Alice Long, who was Short and Long's sister, was entertaining some of
the girls when Jess Morse came into the recreation hall with something
her little brother Tommy had said.
"Tommy's just going to school, you know, and he's beginning to ask
questions. I guess he stumps his teachers in the primary grade. He heard
the arithmetic class reciting and learned that only things of the same
denomination can be subtracted from each other.
"'Now, you know that ain't so, Alice,' says he to me. 'For, can't you
take four quarts of milk from three cows?'"
Jess didn't feel like laughing; what was coming after recess troubled
her. She felt a certainty that she would fail, and she could not get
over it.
"Besides," she said to herself, "Gee Gee will put the hardest questions
on the list to me--I just know she will."
"What's the matter, Jess?" asked Laura, coming up to her and squeezing
her arm. "Something is troubling you, honey."
"And it will trouble you after recess," replied Jess, mournfully.
"The old exams?"
"Uh-huh!"
"Afraid, are you?" laughed Mother Wit.
"I'm just scared to death. And Gee Gee knows I'm not prepared and she
will be down on me like a hawk."
"Maybe not."
"She knows I am weak. She just told me so, and she showed me the papers
and said there were awfully hard questions in them. She just delights in
catching us girls. And she says all of us who are trying for the prize
are neglecting our regular work."
"I expect we are, Jess," admitted Laura. "Oh, dear! it's not easy to
write a play, is it?"
"I don't know," said Jess, hesitatingly. "I'm not sure that I am writing
a regular play. But I'm writing something!"
"What does your mother say about it?"
"Oh, of course she praises it. She would."
"I bet you win the prize, Jess!" exclaimed Laura.
"No such luck. And, anyway, I will take no prize this afternoon. Gee Gee
threatens to take my standing up with Mr. Sharp if I don't do well,
too."
"Oh, don't worry, dear. Perhaps you will come out all right."
Bobby came swinging along and bumped into them. "Oh, hullo!" exclaimed
she. "Say! how do you pronounce 's-t-i-n-g-y'? Heh?"
"Man or wasp?" returned Mother Wit, quickly.
Jess laughed. "You can't catch Laura with your stale jokes, Bobby," she
gibed.
"That's all right; I asked for information. But you girls don't know
anything. You're writing plays. That's enough to give you softening of
the brain. The folks that know it all are the squabs," chuckled Bobby,
referring to the freshman class. "What do you suppose one of them sprang
this morning?"
"I haven't the least idea," spoke Laura.
"Why, she was asked to define the difference between instinct and
intelligence, and she said: 'Instinct knows everything needed without
learning it; but human beings have reason, so we have to study ourselves
half blind to keep from being perfect fools!' Now, what do you know
about that?"
"I believe that child was right," sighed Jess. "If I only had instinct I
wouldn't have to worry about the questions Gee Gee is going to give us
this afternoon."
"Oh, say not so!" gasped Bobby, rolling her eyes and putting up both
hands. "I am trying to forget about those exams----There's the bell!
Back to the mines!" she groaned, and rushed to take her place in the
line.
The Junior class crowded into Miss Carrington's room and took their
seats. The examination covered several of the more important studies.
The teacher took her place, adjusted the thick glasses she always wore,
and looked sternly over the room.
"Young ladies," she said, in her most severe manner, "I hope you are all
prepared for the review. But I doubt it--I seriously doubt it. Some of
you have been falling behind of late in a most astonishing manner, and I
fear for your standing--I fear for it."
This manner of approaching the exam, was, of course, very soothing to
the nervous girls; but it was Gee Gee's way and they should all have
been used to it by this time. She had opened the drawer of her desk--the
top right-hand drawer--and was fumbling in it.
Pretty soon she gave her entire attention to sorting the papers in this
drawer, which seemed to be pretty full. As the moments passed, her
manner betrayed the fact that the teacher was much disturbed.
"Oh! I hope she's lost 'em!" exclaimed the wicked Bobby Hargrew.
"I don't," returned the girl she spoke to. "We'd suffer for it."
"Well, I got my fingers crossed!" chuckled Bobby. "She can't accuse me.
I wasn't near her old desk."
"Wasn't it locked?" whispered another of the waiting girls.
Miss Carrington heard the bustle in the class, so she sat up and looked
out over the room with asperity.
"I want to know what this means, girls," she said, snappily. "My desk
was left open by chance while I was out of the room for perhaps ten
minutes. The examination papers were in this drawer. Now I cannot find
them. Has somebody done this for a joke?" and she looked hard in Bobby's
direction.
"Look out, Bob," warned one of her mates; "crossing your fingers isn't
going to save you."
But suddenly, even while she was speaking, Miss Carrington seemed to be
stabbed by a thought. She started to her feet and turned her gaze upon
the part of the room in which Josephine Morse sat. And Jess's face was
aflame!
"Miss Morse!"
Gee Gee's voice was never of a pleasing quality. Now it startled every
girl in the room. Jess slowly arose, and she clung to the corner of her
desk a moment for support.
"Do you remember seeing me put those question papers into this drawer?
_Do_ you?" demanded the teacher.
"Ye--yes, ma'am," replied Jess.
"You were standing right here at my desk?"
Jess nodded, while the whole class watched her now paling face. Many of
the girls looked amazed; some few looked angry. Laura Belding's eyes
fairly blazed and she half rose from her seat.
"Sit down, young ladies!" commanded Miss Carrington, who was quick to
see these suggestive actions on the part of the class. "Come here to me,
Miss Morse."
Jess walked up the aisle. After that first moment her strength came back
and she held her head up and stared straight into the face of the
teacher. The tears that had sprung to her eyes she winked back.
"I had called you to my desk, Miss Morse," said Gee Gee, in a low voice,
and staring hard at the girl, "and had pointed out to you that this
particular examination would be a trying one. Is that not a fact?"
"Yes, ma'am," admitted Jess.
"Miss Gould called me and I hastily thrust the papers, which I
particularly told you were the question papers, into this drawer. Did I
not?"
"You did."
"And then I hurried out of the room without locking the drawer--without
pulling down the roll top of the desk, indeed. Is that not so, Miss
Morse?"
"It is," said Jess, getting better control of her voice now.
"And you were left standing here. The other girls were gone. Now, Miss
Morse, I freely admit that I am culpable in leaving such important
papers in the way. I should have locked them up. I presume the
temptation was great----"
"I beg your pardon, Miss Carrington!" exclaimed the girl, more indignant
than frightened now. "You are accusing me without reason. I would not do
such a thing----"
"Not ordinarily, perhaps," interposed Miss Carrington. "But it all came
to you in a moment, I presume. And you did not have time to put them
back."
This she had said in a low voice, so that nobody but Jess heard her. But
the girl's voice rose higher as she grew hysterical.
"Miss Carrington, you are unfair! I never touched them!"
"You must admit, Miss Morse, that circumstances are very much against
you," declared the teacher.
"I admit nothing of the kind. A dozen people might have been in the room
while you were out and the desk was open. Ten minutes is a long time."
"You seem to have thought out your defense very well, Miss Morse," said
Gee Gee, sternly. "But it will not do. It is too serious a matter to
overlook. I shall send for Mr. Sharp," and she touched the button which
rang the bell in the principal's office.