Weren't you afraid to venture out in a boat all by yourself?" asked
the man, looking at Judith's diminutive person.

"Yes, I was," said Judith unexpectedly.

Mr. Bristol said "Oh--" and stood in thought for a moment. Some one
knocked on the door, and he turned to open it. At the sight of the
tall figure standing there in his pepper-and-salt suit, Sylvia's
heart gave a great bound of incredulous rapture. The appearance of
a merciful mediator on the Day of Judgment could not have given her
keener or more poignant relief. She and Judith both ran headlong to
their father, catching his hands in theirs, clinging to his arms and
pressing their little bodies against his. The comfort Sylvia felt in
his mere physical presence was inexpressible. It is one of the pure
golden emotions of childhood, which no adult can ever recover, save
perhaps a mystic in a moment of ecstatic contemplation of the power
and loving-kindness of his God.

Professor Marshall put out his hand to the Principal, introducing
himself, and explained that he and his wife had been a little uneasy
when the children had not returned from school. Mr. Bristol shook the
other's hand, saying that he knew of him through mutual acquaintances
and assuring him that he could not have come at a more opportune
moment. "Your little daughter has given me a hard nut to crack. I need
advice."

Both men sat down, Sylvia and Judith still close to their father's
side, and Mr. Bristol told what had happened in a concise, colorless
narration, ending with Judith's exploit with the boat. "Now what would
_you_ do in _my_ place?" he said, like one proposing an insoluble
riddle.

Sylvia, seeing the discussion going on in such a quiet, conversational
tone, ventured in a small voice the suggestion that Judith had done
well to confess, since that had saved others from suspicion. "The
girls were sure that Jimmy Weaver had done it."

"Was that why you came back and told?" asked Professor Marshall.

"No," said Judith bluntly, "I never thought of that. I wanted to be
sure they knew why it happened."

The two men exchanged glances. Professor Marshall said: "Didn't you
understand me when I told you at noon that even if you could make the
girls let Camilla go to the picnic, she wouldn't have a good time? You
couldn't make them like to have her?"

"Yes, I understood all right," said Judith, looking straight at her
father, "but if she couldn't have a good time--and no fault of hers--I
was