peaceful creature, so far as
I have heard!"

"Thomasina! the war with the Danes--all those years! You must
remember!"

"I don't remember a thing about it. How could a man fight the Danes
living in a peaceful retreat in the Isle of Wight, as Tennyson did
for--?"

Tennyson! Tennyson! Who spoke of Tennyson? Oh! it was too bad; too
mean! How on earth could anyone be expected to guess that Tom had meant
Tennyson, when she had expressly said Alfred the Great? Rhoda protested
loudly, and the other girls backed her up; but Tom was obdurate.

"And isn't Tennyson known as `Alfred the Great' as well as the other
crittur? It is just another example of want of intelligence! You read
the words, and never trouble about the connection. Who in their sane
senses would ask you to compare a warrior king with old Miss Yonge? A
little reflection would have saved you from the pitfall into which you
have all fallen headlong. Five bad marks each! Now, then, for the next
two. What have you got to say about the two Joes?"

Very little apparently. No one had tackled the comparison in Rhoda's
grandiose fashion, but a few pithy sentences were to be found scribbled
on the sides of exercise books. "Jo March was very clever, and my
father says Mr Chamberlain is, too!" from one dutiful pupil. "Jo March
was a darling, and Chamberlain is not," from another of Radical
principles. "Both wore eye-glasses, and wrote things for magazines,"
and other such exhaustive criticisms.

"You are _all_ plucked in Literature," announced Thomasina, solemnly,
"and I am deeply pained by the exhibition! I will give you one more
chance in Arithmetic before going on to the higher branches, because, as
you are aware, this is a most vital and important subject. Write down,
please: A and B each inherited thirty thousand pounds. A invested his
capital in gold-mine shares to bring in eighteen per cent, interest. B
put his money into the Post Office Savings Bank, and received two and a
half per cent. State to three places in decimals the respective wealth
of each at the expiration of twenty-seven years!"

"Er--with what deduction for current expenses?" queried Irene, with an
air. She had been snubbed once, but was not in the least subdued.
"What were their current expenses?"

"There were none!"

"Thomasina, what bosh! There _must_ have been. They couldn't live on
nothing."

"Well, they did, then. Since you are so particular, I may tell you th