e platform suddenly opened and "the
old doctor" as the girls called the absent-minded husband of their
preceptress, hastily entered.

He stumbled up to the platform, waving a number of papers in his hand. He
stammered so that he could hardly speak at first, and he gave no attention
to the amazed girls in the audience.

"Mrs. Tellingham! Mrs. Tellingham!" he ejaculated. "I have made a great
mistake--an unpardonable error! In renewing the insurance for the various
buildings I overlooked that for the West Dormitory and its contents. The
insurance on that ran out a week ago. There was not a dollar on it when it
burned last night!"

CHAPTER XII

"GREAT OAKS FROM LITTLE ACORNS GROW"

Mercy Curtis was one of the older girls quartered in Mrs. Tellingham's
suite. She told her close friends how Doctor Tellingham walked the floor
of the inner office and bemoaned his absent-mindedness that had brought
disaster upon Mrs. Tellingham and the whole school.

"I know that Mrs. Tellingham is becoming more worried about the doctor
than about the lapsed insurance," said Mercy. "Of course, he's a foolish
old man without any more head than a pin! But why did she leave the
business of renewing the insurance in his charge, in the first place?"

"Oh, Mercy!" protested Ruth.

"No more head than a pin!" repeated Nettie Parsons, in horror. "Why! who
ever heard the like? He writes histories! He must be a very brainy man."

"Who ever _reads_ them?" grumbled Mercy.

"They look awfully solid," confessed Lluella Fairfax. "Did you ever look
at the whole row of them in the office bookcase?"

Jennie Stone began to giggle. "I don't care," she said, "the doctor may be
a great historian; but his memory is just as short as it can be. Do you
know what happened only last half when he and Mrs. Tellingham were invited
to the Lumberton Association Ball?"

"What was it?" asked Helen.

"I suppose it is something perfectly ridiculous, or Heavy wouldn't have
remembered it," Ruth suggested.

"Thank you!" returned the plump girl, making a face. "I have a better
memory than Dr. Tellingham, I should hope."

"Come on! tell the joke, Heavy," urged Mary Cox.

"Why, when he came into the office ready to escort Mrs. Tellingham to the
ball, Mrs. T. criticised his tie. 'Do go back, Doctor, and put on a black
tie,' she said. You know, he's the best natured old dear in the world,"
Jennie pursued, "and he went right back into his bedroom to make the
chang