der if he had been seen leaving the room.

"About three minutes before the bell rang," said Bobby defiantly.

"Don't speak to me like that," commanded Miss Mason. "Do you know how
the ink got on this book, Robert?"

Bobby was silent. Meg looked worried.

"Robert, do you hear me? I am asking you if you know how this book was
defaced?"

Bobby's blue eyes shot out a few sparks equal to those in Miss Mason's
eyes.

"You know I don't!" he retorted, not at all respectfully.

Bobby had been taught to love books at home and to handle them
carefully. He was hurt and astonished that any one should think he
would deliberately ruin a beautiful book, and he forgot that Miss
Mason couldn't know him as well as Father and Mother Blossom did. They
would never suspect him of harming a book.

"If this is your idea of getting even for the arithmetic lesson this
morning, all I can say is that you've chosen a very underhanded
method," declared Miss Mason, evidently determined to believe the
worst.

"I never touched the book," insisted Bobby hotly.

CHAPTER IX

BOBBY IN TROUBLE

Miss Mason glanced at him oddly.

"That will do," she said.

Then she proceeded to question the other boys. Palmer Davis admitted
that he had been in the room during recess, to get a pencil, he said.
And Henry Graham, a boy in the first grade, whispered shakily that he
had come back for an apple he had left in his desk. Miss Mason was
cross-examining Wilbert Peters, another boy, when the door was
suddenly pushed open and an odd procession entered.

"Well, for pity's sake!" ejaculated Meg aloud, then slapped a hasty
hand to her mouth.

Philip, his tail wagging ingratiatingly, came first, carrying
Totty-Fay in his mouth. Back of him marched the twins, Twaddles' face
shining with soap and water he had evidently applied himself, for it
had dried in streaks, and Dot in a frock so stiffly starched that each
separate ruffle stood out around her like a small platform.

"Hello!" grinned Twaddles, embarrassed now that he found so many eyes
fixed on him.

Miss Mason looked surprised.

Philip marched up to the platform and put down the doll. Then he sat
down, panting, his tail wagging furiously.

"We--we want to go to school, too," explained Dot, speaking to Miss
Mason, "so we came."

"I see," admitted the teacher. "You're not old enough to come to
school yet. Whose children are you?"

"Please, Miss Mason," Meg stood up bravely, "they're my