noon
Oh , how glad she was that she had Aunt Frances there to take care of her , though as a matter of fact nobody noticed the little thin girl at all , and her very own classmates would hardly have known whether she came to school or not . Aunt Frances took her safely through the ordeal of the playground , then up the long , broad stairs , and pigeonholed her carefully in her own schoolroom . She was in the third grade , -- 3A , you understand , which is almost the fourth . Then at noon Aunt Frances was waiting there , a patient , never-failing figure , to walk home with her little charge ; and in the afternoon the same thing happened over again . On the way to and from school they talked about what had happened in the class . Aunt Frances believed in sympathizing with a child 's life , so she always asked about every little thing , and remembered to inquire about the continuation of every episode , and sympathized with all her heart over the failure in mental arithmetic , and triumphed over Elizabeth Ann 's beating the Schmidt girl in spelling , and was indignant over the teacher 's having pets . Sometimes in telling over some very dreadful failure or disappointment Elizabeth Ann would get so wrought up that she would cry .