Ben Simonds said the other day you were the prettiest girl in school." "Then do you think he is my beau, too ?" asked Ellen, innocently.

But Floretta frowned, and tittered, and hesitated.
"He said except one," she faltered out, finally.
"Well, who was that ?" asked Ellen.
"How do I know ?" pouted Floretta.

"Mebbe it was me, though I don't think I'm so very pretty." "Then Ben Simonds is your beau," said Ellen, reflectively.
"Yes, I guess he is," admitted Floretta.
That night, amid much wonder and tender ridicule, Ellen told her mother and Aunt Eva, and her father, that Ben Simonds was Floretta's beau, and Granville Joy was hers.

But Andrew laughed doubtfully.
"I don't want that little thing to get such ideas into her head yet a while," he told Fanny afterwards, but she only laughed at him, seeing nothing but the childish play of the thing; but he, being a man, saw deeper.
However, Ellen's fondest new love was not for any of her little mates, but for her school-teacher.

To her the child's heart went out in worship.