"I guess _perhaps_ Arabella didn't mean to be disagreeable," said Flossie Barnet.
She disliked Arabella, but she never could bear to hear any one spoken of unkindly.
"Now, Flossie Barnet, you might just know that Arabella _likes_ to be unpleasant," said Jeanette, and Flossie could not deny it.
Dorothy and Nancy had heard what they were saying, and they thought that it was not at all nice of the girls to speak as if Aunt Charlotte had allowed Arabella to be rude.
"Perhaps Aunt Charlotte thought she wouldn't correct her the very first day," Nancy said, and Nina and Mollie wished that what they had said had not been heard.
Little Reginald seemed, for once, to have nothing to say.
He was skipping along between his cousin Katie Dean and Jeanette Earl, and tightly grasping their hands.
There had been a light shower early in the morning, and here and there a little puddle reflected the blue sky and floating clouds. Reginald saw one just ahead, and laughed softly. Katie and Jeanette were talking with Dorothy, and paying little heed to the small boy who walked between them.
"I thought your cousin was coming to school this morning," said Dorothy.
"She's coming the first of next week," said Jeanette.
They were close to a fine large puddle now, and Reginald with a hop landed both feet in the middle of it.
"Why, Reginald Merton Dean! You naughty boy!" said Katie; "just _look_ at my new shoes! See the dirty water you've splashed on Jeanette's dress!"
"And look at the puddle," exclaimed Reginald, "I didn't spoil the puddle; it looks just same's it did before I jumped in it."
Katie forgot that her question had not been answered, but Jeanette remembered it.
"You asked what my cousin's name is," said Jeanette; "her name is Lola Blessington."
"Is she a peacemaker?" asked Reginald, who still remembered the morning's verse. "Well,--no, I mean not _exactly_," said Nina, who hastened to reply before Jeanette could do so.
"Oh, you'll know when you see her," said Jeanette.
"And we shall see her next week," Katie said.
The sunny days slipped by, and nothing unusual happened at the little school.
In that first week the other pupils learned that there was but one way to get on peaceably with Arabella.
At first they followed Dorothy's example, and urged Arabella to join them in their games, but games which they chose never pleased her, and when Friday came, Reginald spoke his mind. They were walking home from school, and Arabella, as usual, had turned from her playmates, preferring to go home alone.
