grandma was dead, and they had sent for her.

Miss Jenny had been crying when she came back. Lessons went on
miserably. Then Miss Jenny put the book down. It was evident she had not
heard one word of the absent-minded and sympathetic little girl who said
that a peninsula was a body of water almost surrounded by land.

Miss Jenny came to the edge of the platform. She looked way off a
moment; then she looked at the class, and spoke. She said she was going
to take them into her confidence. Miss Jenny was very young. She told
them the teacher of the Third Reader, the Real Teacher, was not coming
back, and that she had hoped to take the Real Teacher's place, but the
Class Average was being counted against her.

Everybody noticed the tremor in Miss Jenny's voice. It broke on the
fatal Class Average. Sadie began to cry.

[Illustration: "To use tissue-paper would be cheating."]

Miss Jenny came to the very edge of the platform. She looked slight and
young and appealing, did Miss Jenny.

Next week, she went on to tell them, would be Quarterly Examination. If
they did well in Examination, even with the Class Average against her,
Miss Jenny might be allowed to remain, but if they failed----

The Third Reader Class gathered in knots and groups at recess. It
depended on them whether Miss Jenny went or stayed. Emmy Lou stood in
one of the groups, her chubby face bearing witness to her concern. "What
is a Quarterly Examination?" asked Emmy Lou. Nobody seemed very sure.

"Oh," said another little girl, "they give you questions, and you write
down answers. My brother is in the Grammar School, and he has
Examinations."

"Quarterly Examinations?" asked Emmy Lou, who was definite.

The little girl did not know. She only knew if you answered right, you
passed; if wrong, you failed.

And Miss Jenny would go.

[Illustration: "Miss Jenny was throwing a kiss to the Third Reader
class."]

There was an air of mystery about a Quarterly Examination. It made one
uneasy before the actual thing came, while the uncertainty concerning it
was trying to the nerves.

The day before Examination, Miss Jenny told every little girl to clear
out her desk and carry all her belongings home. Then she went around and
looked in each desk, for not a scrap of paper even must remain.

Miss Jenny told them that she trusted them, it was not that, it was
because it was the rule.

"To cheat at Examination," said Miss Jenny, "is worse even than to lie.