Excerpt: ...myself for being so horrid? Wont you forgive me, Ruth? I never supposed it was anything like that. I was angry because you called me your best friend, but wouldnt trust me. Im so sorry. Ill never speak of it again to you." Arline looked appealingly at Ruth, her blue eyes misty. "But I want you to think of it. I had made up my mind to tell you. Then you passed me on the campus without speaking, and somehow I didnt dare come near you after that." "Ive been perfectly horrid, I know," admitted Arline contritely. "Ive been so used to having my own way that I try to bend everyone I know to it." "I dont mind telling you girls about myself now. At first I was ashamed of my poverty," confessed Ruth. "After I went to Arlines beautiful home I hated to say anything about it to any one. Then Arline grew angry with me. I realized afterward that I had been foolish not to tell her my story. There isnt much to tell. I was picked up in a railroad wreck on a westbound train when I was four years old. I can just remember getting into the train with my mother. She was burned to death in the wreck, but by some miracle I was saved. I knew my name, Ruth Irving Denton, my age, and around my neck mother had tied a little packet containing some money, a letter and a gold watch. A woman who lived near where the wreck occurred took charge of me, and as no one came for me, in time I was sent to a home. I lived there until I was fourteen. The matron was good to us, and considering we were all homeless waifs we fared very well." "And the letter?" asked Grace. "It was from my father to my mother, giving all the directions for our journey west. With it had been enclosed a money order for four hundred dollars, which my mother had evidently cashed. I still have the letter. "Then a man and his wife took me. They were good to me and sent me to school. I studied hard and finished high school when I was seventeen. Then I won a scholarship of one hundred dollars a year. I was...