Then she slipped it on over the third and fourth fingers of her left hand, put her mittens on again, and went on.

It was quite still in the school-house, although school had not begun, because Miss Tabitha Hanks had arrived.  Her spare form, stiff and wide, and perpendicular as a board, showed above the desk.  She wore a purple merino dress buttoned down the front with dark black buttons, and a great breastpin of twisted gold.  Her hair was looped down over her ears in two folds like shiny drab satin.  It scarcely looked like hair, the surface was so smooth and unbroken; and a great tortoise-shell comb topped it like a coronet.

Miss Tabitha’s nose was red and rasped with the cold; her thin lips were blue, and her bony hands were numb; but she set copies in writing-books with stern patience.  Not one to yield to a little fall in temperature was Tabitha Hanks.  Moreover, she kept a sharp eye on the school, and she saw every scholar who entered, while not seeming to do so.

She saw Comfort Pease when she came shyly in, and at once noticed something peculiar about her.  Comfort wore the same red tibet dress and the same gingham apron that she had worn the day before; her brown hair was combed off her high, serious forehead and braided in the same smooth tails; her blue eyes looked abroad in the same sober and timid fashion; and yet there was a change.

Miss Tabitha gave a quick frown and a sharp glance of her gray eyes at her, then she continued setting her copy.  “That child’s up to something,” she thought, while she wrote out in her beautiful shaded hand, “All is not gold that glitters.”

Comfort went forward to the stove, which was surrounded by a ring of girls and boys.  Matilda Stebbins and Rosy were there with the rest.  Matilda moved aside at once when she saw Comfort, and made room for her near the stove.

“Hullo, Comfort Pease!” said she.

“Hullo!” returned Comfort.

Comfort held out her numb right hand to the stove, but the other she kept clenched in a little blue fist hidden in her dress folds.

“Cold, ain’t it?” said Matilda.

“Dreadful,” said Comfort, with a shiver.

“Why don’t you warm your other hand?” asked Matilda.

“My other hand ain’t cold,” said Comfort.  And she really did not think it was.  She was not aware of any sensation in that hand, except that of the gold ring binding together the third and fourth fingers.

Pretty soon the big girl with red cheeks came in.  Her cheeks were redder than ever, and her black eyes seemed to have caught something of the sparkle of the frost outside.  “Hullo!” said she, when she caught sight of Comfort.  “That you, Comfort Pease?”

“Hullo!” Comfort returned, faintly.  She was dreadfully afraid of this big girl, who was as much as sixteen years old, and studied algebra, and was also said to have a beau.

“Got that gold ring” inquired the big girl, with a giggle, as she held out her hands to the stove.