16 GRAY LADY AND THE BIRDS 
“T have heard from Dr. Gibbs that you sometimes use 
part of Friday afternoon for telling the children stories, 
or reading something that may amuse as well as teach 
them, and I thought that perhaps, as the board does not 
object, you might sometimes be willing to have me come 
in and talk to them. I am very fond of children, and 
have one little girl of my own, so that I know very well 
what they enjoy. I’ve travelled for several years, and 
I have a great many interesting pictures I could show 
them. Then, too, I have always loved birds and flowers, 
and with my father I used to tramp about and learned 
to know all those of this neighbourbood. I well remember 
that when I was a child and studied at home, rainy Friday 
afternoons were always pleasant, because mother, my 
cousins, and I had fancy-work or some other sewing 
and stories; so I thought to-day perhaps would be a good 
time for a beginning.” 
If the sky had opened and an angel come directly to 
her aid, Miss Wilde could not have been more overcome. 
She pulled herself together and began to frame a polite 
answer, when looking at the guest, who had thrown off 
her light raincoat, she caught the sympathetic glance that 
shot from a lovely pair of gray eyes with black lashes, and 
saw that the fluffy gray hair belonged to a really young 
woman, but a little older than herself. Forgetting that 
a teacher is supposed never to lose control of herself, 
before she realized that she had said a word she had told 
this friend in need about her school, Tommy Todd, her 
mother’s sickness, and all. 
In less time than it takes to tell of it, the coachman 
had been told to go down to the blacksmith’s shop and 
