"This is not the time for study, but for recitation. You need not
recite, and I will see both of you after school. Go on from where Agnes
left off, Lluella."

"I'll fix you for this!" hissed Trix to Agnes. Agnes felt too badly to
reply and the jealous girl added: "You Corner House girls think you are
going to run things in this school, I suppose; but you'll see, Miss!
You're nothing but upstarts."

Agnes did not feel like repeating this when Miss Georgiana made her
investigation of the incident after school. She was no "tell-tale."

Therefore she repeated only her former accusation that Trix's whispering
had confused her in her recitation.

"I never whispered to her!" snapped Trix, tossing her head. "I'm not so
fond of her as all that, I hope."

"Why, I expect all my girls to be fond of each other," said Miss
Georgiana, smiling, "too, too fond to hurt each other's feelings, or
even to annoy each other."

"She just put it all on," sniffed Trix.

"Agnes is nervous," said the teacher, quietly, "but she must learn to
control her nerves and not to fly into a passion and be unladylike.
Beatrice, you must not whisper and annoy your neighbors. I hope you two
girls will never take part in such an incident again while you are with
me."

Agnes said, "I'm sorry, Miss Shipman," but when the teacher's back was
turned, Trix screwed her face into a horrid mask and ran out her tongue
at Agnes. Her spitefulness fairly boiled over.

This was the first day Agnes had been late getting home, so she missed
the first part of an incident of some moment. Popocatepetl got herself
on this day into serious mischief.

Popocatepetl (she was called "Petal" for short) was one of Sandyface's
four kittens that had been brought with the old cat from Mr. Stetson's
grocery to the old Corner House, soon after the Kenway girls came to
live there. Petal was Ruth's particular pet--or, had been, when she was
a kitten. Agnes' choice was the black one with the white nose, called
Spotty; Tess's was Almira, while Dot's--as we already know--was called
Bungle, and which, to Dot's disgust, had already "grown up."

All four of the kittens were good sized cats now, but they were not yet
of mature age and now and then the girls were fairly convulsed with
laughter because of the antics of Sandyface's quartette of children.

There was to be a pair of ducks for Sunday's dinner and Uncle Rufus had
carefully plucked them into a box in a corner of the kitchen, s