As the first Reuben had known by instinct the values of pelts and lands, Bettina knew by instinct the values of qualities, of brains, of hearts, of circumstances, and the incidents which affect them.

She was as unaware of the significance of her great possession as were those around her.
Nevertheless it was an unerring thing.

As a mere child, unformed and uneducated by life, she had not been one of the small creatures to be deceived or flattered.
"She's an awfully smart little thing, that Betty," her New York aunts and cousins often remarked.

"She seems to see what people mean, it doesn't matter what they say.

She likes people you would not expect her to like, and then again she sometimes doesn't care the least for people who are thought awfully attractive." As has been already intimated, the child was crude enough and not particularly well bred, but her small brain had always been at work, and each day of her life recorded for her valuable impressions.