times," replied Peace, grasping eagerly at the
suggestion.

"Well, but in what country? Asia or Africa?"

"Neither. He lived in the New England,"--the New England chanced to be
Martindale's largest furniture store,--"and he was very rich and had a
buckskin maiden."

"A _what_?" gasped the astonished woman, dropping her book to the floor
with a bang.

"A--a buckskin maiden," repeated the child slowly, realizing that she
had made some mistake, but not knowing where.

"Buxom," whispered Johnny frantically.

"A--a bucksin maiden," corrected Peace.

"Buxom!" snapped the teacher irritably.

"Bucksome," repeated Peace, with the picture of a bucking billy goat
uppermost in her mind, and wondering how a maiden could be _bucksome_.

"Go on," sharply.

"Well, this bucksome maiden wanted awful bad to get married, like all
other women do, and so her father found a man for her, but she had to
have a dairy--"

"Dowry," corrected the teacher. "What is a dowry, Peace?"

"A place where they keep cows," responded the child, sure of herself
this time; but to her amazement, the rest of the scholars hooted
derisively, and Miss Phelps said wearily, "Peace was evidently asleep
when I explained the meaning of that word. Alfred, you may tell her what
a dowry is."

"A dowry is the money and jew'ls and things a girl gets from her father
to keep for her very own when she marries."

"Oh," breathed Peace, suddenly enlightened. "Well, her father stood her
in a pair of scales and weighed her with shingles--"

"With--?" Miss Phelps fortunately had not caught the word.

"Pine-tree shillings," prompted Johnny under his breath. "He had a chest
full of 'em."

"Pine-tree shingles," answered Peace dutifully. "He had a chest made of
them."

"Peace Greenfield!" Miss Phelps' patience had come to an end. Sometimes
it seemed to her as if this solemn-eyed child purposely misunderstood,
and mocked at her attempts to lead unwilling feet along the path of
learning, and she was at a loss to know how to deal with the sprightly
elf who danced and flitted about like an elusive will-o'-wisp. The fact
that she was the University President's granddaughter was the only thing
that had saved her thus far from utter disfavor in the eyes of her
teacher; but now even that fact was lost sight of in face of the child's
repeated misdemeanors and flagrant inattention. She should be punished.
It was the only way out.

Drawing her thin lips into a straight, gri