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THE GIRL AT THE FOOT

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Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Nov 4, 1897

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 23, No. 43.

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THE GIRL AT THE FOOT.

By Agnes L. Carter

BY AGNES L. CARTER.
"MISS GRAFTON! O Miss Grafton! Lou Williams has come back!" This was the cry which greeted the teacher as she entered the class-room one bright morning.
Miss Grafton smiled at the eager faces, and stooped to kiss a little girl who was pushed forward by her young friends. This girl had shy brown eyes, wavy brown hair, which had been cut short during her long illness, and roguish dimples in her thin cheeks. She had been away from school for six weeks, and everybody was glad to see her again. All the girls were mourning the loss of her pretty hair, except Kitty Lawrence, who said it was prettier than ever, and she was going to have her own cut short, just like Lou's. While they were talking, the bell rang.
"Now, dear, you will have a new experience," said Miss Grafton kindly. "You have never tried the back row."
Lou smiled; but there was a queer lump in her throat as she took her seat at the foot of the class.
It was the first time she had ever been behind the first row. It seemed very lonely back there. All her former companions were quite out of reach; and, tho some of them looked back at her now and then at first, by and by they gave it up, and appeared to have forgotten her. The girls near the foot were very different. They whispered, passed notes, and prompted each other constantly. They prompted Lou, too, much to her discomfort; and she found it difficult to pay attention to the recitations, with such an uneasy rustling around her. Before the first hour was over, poor Lou felt quite unhappy. When May Whitney asked her a question, she blushed and shook her head, to signify that she would not break the rules by speaking, whereupon May tossed her curls and said spitefully, "O, you sweet little angel!" Then Lou had hard work to keep from crying.
She thought it very hard to be good at the foot of the class. She wondered how long it would be before she could get away from these disorderly girls.
"If I have to stay here two or three weeks,"