e had me the day
before. I didn't feel any too good toward her, but when the blood of
the Crusaders was in the veins, right must be done even if it took a
struggle. I had to live up to those little gold shells on the trinket.
Father said they knew I was coming down the line, so they put on a bird
for me; but I told him I would be worthy of the shells too. This took
about as hard a fight for me as any Crusade would for a big, trained
soldier. I had been wrong, Laddie had made me see that. So I held up
my hand, and Miss Amelia saw me as she picked up Ray's arithmetic.

"What is it?"

I held to the desk to brace myself, and tried twice before I could
raise my voice so that she heard.

"Please, Miss Amelia," I said, "I was wrong about the birds yesterday.
Not that they don't fight--they do! But I was wrong to contradict you
before every one, and on your first day, and if you'll only excuse me,
the next time you make a mistake, I'll tell you after school or at
recess."

The room was so still you could hear the others breathing. Miss Amelia
picked up the ruler and started toward me. Possibly I raised my hands.
That would be no Crusader way, but you might do it before you had time
to think, when the ruler was big and your head was the only place that
would be hit. The last glimpse I had of her in the midst of all my
trouble made me think of Sabethany Perkins.

Sabethany died, and they buried her at the foot of the hill in our
graveyard before I could remember. But her people thought heaps of
her, and spent much money on the biggest tombstone in the cemetery, and
planted pinies and purple phlox on her, and went every Sunday to visit
her. When they moved away, they missed her so, they decided to come
back and take her along. The men were at work, and Leon and I went to
see what was going on. They told us, and said we had better go away,
because possibly things might happen that children would sleep better
not to see. Strange how a thing like that makes you bound you will
see. We went and sat on the fence and waited. Soon they reached
Sabethany, but they could not seem to get her out. They tried, and
tried, and at last they sent for more men. It took nine of them to
bring her to the surface. What little wood was left, they laid back to
see what made her so fearfully heavy, and there she was turned to solid
stone. They couldn't chip a piece off her with the shovel. Mother
always said, "For goodness sake,