You see I am
Miss Martha or Miss McMurtry to most of you at school and really I wish
to forget that I am a schoolmarm this summer and to have you forget it.
I have been finding out a good many things since I came into camp,
though it hasn't been very long, and one of them is that a guardian does
not need so much to be a teacher as a friend to her girls. You see no
guardian can know everything that you girls are studying to gain your
elective honors, but, if we are friends we can work them out together."
Deeply grateful was Betty Ashton for the night and the shadows of the
firelight that were playing on her face while Miss McMurtry was making
this little speech, which she could hardly help knowing was directed in
a large measure to her. However, she could not refrain from giving
Esther's arm a knowing pinch and then raising her eyes to intercept a
returning glance from Polly.
Possibly Miss McMurtry expected Betty's point of view, even if she did
not see her express her surprise, for although some distance away from
her place in the circle her next remark was addressed to Betty.
"Betty, can't you think of a name for me?" she asked deliberately,
wondering what answer under the circumstances she would be apt to
receive. "I know you and Polly have been reading a good deal in order to
find new names to suggest to the girls, so haven't you come across a
name that might be suitable for me? There are astrologers and fortune
tellers who believe that one's good or evil fate depends on bearing an
appropriate name and I have always hated mine.
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