ved. A great saving of shoes."

"And they had a school last summer," went on Kyzie, resolutely. "A young
girl taught it who boarded where we do. Mr. Templeton said she did it
for fun."

"Indeed!"

"But they didn't like her a bit. I could teach as well as she did
anyway, mamma, for she just went around the room boxing their ears."

"Is it possible, Katharine?" Mrs. Dunlee was serious enough now. "To
box a child's ears is simply brutal!"

"I knew you'd say so, mamma; but that was just what Miss Severance did.
Of course I wouldn't touch their ears any more than I would fly!"

Mrs. Dunlee turned now and regarded her daughter attentively.

"But how did you ever happen to take up this sudden fancy for teaching,
dear? It's all new to me. What first made you think of it--at your age?
Can you tell?"

"Oh, mamma, I've been thinking about it, off and on, for a year. Ever
since I was at Willowbrook last summer and heard Grandma Parlin talk
about _her_ first school. Why, don't you remember, she was just
fourteen, she said, nearly three months younger than I am."

Mrs. Dunlee understood it all now, and said to herself:--

"Dear old Grandma Parlin! Little did she imagine she was filling her
great grand-daughter's head with mischievous notions!"

They walked on a short way in silence. "But you must remember,
Katharine, that was seventy years ago. Grandma Parlin wouldn't advise a
girl of fourteen to do in these days as she did then. Schools are very
different now."

"Yes, indeed, mamma, very, very different. Isn't it too bad? I'd like to
'board 'round' the way grandma did, and rap on the window with a ferule,
and 'choose sides' and all that! But there's one thing I could do!"
exclaimed the little girl, brightening. "I could make the children 'toe
the mark'; wouldn't that be fun? I mean stand in a line on a crack in
the floor. How grandma would laugh! I'll write her all about it, and
send her a photograph, bare feet and all."

In her eagerness Kyzie spoke as if the matter were all arranged and she
could almost see the children "toeing the mark."

"Not so fast, my daughter. Remember there are three points to be settled
before we can discuss the matter seriously. First, would your papa
consent? Second, would your mamma consent? Third, do the people of
Castle Cliff want a summer school anyway?"

"Three points? I see, oh, yes," said Kyzie, meekly.

"But now, Katharine, let us walk a little faster and join the others.
And