The older children recoiled from this announcement, and from the
small, tense figure. Even the teacher kept her distance, as though
Judith were some dangerous little animal,

"What in the world did you do that for?" she asked in a tone of
stupefaction.

"Because they are n-n-nasty, mean things," said Judith, "and if they
weren't going to let C-C-Camilla go to the picnic, I wasn't going to
let them _have_ any picnic!"

The teacher turned around to Sylvia, now almost as white as her
sister, and said helplessly, "Sylvia, do you know what she's talking
about?"

Sylvia went forward and took Judith's hand. She was horrified beyond
words by what Judith had done, but Judith was her little sister. "Yes,
ma'am," she said, to Miss Miller's question, speaking, for all her
agitation, quickly and fluently as was her habit, though not very
coherently. "Yes, ma'am, I know. Everybody was saying this morning
that the Fingáls' mother was a negro, and so the girls weren't going
to invite Camilla to the picnic, and it made Judith mad."

"Why, _she_ didn't know Camilla very well, did she?" asked the
teacher, astonished.

"No, ma'am," said Sylvia, still speaking quickly, although the tears
of fright were beginning to stand in her eyes. "It just made her mad
because the girls weren't going to invite her because she didn't think