This little girl's wisp of brown braid was tied with a shoe-string, and she looked poorer than any other child in the school, but she had an honest light in her eyes, and Ellen considered her to be rather more beautiful than Floretta.
She was Maria Atkins, Joseph Atkins's second child.

Ellen sat with her book before her, and the strange, new atmosphere of the school-room stole over her senses.

It was not altogether pleasant, although it was considered that the ventilation was after the most approved modern system.

She perceived a strong odor of peppermints, and Floretta Vining was waving ostentatiously a coarse little pocket-handkerchief scented with New-mown Hay.

There was also a strong effusion of stale dinners and storm-beaten woollen garments, but there was, after all, that savor of festivity which Ellen was apt to discover in the new.