"
"What do you know about hating?" demanded Dorothy, giving Ethel Blue a
hug.
Ethel flushed.
"I know a lot about it," she insisted. "Some days I just despise
arithmetic and on those days I never can do anything right; but when I
try to see some sense in it I get along better."
They all laughed, for Ethel Blue's struggles with mathematics were
calculated to arouse sympathy even in a hardened breast.
"It's all true," agreed Helen, who had been listening quietly to what
the younger girls were saying, "and I believe we ought to show people
more than we do that we like them. I don't see why we're so scared to
let a person know that we think she's done something well, or to
sympathize with her when she's having a hard time."
"O," exclaimed Dorothy shrinkingly, "it's so embarrassing to tell a
person you're sorry."
"You don't have to tell her in words," insisted Helen. "You can make her
realize that you understand what she is going through and that you'd
like to help her."
"How can you do it without talking?" asked Ethel Brown, the practical.
"When I was younger," answered Helen thoughtfully, "I used to be rather
afraid of a person who was in trouble. I thought she might think I was
intruding if I spoke of it. But Mother told me one day that a person who
was suffering didn't want to be treated as if she were in disgrace and
not to be spoken to, and I've always tried to remember it.
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