entlemen, and gave out the words distinctly but very quietly.

Emmy Lou felt that Dear Teacher was troubled. Emmy Lou thought it was
because Dear Teacher was afraid the poor spellers were going to miss.
She made up her mind that she would not miss.

Dear Teacher began with the words on the first page and went forward.
Emmy Lou could tell the next word to come each time, for she knew her
Second Reader by heart as far as the class had gone.

She stood up when her time came and spelled her word. Her word was
"wrong." She spelled it right.

Dear Teacher looked pleased. There was a time when Emmy Lou had been
given to leaving off the introductory "w" as superfluous.

On the next round a little girl above Emmy Lou missed on "enough." To
her phonetic understanding, a _u_ and two _f_'s were equivalent to an
_ough_.

Emmy Lou spelled it right and went up one. The little girl went to her
seat. She was no longer in the race. She was in tears.

Presently a little girl far up the line arose to spell.

"Right, to do right," said Dear Teacher.

"W-r-i-t-e, right," said the little girl promptly.

"R-i-t-e, right," said the next little girl.

The third stood up with triumph preassured. In spelling, the complicated
is the surest, reasoned this little girl.

"W-r-i-g-h-t, right," spelled the certain little girl; then burst into
tears.

The mothers of the future grew demoralised. The pillars of state of
English orthography at least seemed destined to totter. The spelling
grew wild.

"R-i-t, right."

"W-r-i-t, right."

Then in the desperation of sheer hopelessness came "w-r-i-t-e, right,"
again.

There were tears all along the line. At their wits' end, the mothers,
dissolving as they rose in turn, shook their heads hopelessly.

Emmy Lou stood up. She knew just where the word was in a column of three
on page 14. She could see it. She looked up at Dear Teacher, quiet and
pale, on the platform.

"R," said Emmy Lou, steadily, "i-g-h-t, right."

A long line of weeping mothers went to their seats, and Emmy Lou moved
up past the middle of the bench.

The words were now more complicated. The nerves of the mothers had been
shaken by this last strain. Little girls dropped out rapidly. The foot
moved on up toward the head, until there came a pink spot on Dear
Teacher's either cheek. For some reason Dear Teacher's head began to
hold itself finely erect again.

"Beaux," said Dear Teacher.

The little girl next the head sto