out of us, as teacher
says they will, we'll have to buzz, won't we? We're learning a buzzing
song now."

"Goodness! and you'll be provided with a stinger, too, I suppose!"
exclaimed Agnes.

"Oh! we shall be tame bees," Dot said. "Not at all wild. The song says
so.

"'We are little honey-bees,
Honey sweet our disposition.
We appear here now to please,
Making sweets our avocation.
Buzz! buzz! buzz-z-z-z!'

That's a verse," concluded Dot.

"Miss Pepperill," observed Tess, sadly, "said only yesterday that if we
were in the play at all we might act the part of imps better than
anything else. It would come natural to us."

"Poor Miss Pepperpot!" laughed Agnes. "She must find your class a great
cross, Tess. How's Sammy standing just now?"

"He hasn't done anything to get her very mad since he wrote about the
duck," Tess said gravely. "But Sadie Goronofsky got a black mark
yesterday. And Miss Pepperill laughed, too."

"What for?" asked Ruth.

"Why, teacher asked why Belle Littleweed hadn't been at school for two
days and Alfredia Blossom told her she guessed Belle's father was dead.
He was 'spected to die, you know."

"Well, what about Sadie?" asked Agnes, for Tess seemed to have lost the
thread of her story.

"Why, Sadie speaks up and says: 'Teacher, I don't believe Mr. Littleweed
is dead at all. I see their clothes on the line and they was all
white--nightgowns and all.'"

"The idea!" giggled Agnes.

"That's what Miss Pepperill said. She asked Sadie if she thought folks
wore black nightgowns when they went into mourning, and Sadie says: 'Why
not, teacher? Don't they feel just as bad at night as they do in the
daytime?' So then Miss Pepperill said Sadie ought not to ask such silly
questions, and she gave her a black mark. But I saw her laughing behind
her spectacles!"

"My! but Tess is the observant kid," said Neale, laughing. "She laughed
behind her spectacles, did she?"

"Yes. I know when she laughs, no matter how cross her voice sounds,"
declared Tess, confidently. "If you look right through her spectacles
you'll see her eyes jumping. But I guess she's afraid to let us all see
that she feels pleasant."

"She's afraid to spoil her discipline, I suppose," said Ruth. "But if
ever I teach school I hope I can govern my scholars by making them love
me--not through fear."

"Why, of course they'll all fall in love with you, Ruthie!" cried Agnes,
with assurance. "Who wo