Miss Tabitha gave a quick frown and a sharp glance of her gray eyes at her, then she continued setting her copy. "That child's up to something," she thought, while she wrote out in her beautiful shaded hand, "All is not gold that glitters." Comfort went forward to the stove, which was surrounded by a ring of girls and boys. Matilda Stebbins and Rosy were there with the rest. Matilda moved aside at once when she saw Comfort, and made room for her near the stove. "Hullo, Comfort Pease!" said she. "Hullo!" returned Comfort. Comfort held out her numb right hand to the stove, but the other she kept clenched in a little blue fist hidden in her dress folds. "Cold, ain't it?" said Matilda. "Dreadful," said Comfort, with a shiver. "Why don't you warm your other hand?" asked Matilda. "My other hand ain't cold," said Comfort. And she really did not think it was. She was not aware of any sensation in that hand, except that of the gold ring binding together the third and fourth fingers. Pretty soon the big girl with red cheeks came in. Her cheeks were redder than ever, and her black eyes seemed to have caught something of the sparkle of the frost outside. "Hullo!" said she, when she caught sight of Comfort. "That you, Comfort Pease?" "Hullo!" Comfort returned, faintly. She was dreadfully afraid of this big girl, who was as much as sixteen years old, and studied algebra, and was also said to have a beau. "Got that gold ring" inquired the big girl, with a giggle, as she held out her hands to the stove. Comfort looked at her as if she was going to cry. "You're real mean to tease her, so there!" said Matilda Stebbins, bravely, in the face of the big girl, who persisted nevertheless. "Got that gold ring?" she asked again, with her teasing giggle, which the others echoed. Comfort slowly raised her left arm. She unfolded her little blue fist, and there on the third and fourth fingers of her hand shone the gold ring. Then there was such an outcry that Miss Tabitha Hanks looked up from her copy, and kept her wary eyes fixed upon the group at the stove. "My sakes alive, look at Comfort Pease with a gold ring on two fingers!" screamed the big girl. And all the rest joined in. The other scholars in the room came crowding up to the stove. "Le'ss see it!" they demanded of Comfort. They teased her to let them take it. "Lemme take it for just a minute. I'll give it right back, honest," they begged. But Comfort was firm about that; she would not let that ring go from her own two fingers for one minute. "Ain't she stingy with her old ring?" said Sarah Allen to Rosy Stebbins. "Maybe it ain't real gold," whispered Rosy; but Comfort heard her. "'Tis, too," said she, stoutly. "It's brass; I can tell by the color," teased one of the big boys. "'Fore I'd wear a brass ring if I was a girl!" "It ain't brass," almost sobbed Comfort.