CHAPTER XI.
AN OLD ACQUAINTANCE.
There were several cars, and a great many people got out of them, forthis was a junction, and some who were not going to stop here got outthat they might take a train that would carry them where they wanted togo.
"We must wait till I see about our trunks," said Aunt Emma; and leavingRuby in a safe corner, she went to look after the baggage and give thechecks to the expressman who was waiting to take the trunks up to theschool.
Ruby stood very still looking about her. It was a very busy place, andthere was a good deal to see. After the train upon which she had comehad drawn out of the station and gone puffing and panting upon its way,so that she could not see her friend the kind old gentleman any more,another train came into the station that was going the other way, and afew people got off, while a great many of those who were waiting in thestation got upon it.
A lady with a little girl and a great many bags and bundles got offthis last train, and perhaps you can guess how surprised Ruby was whenshe found it was some one whom she knew.
I wonder if you could guess who it was. I do not believe you could, soI will tell you. It was Maude Birkenbaum and her mother who had comeupon this other train.
RUBY MEETING MAUDE AT THE STATION (missing from book)]
"Oh, I so wonder if she is going to boarding-school too," thought Ruby."I never, never spected to see that girl again, but I don't know butwhat I am maybe a very little glad to see her, for I don't know onesingle other of the girls here, and it would be so lonesome for awhile. She sha'n't make me do bad things now anyhow, for I am ever somuch older than I was when she got me into so many troubles thatsummer."
Ruby had been told not to go away from the place where Aunt Emma hadleft her, so even to speak to Maude she would not leave it; but she didnot need to, for in a few minutes Mrs. Birkenbaum went to thebaggage-room, and Maude walked about looking around her.
In a little while her eyes fell upon Ruby, and she rushed forward withan exclamation of pleasure.
"Why, Ruby Harper!" she exclaimed, quite as much surprised at seeingRuby as Ruby had been to see her. "I never thought of your being here.What are you doing here anyway?"
"I am going to boarding-school," answered Ruby, "and that is my trunk;"and she pointed to her pretty little black trunk, which the expressmanwas putting upon the wagon, that was getting quite a load of baggage bythis time.
"I wonder if you are going to the same school that I am," said Maude."I do hope you are, for then we can have such good times together. Iam going to Miss Chalmer's Home Boarding-School for Young Ladies.Where are you going?"
"I don't know," admitted Ruby, unwillingly. It had never occurred toher to ask her Aunt Emma the name of the school; indeed I do not thinkthat she knew that any school had a particular name any more than theschool at home did. That was always called the school, and so Ruby hadthought that this new school was simply a boarding-school. Howdreadful it would be if Maude was going to a Boarding-School for YoungLadies, and she herself should be going to a school for children.
"You don't know," echoed Maude. "How funny. You are just as funny asever, Ruby Harper. I never heard of any one starting out to go toboarding-school without knowing where they were going."
"Well, I did n't need to know, or I should have asked," said Ruby, withsome dignity. "I came with my Aunt Emma, and she is a teacher in thisschool that I am going to, and so I did not have to know anything aboutit. She brought me with her."
"Oh," said Maude, in more respectful tones.
To have an aunt who taught in a boarding-school was a great thing inMaude's eyes, and it made her less inclined to patronize Ruby.
"I do hope it is the same school," she went on presently, really gladin the bottom of her selfish little heart to see some one whom she hadknown before, for this was her first time too of leaving home. "Wewill have such nice times together, and I have ever and ever so manythings to show you. You just ought to see all the dresses I havebrought with me."
"And so have I," Ruby answered. "My trunk is just full of them, and Ihad a dressmaker sewing them for a whole week before I came away fromhome."
"Did you?" asked Maude, and Ruby was pleased to notice that she spokeas if this fact made her have a higher opinion of Ruby. "I thoughtyour mamma always made your dresses."
"She always used to, but she is sick now," said Ruby, and the lump rosein her throat again at the thought that she was miles away from hermother. "So we had Miss Abigail Hart come and stay a whole week andsew on them all the time."
"You must have a nice lot then," said Maude. "I am glad, for if we aregoing to be friends, I should not like to have the other girls thinkthat you looked old-fashioned and as if you came from the country;" andfoolish little Maude tossed her head, and looked complacently down uponher pretty travelling-dress.
Perhaps if Ruby had not been thinking about her mother just then, shewould have been very angry at Maude's words, and the two children wouldhave begun to quarrel at once; but thinking of her promise to hermother, the very last thing, that she would really try to be good, anddo just what she knew was right, Ruby controlled the hasty words, andsaid pleasantly,--
"Well, even if my dresses are not as pretty as yours, Maude, the girlswon't think that it is your fault. Here comes Aunt Emma. Won't she besurprised to find that I know somebody here in this strange place?"
Aunt Emma was quite as surprised as Ruby had supposed she would be, andpresently Maude's mamma came up, and was very glad to find that Maudewas going to have an old friend for a school-fellow.
"Ruby is a good little girl, and she will keep Maude straight, I hope,"she said to Ruby's aunt; and it was all Ruby could do to keep fromlooking as proud as she felt, to think that Maude's mamma should saythat she was a good little girl.
