mirth.

Carmen crept back to her place and hid her face in Katherine's lap while
Jo Severance passed on to the next "portrait." Climbing up an enormous
tree stump, she flung out her arms and began to shriek wildly, waving
back an imaginary group of girls. Then she proclaimed in important
tones: "It had broad, alternating rings of black and red, the
distinguishing marks of the coral snake, one of the seventeen poisonous
reptiles out of the one hundred and eleven species of snakes found in
the United States. It reared up and menaced me with its great, wicked--"

The remainder of her speech was lost in the great roar of laughter that
went up from old and new girls alike.

Miss Peckham turned fiery red, and looked angrily from Jo Severance to
Miss Judy, but there was no help for it; she had to go forward and claim
the portrait.

"Behold, it is I; who else _could_ it be?" she snapped, and the mirth
broke out louder than before. The "who else _could_ it be?" was so like
Miss Peckham.

One by one the other candidates were shown their portraits, that is, as
many as had displayed any conspicuous peculiarities.

"O Pom-pom! O dear Pom-pom, O _darling_ Pom-pom!" gushed Jo, rolling
her eyes in ecstasy, and Bengal Virden, laughing sheepishly, went
forward.

Miss Amesbury watched the performance with tears of merriment rolling