off.

"--Put her in a pumpkin shell, and there he kept her very well,"

he concluded promptly.

The older pupils, with two scandalized exceptions,--Ethelwyn and
Nan--laughed, and the younger ones turned around and looked interested.
The teacher coughed again and changed the subject.

But the adventures of Bobby and Beth were by no means over, for when
they came out into the large room where the hundreds of scholars sat,
the infant class was marshaled up into the choir seats to sing "Precious
Julias" as Beth still called it. The upright of the front seat was
standing unfastened from the floor, waiting for repairs, but no one knew
it, Beth and Bobby least of all. They, and six other infants pressed
close up against it, and sang with all their might.

Unfortunately they pressed too hard on the loose back. All at once it
went over, and eight unfortunate infants sprawled flat on their faces,
hats rolling off, and books tumbling down.

Everybody stopped singing to laugh, but it changed to little shrieks of
dismay, as a poor frightened white mouse, thrown out of Bobby's pocket
by the shock, went running down the aisle.

Bobby ran after it in hot pursuit.

Beth followed loyally, for she had seen where it went.