Ruby did not feel as if she quite deserved the praise, but it was verypleasant nevertheless. She made up her mind that she would really tryto be good and keep from getting angry at Maude when she said provokingthings, and if possible she would help Maude to be good instead ofdoing wrong things that she proposed.
By this time all the trunks were in the wagon and on their way to theschool; and Ruby and Maude, with Aunt Emma and Mrs. Birkenbaum, set outto walk, for it was not a very great distance.
The two little girls walked together in front, and the ladies cameafter more slowly.
"I wonder what boarding-school will be like," said Ruby presently.
"I suppose it will be perfectly dreadful," said Maude. "I know somegirls that went to boarding-school once, and they told me that it wasawful. They never had enough to eat, and they had to study all thetime, and they got so homesick that they tried to run away, but theteacher caught them and brought them back again."
Ruby looked horrified.
"Do you spose that was really true that they did not have enough toeat?" she asked.
"Of course it's true, for these girls told me so," Maude answered. "Ihave brought a whole lot of cake and candy in my trunk, and I will giveyou some when I eat it, Ruby. My mamma is going to send me a box everymonth, so they sha'n't starve me, anyway."
Ruby turned back and exclaimed,--
"Aunt Emma, do they give the girls enough to eat at this school?"
Aunt Emma laughed.
"Why, of course they do," she answered. "Whatever put that notion intoyour head, Ruby? The girls have all they can eat of good, wholesomefood, and it is just as nice as it is at home."
Ruby looked contented, and went on again.
"I did n't spose you would go and ask your aunt about what I said,"Maude remarked presently in rather annoyed tones. "Now don't tell herone single word about the cake and candy I have in my trunk, or she maytell the other teachers, and they will take it away from me. I knowall about what things the teachers will do at boarding-school."
"I guess my auntie would n't do anything mean," Ruby answered ratherhotly. "Anyway, Maude, perhaps this boarding-school is n't like theone that those g
irls went to. Aunt Emma said it would be ever so nicehere, and she ought to know, for she has lived here ever since I was alittle bit of a girl. I was only three years old when she began toteach here."
"Perhaps it is nice, and then perhaps again she has got used to it, anddon't notice that it is n't pleasant," said Maude. "Anyway, I am everso glad that you are here, Ruby, for it will be ever so much pleasanterhaving somebody I know."
"Turn the corner now, Ruby," called Aunt Emma, as the little girls cameto the corner of a street, and going around the corner they found thatthey were close to the school.
Both the children were sure that it must be the school even before AuntEmma said,--
"Here we are, girls. Does it not look like a pleasant place?"
It did, indeed, look very pleasant, and even Maude, who was disposed tofind fault, could not raise any objection to the large, rambling brickhouse, with wide porches running all around it, shaded with vines, andsurrounded on every side by large lawns and a pretty garden.
A row of great elms spread their wide branches upon both sides of thestreet, and just opposite the school stood a pretty church, with itsspire reaching up among the trees, and ivy climbing over its stonewalls.
Several little girls about as large as Ruby and Maude, as well as a fewolder ones, were amusing themselves upon the lawn, and they all lookedvery happy.
"Well, Maude, this is n't as bad as you thought it was going to be, isit?" asked Maude's mamma.
"No," admitted Maude. "It looks nice enough outside, but remember,mamma, if I don't like it I am going to run away and come home."
Aunt Emma looked at Maude, when she heard the little girl talking thisway, and began to feel sorry that she had come, if she was going to saysuch naughty things. She did not want Ruby to have for a friend alittle girl who would be more likely to help her get into mischief thanto help her be good.
Maude looked up and saw Miss Emma's eyes fixed upon her with gravedisapproval, and then she remembered that she had been talking aboutrunning away before one of the teachers.
"Oh, I don't really mean that," she said. "I won't run away, for papasaid if I stayed and was good he would give me a watch that really goesand keeps time, for Christmas."
"I am glad you did not mean it," said Miss Emma. "You need not beafraid of being unhappy if you are good and obey the rules. Of courseyou will miss your mamma and papa for a little while, but you will soonbe so interested in your studies and play that you will be contented, Ihope. Our little girls are all very happy after the first few days."
Just then they entered the gate, and Ruby felt quite shy as she tookhold of her aunt's hand, and stayed close beside her.
There were so many strange little girls that Ruby thought she wouldnever get acquainted with all of them. She was not used to feelingshy, but then she had never seen so many strangers before. They wentup the steps, upon the shaded porch,--where two little girls weresitting in a hammock reading, and looked as if they were birds in anest,---and rang the bell. Aunt Emma raised the great knocker upon thefront door and rapped loudly.
Ruby was quite interested in looking at the knocker while they werewaiting for the door to be opened. It was a lion's head, and it lookedvery fierce with its open mouth and sharp teeth. She wondered if shecould reach it and rap with it if she stood on tiptoe, and she was justgoing to ask Aunt Emma to let her try, when the door opened, and a maidtook them into the parlor.
Ruby looked about her with wondering eyes. So this was boarding-school.
Ruby at School Page 11
