"Wouldn't that be a nice idea? Let us make a mark on our slates every
time she is cross, and see what a long string of marks we shall get."

"Oh yes! let's do it! Yes! yes!" chimed in a dozen voices in full
chorus.

Poor Miss Capron! With a sinking at her heart she saw the unloving looks
in her scholars' faces as they entered the schoolroom after this stormy
consultation. She had a severe headache that afternoon, so that,
altogether, she did not wear nearly so smiling a face as usual; and the
girls, prejudiced as they were, found ample occasion for setting down
their cross-marks.

Pretty soon Lottie Barnes held up her slate to view, displaying a long
row of marks. Anna Mory imitated her example; then Lottie Jones; and in
less than two minutes the whole school followed suit. This, of course,
called for a reprimand from Miss Capron; and then there was a terrible
clicking of pencils. Soon Marcia Lewis dropped her slate on the floor,
and the next instant every slate was on the floor.

"Girls! girls!" said Miss Capron sternly; "you seem to have banded
yourselves together to trample on the rules of order. I shall proceed no
further with recitations until you have become quiet and orderly."

But even this seemed to fail of producing the desired result. The girls
were quiet only a few minutes. Nellie Jones remembered that she had in
her pocket a bottle of snuff for her grandmother, and in ten minutes the
schoolroom was resounding with sneezes. Next, little paper balls began
to fly mysteriously from all sides, and every girl appeared intent upon