"Oh, but won't your mamma _make_ you go to school?" a small girl asked.

"My mamma never _makes_ me do anything!" declared Gwen sharply. "I
guess that's so!" Rob Lindsey said, softly.

"What did you say?" Gwen asked.

"I don't _dare_ to tell," declared Rob, in a teasing voice.

"You _needn't_!" cried Gwen, and she rudely turned her back toward
Rob, and commenced to talk to Leslie Grafton.

She talked so fast that she hardly knew what she was saying, but she
wished Rob Lindsey to think that she had quite forgotten that he was
there.

The bell rang, and while the others turned to hasten toward the school
house, Gwen walked along as if merely out for a stroll, and she entered
the schoolroom after all the others were seated. The new teacher thought
it a happening, but the pupils knew that Gwen had done it to learn if
the teacher would rebuke her.

As her tardiness passed unnoticed, Gwen at once decided to do something
more striking.

She was bright, and quick to learn, but she cared little for study,
and she would have been placed in a much lower class, but for her
mother's great influence.

Mrs. Harcourt had listened very patiently while it had been made clear