gainst those who had troubled her; and if she could have
known the true state of the case, when she was neither eating nor
sleeping, in her anxiety to do what was right, she would have found
that the good for order, discipline, and propriety, which was growing
from this evil done, was to exceed any influence she could hope to
exert, even from the severest act of just discipline.

She was to be helped in a most unexpected way.

Two days after her interview with Myra Peters, there was a soft tap on
her door, and opening it, there stood Mamie Smythe!

Her face, usually covered with smiles, was grave and even sad.

"Miss Ashton," she said, without waiting to close the door, "please
don't be hard on the other girls. It was all my fault; I was the Eve
that tempted them. I know it was wrong; I know it was _dreadful_
wrong! I was worse than Eve; I was the serpent that tempted Eve! They
wouldn't a single one of them have gone if it hadn't been for me! Do,
please, Miss Ashton, punish me, and not them! They never, never,
_never_ would have gone if I hadn't tempted them. Please, please, Miss
Ashton! I'll do anything; I'll get extra lessons for a year! I won't
have a single spread; I'll be good; you won't know me, Miss Ashton,
I'll be so good; and I'll bear any punishment. You may ferule me, as
they do in district schools," and she held out a little diamond-ringed
hand toward Miss Ashton; "I'll be shut up for a week in a dark closet,
and live on bread and water. You may do anything you please with me,
only spare them," and she looked so earnestly and imploringly up in
Miss Ashton's face, that her heart, in spite of her better judgment,
was touched; all she said was,--

"Tell me about it, Mamie."

"When Susan gave me the note," began Mamie. Miss Ashton started.
"Susan who?" she asked, for Susan Downer had not confessed to any
note; indeed, had virtually denied connection with the ride.

"Susan Downer, of course; she gave me the note. Her brother brought
it to her, and I was wild with joy to have a sleigh-ride. It was such
a bright moon, and the sleighing looked so fine, I wanted all day to
ask you to let me have a big sleigh, and take the girls out, but I
knew you wouldn't."

"Yes, I should have," interrupted Miss Ashton.

"That's just awful," said Mamie, after a moment's reflection; "and if
I'd been brave enough to ask you, nothing of this would have
happened.

"I hadn't time to think only of the girls--you know them all