mastery, informed it--"and now I am going to cane you three boys; I am
going to try to break your stubborn wills; but you are big and strong,
and you must let me do it. If you don't let me do it, you will break
my heart, for if I am too weak to command here, I must resign. Oh, I
wish that I were strong!"

The mutineers stared at each other, at the small white face
confronting them, at the boys and girls about them. It was a great
moment in their lives, an imperishable experience. The biggest spoke
first, sheepishly, roughly, almost defiantly--

"Come on up, boys; we'll hev to take a lickin' this time."

Alethea-Belle went back to the rostrum, trembling. She had never caned
a boy before, and she loathed violence. And yet she gave those three
lads a sound thrashing. When the last stroke was given, she tottered
and fell back upon her chair--senseless.

* * * * *

Later, I asked her how she had caught the snake.

"After you left me," she said, "I sat down to think. I knew that the
boys wanted to scare me, and it struck me what a splendid thing
'twould be to scare them. Just then I saw the snake asleep on the
rocks; and I remembered what one o' the cowboys had said about their
being stupid and sluggish at this time o' year. But my! when it came
to catching it alive--I--nearly had a fit, I'd chills and fever before
I was able to brace up. Well, sir, I got me a long stick, and I fixed
a noose at the end of it; and somehow--with the Lord's help--I got the