t," said Eva.

"And that will amount to the same thing in the end, Mary Breeze,"
groaned Agnes.

"I don't know at all what you are talking about," cried Miss Breeze,
tossing her head, and trying to bolster up her own waning courage.

"If you don't know now, you'll never learn, Mary," laughed Myra Stetson.
"We are all in the same boat."

"You bet we are!" added the slangy Eva.

"Every girl here was on that car that day coming from Fleeting,"
announced Agnes, after a moment, having counted noses. "You were in the
crowd, Mary."

"What day coming from Fleeting?" snapped the girl, who tried to
"bluff," as Neale O'Neil would have termed it.

"The time the car broke down," cried another. "Oh, I remember!"

"Of course you do. So does Mary," Eva said. "We were all in it."

"And, oh, weren't those berries good!" whispered Myra, ecstatically.

"Well, I don't care!" said Mary Breeze, "you started it, Aggie Kenway."

"I know it," admitted Agnes, hopelessly.

"But nobody tied you hand and foot and dragged you into that farmer's
strawberry patch--so now, Mary!" cried Eva Larry. "You needn't try to
creep out of it."

"Say! Trix seems to be creeping out of it," drawled Myra. "Don't you
s'pose Mr. Marks has heard that she was in the party?"

"Sh!" said Agnes, suddenly. "Here he comes."

The principal came in, stepping in his usual quick, nervous way. He was
a small, plump man, with rosy cheeks, eyeglasses, and an ever present
smile which sometimes masked a series of very sharp and biting remarks.
On this occasion the smile covered but briefly the bitter words he had
to say.

"Young ladies! Your attention, please! My attention has been called to
the fact that, on the twenty-third of last May--a Saturday--when our
basket ball team played that of the Fleeting schools, you girls--all of
you--on the way back from the game, were guilty of entering Mr. Robert
Buckham's field at Ipswitch Curve, and appropriated to your own use, and
without permission, a quantity--whether it be small or large--of
strawberries growing in that field. The farmer himself furnishes me with
the list of your names. I have not seen him personally as yet; but as
Mr. Buckham has taken the pains to trace the culprits after all this
time has elapsed he must consider the matter serious.

"What particular punishment shall be meted out to you, I have not
decided. As a general and lasting rebuke, however, I had thought of
forfeiting all the games the team ha