shirtwaist and a black skirt than which nothing could have been more
becoming. Hearing her uncle's step, she turned and greeted his smile
with a dubious one of her own.

"Why don't you go out and play with the balance an' limber yourself
up?" he asked.

"Play? I say _play!_" she sighed. "You men don't know any more about
what a woman teacher has to contend with than a day-old kitten. My
head is in a constant whirl. Sometimes I forget my own name."

"What's wrong now?" Webb smiled eagerly.

"Oh, it's everything--everything!" she sighed. "Not a thing has
happened right to-day. George flatly refused to come to school--even
defied me before some other boys down the road. Then my own sister--"

"What's wrong with Ann? I remember now that I didn't see her in that
drove just now, and she certainly ain't at home, because I'm just from
thar."

"No, she isn't at home," Dolly frowned, and, for an obvious reason,
raised her voice to a high pitch, "but I'll tell you where she is, and
as her own blood uncle you can share my humiliation." Therewith Dolly
grimly pointed at a closet door close by. "Open it," she said. "The
truth is, I told her she would have to stay there twenty minutes, and
I've been bothered all through the last recitation for fear she
wouldn't get enough air. All at once she got still, though she kept up
a terrible racket at first."