ing, and something that would
naturally, I should suppose, suggest itself to a girl brought up as you
have been, Polly, to come at once to the head of the school with the
information."

Polly, feeling that all this reflected on Mamsie and her home training,
had yet nothing to do but to stand pale and quiet on the steps.

"She couldn't help it." The big girl pushed her way into the inner
circle. "We girls all just made her stop. My! Miss Anstice, it was just
a mob here when we saw Polly coming."

"Sarah Miller, you have nothing to say until I address you." A little
red spot was coming on either cheek as Miss Anstice turned angrily to
the big girl. "And I shall at once report you to sister, for improper
behavior."

"Oh dear, dear! Well, I wish 'sister' would fire old black silk,"
exclaimed a girl on the edge of the circle under her breath. "Look at
her now. Isn't she a terror!" and then the big bell rang, and they all
filed in.

"Now she won't let us have our picnic; she'll go against it every way
she can," cried a girl who was out of dangerous earshot. And the terror
of this spread as they all scampered down the hall.

"Oh dear, dear! to think this should have happened on her black silk
day!"

"No, we won't get it now, you may depend," cried ever so many. And poor
Polly, with all this added woe, to make her feel responsible for the
horrible beginning of the day, sank into her seat and leaned her head on
her desk.

The picnic, celebrated as an annual holiday, was given by Miss Salisbury
to the girls, if all had gone well in the school, and no transgressions
of rules, or any misdemeanor, marred the term. Miss Anstice never had
looked with favor on the institution, and the girls always felt that she
went out of her way to spy possible insubordination among the scholars.
So they strove not to get out of her good graces, observing special care
when the "black silk days" came around.

On this unlucky day, everything seemed against them; and as Miss Anstice
stalked off to sit upon the platform by "sister" for the opening
exercises, the girls felt it was all up with them, and a general gloom
fell upon the long schoolroom.

Miss Salisbury's gentle face was turned in surprise upon them as she
scanned the faces. And then, the general exercises being over, the
classes were called, and she and "sister" were left on the platform
alone.

"Oh, now she's getting the whole thing!" groaned Leslie, looking back
from the hall