“It matters not that you are little girls, or that you are at school,” Mrs. Grayson would say; “let me always have the pleasure of seeing you enter the class-room in as gentle a manner as you would enter a drawing-room,” and her pupils took pleasure in doing as she wished.

The broad window-seats were banked with flowering plants, and as the children took their places they thought it the brightest, cheeriest schoolroom in the world.

As if to show that he also had a place in Aunt Charlotte’s class, Pompey ran across the floor and sprang up into a space on one window-seat between two large flowerpots, where he could enjoy a sun-bath.

Katie Dean, with her little Cousin Reginald, now entered, just in time to avoid being late.

“I thought you said your cousin was coming,” whispered Mollie, but Aunt Charlotte had opened her Testament, and was commencing to read, so Nina only shook her head, and Mollie saw that she must wait until recess to know what Nina would say.

“’Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called the children of God,’” read Aunt Charlotte, and every girl looked towards Flossie Barnet, who was always trying to say a pleasant word of an absent friend, or to coax two playmates, who had become estranged, to be fast friends again.  Often they had heard her Uncle Harry say:  “Flossie, you’re a peacemaker.”  Her hands were clasped, and her blue eyes were full of interest in the verse which Aunt Charlotte was reading.  Her red lips moved.

“‘They shall be called the children of God,’” she whispered, and in her gentle little heart she determined to be, if possible, more kind and loving than ever before, toward her playmates.

Little Reginald had failed to understand the verse, and sat staring at Aunt Charlotte with round eyes.  He was a handsome little fellow, with soft flaxen curls, and a smart, sturdy figure, and as he looked up into Aunt Charlotte’s face, he seemed like a pudgy cupid whom some one had dressed in a sailor suit.

Singing followed the reading, and all through the two merry songs which they sang, Reginald watched Aunt Charlotte, and wondered over the verse which she had read.  When the arithmetic lesson was over, Aunt Charlotte asked if any one had a question to ask.

Katie Dean wished to hear an example explained, and when it had been made clear to her, Reginald held up his hand.

“What is your question?”

“What’s ’peacemakers’?” he asked.

Aunt Charlotte explained the verse, and Reginald listened, but it was easy to see that he was disappointed.

“Do you understand now what the peacemakers are?” Aunt Charlotte asked.

“Yes’m,” said Reginald, “but I wish I didn’t.”

“And why?” questioned Aunt Charlotte.

“’Cause I thought grandma was a peacemaker,” Reginald said, “for she’s piecin’ a silk patchwork quilt, an’ papa said she’d be blessed glad when it’s done.”