A STORY OF SCHOOL LIFE

* * * * *

"Oh, girls! I shall just die, I know I shall!" exclaimed Belle Burnette,
going off into a hysterical fit of laughter, which she vainly pretended
to smother behind an elegant lace edged handkerchief.

"What is it, you provoking thing! Why don't you tell us, so we can laugh
too?"

"Well--you--see," she gasped out at last, "we've got a new pupil--the
queerest looking thing you ever saw. I happened to be in madam's room
when she came. She came in the stage, and had a mite of an old-fashioned
hair trunk, not much bigger than a band-box, and she came into madam's
room with a funny little basket in her hand, and sat down as if she had
come to stay forever.

"'Are you Madam Gazin?' she asked.

"'Yes,' replied the teacher, 'that is my name.'

"'Well, I've come to stay a year at your school.'

[Illustration: "_That is just the amount, I believe_.']

"And then she pulled a handkerchief out of her basket, and unrolled it
till she found an old leather wallet, and actually took out $250 and
laid it in madam's hand, as she said:--