Elnora lifted a ghastly face.
For once no one laughed. She stood an instant staring.
"It seems to be my luck to be crucified at every point of the compass,"
she said at last. "First two days you thought I was a pauper, now you
will think I'm a fraud. All of you will believe I bought an expensive
box, and then was too poor to put anything but a restaurant sandwich in
it. You must stop till I prove to you that I'm not."
Elnora gathered up the lids, and kicked the sandwich into a corner.
"I had milk in that bottle, see! And custard in the cup. There was salad
in the little box, fried chicken in the large one, and nut sandwiches
in the tray. You can see the crumbs of all of them. A man set a dog on a
child who was so starved he was stealing apples. I talked with him, and
I thought I could bear hunger better, he was such a little boy, so I
gave him my lunch, and got the sandwich at the restaurant."
Elnora held out the box. The girls were laughing by that time. "You
goose," said one, "why didn't you give him the money, and save your
lunch?"
"He was such a little fellow, and he really was hungry," said Elnora.
"I often go without anything to eat at noon in the fields and woods, and
never think of it."
She closed the box and set it beside the lunches of other country
pupils. While her back was turned, into the room came the girl of her
encounter on the first day, walked to the rack, and with an exclamation
of approval took down Elnora's hat.
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