n a mass of wavy hair. She wished that her curls, which had to be
coaxed into shape every morning with a warm stove-lifter and a wet
brush, would hang in ripples like the young woman's, so that she could
wear one.

"Oh, _ain't_ it sweet!" she said aloud, getting up on her knees beside
Luffree and holding out the book at arm's length. And then, with the
mortar-board as her inspiration, there flashed into her brain a
wonderful thought that was to grow through the coming years; and her
lips framed a splendid purpose--heard by no mortal ears, save those of
the shivering hound and the cropping pony--that time was gloriously to
fulfil.

"And maybe," she added happily, "I'll have 'monia, and my hair'll come
in just as curly."

She sprang to her feet, fired with her new ambition, and undid the pony.
And remembering that it would be as well to reach the farm-house before
the family could hear the second tale of trouble at the school, she
hastily coiled the picket-rope, mounted, hid the magazine under the
saddle-blankets, and, with the dog running stiffly in her wake, rode
homeward.

When she reached the barn, she did not even wait to fasten the pinto in
her stall; but, taking the magazine, raced toward the kitchen. As she
halted breathless in its open door, however, she was sorry that she had
not come in quietly by way of her bedroom window and waited until she
was sure that her mother was alone. For she found herself in the
presence not only of the big brothers, but of him whose authority she
had so lately flouted!

The suddenness of the discovery drove the words she had meant to say in
her own behalf from her brain. But five pairs of eyes were upon her and
retreat was impossible; so she strove mutely to win any possible
sympathy by covering, with one unsteady hand, the ear that had been
pulled.

No one spoke for a moment. And in that brief space the little girl
divined, as she sought each face, that but one of the group before her
was eager to see her punished, and that one was the teacher. In the eyes
of the eldest brother there was no disapproval, only a lurking smile;
the biggest was openly beaming with satisfaction; the youngest had taken
his attitude, as usual, from the eldest; and her mother's look was sadly
kind. But the teacher was hostile from brow to boot.

It was the eldest brother who first broke the silence. He took his pipe
from his mouth, knocked out the ashes against his bench, and addressed
the littl