One day he dropped a little toad
on her book, at which she screamed, though an instant after she was not
at all afraid. Of course, he was whipped for that, and for once she did
not feel sorry.

"You're a great ninny to be afraid of a toad not bigger than a button,"
he said scornfully. "I'll get you whipped some day to make up for it,
see if I don't."

Thursday was unfortunate and she was kept in for some rather saucy
replies. When she returned they were in the sitting-room and had been
discussing some household matters. She surveyed them with a courageous
but indignant air.

"I've quit," she exclaimed. "I'm not going there to school any more."

She stood up very straight, her eyes flashing.

"What!" ejaculated Cousin Elizabeth.

"Why, I've quit! She wanted to make me say I was sorry and beg her
pardon, and she threatened to keep me all night, but I knew some of you
would come, at least Rachel."

"And I suppose you were a saucy, naughty girl!"

"What happened?" asked Chilian quietly.

"Why, you see--I went up to her table with the figures I had been making
on my slate. I'd done some of them over three times, for Tommy Marsh
joggled my elbow. Then I went back to my seat. We're crowded now, and I
went to sit down and sat on the floor. I do believe Sadie Green did it
on purpose--moved so there wasn't room enough for me to sit. And Tom
laughed, then all the children laughed, and Dame Wilby said, 'Get up,
Cynthy Leverett,' and I said 'My name isn't Cynthy, if you please, and I
haven't any seat to sit on if I do get up.' And then the children
laughed again, and I don't quite know what did happen, but I was so
angry. Then she said all the children should stay in for laughing. She
called me to the desk and I went. The slate was broken and I laid it on
the table. Then she said wasn't I sorry for being saucy, and I said I
wasn't. It was bad enough to fall on the floor, for I might have hurt
myself. Then she took up her switch, and I said: 'You strike me, if you
dare!' Then she pushed me in a little closet place, and there I staid
until after school was out. Then she said, 'Would I tell Miss Leverett
to come over?' and I said Mr. Leverett was my guardian and I would tell
him, but I wasn't coming to school any more, and that Tommy Marsh
pinched me and pulled my hair, and called me wild Indian. And so--I've
quit. You can't make me go again. I'll run away first and go on some of
the boats."

There was a blaze of scarlet o