The reply caused Miss M——­ to notice the dress of her sister.  She saw at once that it was of the same piece as Mary’s, in fact, she became certain that it was the same dress.  It did not fit quite so nicely on Nelly, and was too long for her, and she was evidently ill at ease when she noticed her teacher looking at the bright pink flowers that were so thickly set on the white ground.

The discovery was one that could not but interest the teacher.  Though short of means herself, that same night she purchased a dress of the same material for little Nelly, and made arrangements with the merchant to send it to her in such a way that the donor need never be known.

Very bright and happy looked Mary Gray on Friday morning, as she entered the school at an early hour.  She waited only to place her books in neat order in her desk, ere she approached the teacher, and whispering in a voice that laughed in spite of her efforts to make it low and deferential.

“After this week sister Nelly is coming to school every day, and oh, I am so glad!”

“That is very good news,” replied the teacher kindly.  “Nelly is fond of her books, I see, and I am happy to know that she can have an opportunity to study them every day.”

Then she continued, a little good-natured mischief in her eyes,—­“But can your mother spare you both conveniently?”

“Oh, yes, ma’am, yes ma’am, she can now.  Something happened that she didn’t expect, and she is as glad to have us come as we are to do so.”  She hesitated a moment, but her young heart was filled to the brim with joy, and when a child is happy, it is as natural to tell the cause as it is for a bird to warble when the sun shines.  So out of the fullness of her heart she spoke and told her teacher this little story:—­

She and her sister were the only children of a poor widow, whose health was so delicate that it was almost impossible to support herself and daughters.  She was obliged to keep them out of school all winter, as they had no suitable clothes to wear, but she told them that if they could earn enough to buy each of them a new dress, by doing odd chores for the neighbors, they might go in the spring.

Very earnestly had the little girls improved their stray chances, and very carefully hoarded the copper coins which usually repaid them.  They had nearly saved enough to buy a dress, when Nelly was taken sick, and as the mother had no money beforehand, poor Nelly’s money had to be used for medicine.

“Oh, I did feel so bad when school opened and Nelly could not go, because she had no dress,” said Mary.  “I told mother I wouldn’t go either, but she said I would better, for I could teach sister some, and it would be better than no schooling.

“I stood it for a fortnight, but Nelly’s little face seemed all the time looking at me on the way to school, and I couldn’t be happy a bit, so I finally thought of a way by which we could both go.  I told mother I would come one day, and the next I would lend Nelly my dress and she might come; that’s the way we have done, this week.  But last night, don’t you think, somebody sent sister a dress just like mine, and now she can come too.