"THEY COULD NEVER DECEIVE ME"
"Well, Mrs. Stone, what can I do for you, and why such a serious
expression?"
"My dear Marion," said Mrs. Stone, using Miss Preston's Christian name, as
she sometimes did when more than usually solicitous of her welfare, "I've
come to have a little talk with you regarding what happened last night,
and I'm sure you will not take it amiss from one who has known you since
your childhood."
"Do I often take it amiss?" asked Miss Preston, with an odd smile.
"Indeed, no; you are most considerate of my feelings, and I fully
appreciate it, considering our business relations. Of course, I have not
the slightest right to dictate to you, nor would I care to have you regard
it in the light of dictation. It is only my extreme interest in your
welfare that prompts me to speak at all."
"And is my welfare in serious peril now?" asked Miss Preston, half
laughing as she recalled the previous evening's prank and her own very
thorough enjoyment of the fun.
"No, my dear, not in peril, but I fear that you will never grow to look
upon your position in the world with sufficient seriousness, for, I assure
you, your responsibility is enormous."
"Would I could forget that mighty fact for one little fleeting moment,"
thought Miss Preston, but, aloud, she asked:
"And do you think that I am not fully conscious of it, Mrs. Stone?"
"Oh, most conscious! most conscious! You could not be more conscientious,
I am sure, but you sometimes let a misdemeanor, such as occurred last
night, go unpunished, and it establishes an unfortunate precedent, I
fear."
"Did you ever know me to punish any girl placed in my charge?" asked Miss
Preston, a slight flush creeping over her face.
"Certainly not! Certainly not!" cried Mrs. Stone, hastily, for she had
touched upon a point which she knew to be a very sensitive one with her
principal, and wished to smooth matters down a trifle. "I do not mean
punishment in the generally accepted term, but do you think it wholly wise
to let the girls feel that they can do such things and, in a measure, find
them condoned?"
"Do you think that forbidding them would put an end to them?"
"Merely forbidding might not do so, but exacting some penalty for such
disobedience would probably make them think twice before they disobeyed
again."
"Did they disobey this time?" Miss Preston asked quietly.
Mrs. Stone looked a trifle disconcerted as she answered:
"Possibly it was not direct disobedience, but it certainly savored of
deceit."
"I should be glad to have you ask any girl who has become a member of that
comical C. C. C. if she thinks she has been guilty of deceit, and I'll
venture to say that she will look you squarely in the eyes and say:
'Deceit! How could _that_ fun be deceitful?'"
"Do you not think that it may lead to other undesirable lines of
conduct?"
"It may lead to other sorts of innocent fun," was the dry remark. "Mrs.
Stone, were you ever young? Surely, you have not forgotten what the world
looked like then. Wasn't it invariably the thing you were least expected
to do that it gave you the most satisfaction to do? Listen to me one
moment, for, while I appreciate your sincere interest in my work and
myself, I cannot allow you to run off with the idea that I regard my girls
as prone to deceitful actions. It is just fun, pure and simple, and the
natural result of happy, healthy girlhood. Far better let it have a safe
vent than try to suppress it, and take very strong chances of directing it
into less desirable channels. At the worst, a deranged stomach can follow,
and a glass of bi-carbonate of soda-water is a simple remedy, if not an
over-delightful one. I knew all about the feast several days ago, and took
my own way of letting the girls know that I'd found it out. It was no use
to forbid it for that night, for, just as sure as fate, they would have
planned it for another, and devoured a lot of stuff far less wholesome
than the contents of Toinette's box and my tub. As it was, we all had a
good time, and I'll warrant you that the next time the C. C. C.'s meet
I'll get a hint regarding the tub, at any rate."
"Perhaps it will prove so. I trust so, at all events. You are a far wiser
woman than I am."
"Perhaps no wiser, but better able to recall the things which helped to
make my girlhood a sunny one, and school frolics played no small part in
them."
"I can but hope that the girls will refrain from practicing deceit. Of
course, they cannot deceive _me_; no girl has ever yet succeeded in doing
so, although many have tried to. But I can invariably detect the sham, and
meet it successfully."
"I hope you may never find yourself undone," said Miss Preston, with a
laugh. "Girls are pretty quick-witted creatures."
Girls are not blind to their elders' weaknesses and pet delusions, and it
was an understood thing among them all that Mrs. Stone was easily "taken
in," to use their own expression. Consequently, they told her things, and
laid innocent little traps for her to walk into, such as they would never
have thought of doing for a more wide-awake teacher, or, at least, one who
did not make such a strong point of her power of discernment.
It was the very night after the Caps and Capers escapade that the girls
were gathered in the upper hall talking about the previous night's fun.
"It's no use talking; you _can't_ get ahead of Miss Preston," said one of
the older girls. "You may think you have, and feel aglow clear down to the
cockles of your heart, then--whew! in she walks upon you as cool as--"
"Ice cream!" burst in another girl. "To my dying day, girls, I shall never
forget that red ghost."
"How did she ever find it out, I'd like to know," asked Toinette. "Not a
soul said a word, and my box didn't come till the very last minute. I
hardly had time to let the girls know, and how Miss Preston ever got her
tub of cream in time is more than I can puzzle out. Maybe Mrs. Stores had
it on hand."
"Mrs. Stores! Yes, I guess so," cried the girls, scornfully. "You don't
for one moment suppose that _she_ would let us have a whole tub of ice
cream, do you? Not much," said Lou Perry.
"Why, if Miss Preston wanted it it would be different, you see," answered
Toinette.
"No, it wouldn't, either. Miss Preston never bothers with the housekeeping
or the housekeeper, although she is always just as lovely to her as she
can be--she is to everybody, for that matter."
"For my part, I'm glad she found it out," laughed Cicely, "but if I'd
suspected beforehand that she would, wild horses wouldn't have dragged me
into that laundry. It's pretty easy not to be afraid of such a teacher;
she seems just like one of us. Wasn't she too funny with that big spoon
and the red mask?"
"Are all the other teachers so quick to 'catch on?'" asked Toinette.
"Most of them are sharp as two sticks," replied Ethel, "but they never let
on. There is only one who makes the boast that she has never been deceived
by any girl, and we've all been just wild to play her some trick, only
we've never yet hit upon a really good one."
"You ought to get Toinette to do the scene from 'Somnambula,'" said
Cicely, laughing.
"What is it? What is it? What is it?" cried a half-dozen voices.
"The funniest thing you ever saw in all your born days," said Cicely.
"Oh, tell us about it; please, do," begged the girls.
"Let her do it for you; it will be ten times funnier than telling it."
"When will you do it?"
"To-night, if I can manage it; it will be a good time after last night's
cut-up."