inds. Have you?"

"Yes, sir," came from all quarters of the schoolroom.

"The report cards given the pupils on the first of February will show
whether you have answered accurately or impulsively," continued the
principal. "I shall not expect too great performance from you this
morning, but I warn you all that I shall not be jovially inclined to
overlooking inattention or skylarking. Master Dalzell, were you
whispering?"

"No, sir," Dan answered truthfully.

"That is well. Any young man who has just spent many days communing
with grand old Nature should feel it beneath his dignity to whisper to
mere mortals. Master Hazelton, you are moving uneasily in your seat. Be
calm; you will not have to cook your own dinner to-day. Miss Bentley, it
is hardly fair to smile so knowingly. For aught of evidence that may be
presented, Master Hazelton may be a very excellent cook. Only his late
camping comrades really know--and I'm certain they won't expose him.
Attention! Turn to page 46 of your singing books."

After the singing exercises had been finished Old Dut announced:

"Master Reade and Miss Kimball will pass around with this composition
paper. Each member of the class will have twenty minutes in which he
will write a brief but interesting description of something that he saw,
and which impressed him, during the vacation just closed."

Then, for some minutes, all was quiet save the scratching of pens
through the room. Yet Old Dut, expert reader of pupils' eyes and
glances, presently cast a bombshell by declaring in his dryest tone:

"Any pupil who writes anything believed to be funny will be required to
explain before the class just what he considers the joke to be. He will
then also be required to laugh three times at his own joke."

Here we will leave the Grammar School boys--and girls--for the present.
However, we shall catch up with them again in the next volume in this
series, which deals with spring sports, adventures and mysteries, and
with a jolly good round of all the phases of public school life that
interest young readers. This next volume is published under the title,
"THE GRAMMAR SCHOOL BOYS IN THE WOODS; Or, Dick & Co. Trail Fun and
Knowledge."

THE END

HENRY ALTEMUS COMPANY'S

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