on school with a heavy heart
and a heavier conscience. Nothing had occurred in those first hours to
show any change in Mrs. Mowgelewsky's opinion of home pets; rather she
seemed, in contrast to the mild and sympathetic Miss Bailey, more than
ever dictatorial and dogmatic.

At a quarter after three, the gold fish having received perfunctory
attention, and the Board of Monitors being left again to do their
worst, unguarded, Morris and Teacher set out to prepare Mrs.
Mowgelewsky's mind for the adoption of Izzie. They found it very
difficult. Mrs. Mowgelewsky, restored of vision, was so hospitable, so
festive in her elephantine manner, so loquacious and so
self-congratulatory, that it was difficult to insert even the tiniest
conversational wedge into the structure of her monologue.

Finally Miss Bailey managed to catch her attention upon financial
matters. "You gave me," she said, "two dollars and ten cents, and
Morris has managed so beautifully that he has not used it all, and has
five cents to return to you. He's a very wonderful little boy, Mrs.
Mowgelewsky," she added, smiling at her favorite to give him courage.

"He iss a good boy," Mrs. Mowgelewsky admitted. "Don't you get lonesome
sometimes by yourself here, huh?"

"Well," said Miss Bailey, "he wasn't always alone."

"No?" queried the matron with a divided attention. She was looking for
her purse, in which she wished to stow Morris's surplus.

"No," said Teacher; "I was here once or twice. And then a little friend
of his----"

"Friend," the mother repeated with a glare; "was friends here in mine
house?"

Miss Bailey began a purposely vague reply, but Mrs. Mowgelewsky was not
listening to her. She had searched the pockets of the gown she wore,
then various other hiding-places in the region of its waist line, then
a large bag of mattress covering which she wore under her skirt. Ever
hurriedly and more hurriedly she repeated this performance two or three
times, and then proceeded to shake and wring the out-door clothing
which she had worn that morning.

"Gott!" she broke out at last, "mine Gott! mine Gott! it don't stands."
And she began to peer about the floor with eyes not yet quite adjusted.
Morris easily recognized the symptoms.

"She's lost her pocket-book," he told Miss Bailey.

"Yes, I lost it," wailed Mrs. Mowgelewsky, and then the whole party
participated in the search. Over and under the furniture, the carpets,
the bed, the stove, over and under