still practises that virtue.

So they made ovation, fervid, gesticulatory, and obscure. But through
much harping on one theme they made their meaning clear.

"So you think," said the Principal, "that Miss Bailey is still teaching
the smallest children because she is not as clever as the other
teachers. You never were more mistaken in your lives. The hardest child
to teach and manage, as all of you very well know, is the smallest
child. The very best teaching should come at the very beginning."

This statement, when it was translated by those who understood it to
those who did not, met with a cordial rumble of approval.

"Your children," he went on, "are old enough now to be taught by an
ordinary teacher. Miss Blake is much more than that."

This translated was not very well received. Stout inarticulate mothers
drew their shawls more closely about them and grunted dissent.

"But although they are old enough they haven't been proving themselves
good enough, and so I have decided--as you express it--to promote Miss
Bailey too, and to let her have charge of them until the end of the
year. I shall notify Miss Blake to-morrow. Meanwhile, if you ladies will
go up to Room 18 I think you will find your children there, and I know
you will find Miss Bailey. Perhaps," he added with a smile, "she would
be glad to receive your congratulations upon her promotion."

The mothers steamed and streamed away, led by Mrs. Mowgelewsky whose wig
was very much awry, and by Mrs. Gonorowsky, whose mind was in a
triumphant flame, while far in the rear there pattered the grandmother
of Isidore Applebaum, whose mind was quite unchanged by the events of
the afternoon.

Isidore had managed to explain Miss Bailey's disabilities to her, but
her almost complete deafness left her quite unmoved by the Principal's
eloquence in either original or translated form. She only knew that Miss
Bailey had been at last allowed to retain the guardianship of Isidore.

Fifteen unintelligible congratulations are rather overwhelming, and Miss
Bailey was accordingly overwhelmed by the inrush.

The mothers fell upon her bodily and pinned her to her chair. They
kissed her hands. They kissed her gown. They patted her back. They
embraced or chastised their offspring with equal violence. They admired
the pictures, stood enraptured before the aquarium, touched the flowers
with hungry appreciation, and enjoyed themselves immensely.

Mrs. Gonorowsky was a very champion