She had watched the children from a distance, and she knew them all by sight; she already felt partly acquainted with them, and each one had excited an individual interest in her mind.

But they had not even seen her, at all; she was a perfectly strange child to them.

And then she said to herself with real distress, that she was so ignorant and awkward, and they knew so much, and were so clever, that they would certainly despise her, and would want to have nothing to do with her.

She kept running it all over and over in her mind during dinner, and could scarcely eat a mouthful, in her excitement.

Before she knew it, the time had come, and her aunt said, "Now, Dora, you can go!" So Dora put on her hat and went over to the next house.