and labor, for if Si was the leader of the school, he was not a
remarkably brilliant scholar, and he was forced to pucker his brows and
bite his tongue a good many times before it was completed.

"There," he said, as he handed it to Tom Hardy, after he had tried
unsuccessfully to wipe
off a large blot of ink with his coat sleeve, "read that out loud, an'
if it won't show them girls that they can't do jest what they want to,
then I don't know what will."

Tom read, after considerable difficulty, the following remarkable
production, which, in justice , to Si, is given here exactly as he
wrote it:

"MIS MOREL US BOYS DONT WANTER COME TO YOUR PARTY CAUSE WE'RE GOIN
SOMEWHERE ELSE YOU THINK YOU CAN DO WHATEVER YOU WANTER JEST CAUSE YOUR
GIRLS BUT YOU MAKE A MISTAK THE NEXT TIME YOU WANTER START ANYTHING
YOUD BETTER ASK US. ABOUT IT & THEN PURHAPS YOU CAN DO SOMETHING WE HOP
YOULL HAVE A
GOOD TIME AT YOUR TEN CENT PARTY BUT DONT GET TOO MUCH MONEY SO THAT
ANT BETSEY WILL THINK SHE IS RICH & GET RECKLIS. THE BOYS."

No one ventured to express an opinion on this ungentlemanly epistle,
although there were several in the party who did not think it fair to
send such a reply to the kindly meant invitation, and Si said, with a
satisfied air:

"I guess that'll show 'em what kind of fellers we are I When they want
to get up any more
times, they'll find out first what we think about it. I'll put it in