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But could there be any doubt of the proper reply?

"Huh!" I said, shrugging my lean shoulders "I don't care!"

The day before it would have been true, but that day it was a lie I did care; the brave words blistered my throat, sudden tears burned my eyeballs, and to hide them I turned my back upon my tormentor

It was not that I was jealous I cared no more for Billy than for a dozen other playmates It was just the fact that hurt I was homely! Not that the idea was new to me, either Dear me, no! Why, from my earliest years I had been accustomed to think of myself as plain, and had not cared My earliest recollection, almost, is of to that I would understand

"Ain't she humbly?" said one

"Dretful! It's a pity Looks al"

"But she's s--I was exalted, not cast down And for five years, re "smart" But now, in the moment of revelation, the law of sex was laid uponits accustoht as my heart was heavy because of Billy's taunt, I flew home and ran up to my room I had there a tiny mirror, about two-thirds of which had fallen from its fralimpses at my face, but they had not led to self- analysis Noith beating heart and soleainst the door--there was no lock--and looked long and unlovingly at e

I saw , honest eyes, hair which was an undecided brown; in short, an ordinary wind-blown little prairie girl Perhaps I was not so ill-looking, nor Janey so pretty, as Billy affected to think, but no such co conclusion then calass

The broken ure, but I know that I was lean and angular, with long legs forever thrusting theirl for whose growth careful mothers provide skirts with tucks that can be let out to keep pace with their increasing stature

Yes, I was homely! I could not dispute the evidence of the bit of shivered glass

My heart elling with grief as I sloent down stairs, wheresupper for the hired , for prairie schools need not expect boy pupils in seeding time; I know that the door was open and the weather warm