Ellen, when she graduated, was openly pronounced the flower of her class.

Not a girl equalled her, not a boy surpassed her.

When Ellen came home one night about two months before her graduation, and announced that she was to have the valedictory, such a light of pure joy flashed over her mother's face that she looked ten years younger.
"Well, I guess your father will be pleased enough," she said.

She was hard at work, finishing women's wrappers of cheap cotton.

The hood industry had failed some time before, since the hoods had gone out of fashion.