She felt as if she had been floored by Providence in conjunction with a blue bow, and her very soul rose in futile rebellion.

But, curiously enough, her personal ire against Ellen vanished.
At the afternoon recess she gave Ellen the sound half of an old red Baldwin apple which she had brought for luncheon, and watched her bite into it, which Ellen did readily, for she was not a child to cherish enmity, with an odd triumph.

"The other half ain't fit to eat, it's all wormy," said Abby Atkins, flinging it away as she spoke.
"Then you ought to have kept this," Ellen cried out, holding towards her the half, minus one little bite.

But Abby Atkins shook her head forcibly.

"That was why I gave it to you," said she.