude did not move.
"Oh, I must go home," she sobbed. "I can"t stay here. It is a perfectly dreadful place. I have to do everything I don"t like to do and I can"t do the least little tiny thing that I like to do, and my beautiful hair will look so ugly, and I just can"t stand it."
Some of the other teachers might have reproved the little girl for her fretful words, but kind-hearted Mrs. Boardman was too sorry for her.
She could imagine how hard it must seem to a child who had never been under any control at all, to find herself obliged to obey rules, whether she liked them or not. She leaned over and stroked the golden hair.
"Now, dear, I know what a good little girl you are going to be when you think about it. I was very proud of you this morning, and thought I should like to have you for one of my special little friends very much.
You see I am not exactly one of the teachers, and so I can have a pet when I want one. I know you don"t like this rule, but then you are going to obey it because it is right and it will please your mother to know you are being a good girl. Something worse than having my hair braided happened to me when I was about your age. Jump up and let me braid your hair, and I will tell you about it. Come, dear. It is ever so much easier to do things because one wants to, you know, than because one is made to do them, and you will have to obey the rules whether you want to or not; so if I were in your place I should prefer to obey them of my own free will, because I wanted to do just what was right, and please my mother. I don"t think you could guess what I had to have done to my hair."
Maude stood up and helped to pat the bed straight and flat again. She knew that, as Mrs. Boardman had said, she would have to obey the rules, whether she wanted to or not, and she did realize that it would be much more sensible to follow them willingly than to be in disgrace and be forced into compliance. And there was a better feeling than that in her heart, too.
She felt that she was in a place where no one cared for her clothes nor for the little airs she liked to put on, whenever she found any one to admire her, but where she would be valued just for herself, and for her behavior. In that one morning she had noticed how little girls who had not thought of themselves, but only of pleasing others, had found friends at once, while no one had seemed to care for her society; and she realized that if she was to have any love she must try to deserve it.
Mrs. Boardman was the one person who seemed willing to be her friend, and who tried to help her do right, and was patient with her ill-temper; and selfish little Maude was grateful for the first time in her life for kindness, and she did not want to disappoint any one who thought that she meant to be good.
She would try to be good, at any rate, even if it was not very pleasant.
After the bed was in order again, she stood still while Mrs. Boardman brushed her hair out and braided it for her.
"I must tell you what happened to my hair," she began cheerfully. "I had had typhoid fever, and my hair was all dropping out, so that the doctor said it must be shaved off. I did not want to have it shaved one bit, for it was quite long and had been thick, but of course I had to do as my mother said, and have it shaved. Oh, I felt so badly about it. I cried and cried the day it was all shaved off, and when I first looked at myself in the gla.s.s afterwards, I was almost frightened, I looked so dreadfully. Did you ever see any one"s head after the hair had been shaved off?"
"No, ma"am," answered Maude.
"Well, then, you cannot imagine what it looks like. My head looked more like a ball than anything else, and where the hair had been it was perfectly smooth and bald, and there was only a purplish look to show where it had grown. I ran away and hid myself in the barn and cried harder than ever. But I had something nice happen to make up for all this."
"What was it?" asked Maude.
"When my hair grew again it was curly, and curly hair was what I had always wished for, and never expected to have; so you can imagine how delighted I was. There, see how nicely your hair looks now that I have braided it. Have you a ribbon to tie the ends?"
By the time Maude had found a ribbon and Mrs. Boardman had tied it at the ends of the braids, it was time for her to hurry away and look after some of the other girls; but Maude"s face wore a very different expression from the tearful, angry one that had been upon it when she first heard that her hair must be braided. There was a wistful look in her eyes that made Mrs. Boardman turn back and give her a kiss. "We are going to be good friends, are we not, Maude?" she said. "And you are going to be so good that I shall be very proud to say, "Maude is one of my special friends.""
"Yes, ma"am, I will try to be good," Maude answered. "Thank you," she added, with unusual grat.i.tude.
She was looking quite cheerful when Ruby came in.
"I was afraid you were lonesome, Maude," she exclaimed, "and I came to go down to dinner with you. When is your room-mate coming, do you suppose?"
"I don"t know," Maude answered. "Mrs. Boardman said she thought she would come to-night, or maybe to-morrow morning."
"Are you glad you are going to have some one in the room with you?"
asked Ruby.
"I don"t know," Maude answered. "If she is nice, I will be glad, and if she is n"t nice, I spose I shall be sorry. How did you like school this morning?"
"Ever so much," Ruby answered, enthusiastically. "Did n"t you?"
"Not very much," Maude replied. "I think the lessons are awfully hard."
Ruby was very much tempted to say something that would have sounded rather boastful, but she checked herself.