y. "Did Miss Parsons
ask you to do anything to that bowl?"

At that moment Miss Parsons herself came into the kitchen.

"I was looking for you," Mr. Oliver explained, "and I saw Fannie
Mears about to shake something into that large bowl on the table. I
thought Rosemary Willis was working here this morning."

"She was--" Miss Parsons stooped to recover the shaker. "Salt!" she
ejaculated as she saw what it was. "Fannie Mears, I do believe you
were going to salt Rosemary's icing!"

Fannie began to cry.

"Did you salt the soup last fall?" asked the teacher sternly. "Did
you? Answer me, Fannie."

"Yes, I did," sobbed Fannie. "I got so sick and tired of hearing
about Rosemary and her cooking. I put in the salt while she was
looking at the tables in the dining-room with you. It makes me sick
to hear all the fuss people make about her being such a good cook."

Rosemary, breathless from running, burst in at that juncture, the
clean tablecloth under her arm.

"Rosemary," said Mr. Oliver gravely, "Fannie has just told us that
it was she who over-salted the soup at the Institute dinner--you
remember?"

"You did?" cried Rosemary, turning to the other girl. "Did you take
the needle-books you gave Shirley, too?"

Fannie nodded.

"Did you wad up the clean tablecloth for the cake table?" chorused
Rosemary and Miss Parsons together. "And spill tomato soup on it,
too?"

"Catsup," corrected Fannie.

"How can you be so horrid!" cried Rosemary in a burst of frankness.

"Well, it's your own fault," declared Fannie resentfully. "You've
got a swelled head over your cooking and I just wanted to make you
see you weren't so much, after all."

"But there were teachers from all over the State at the Institute
dinner," protested Rosemary. "If the dinner was spoiled, they would
blame the school because we were not better taught. And the fair is
for the hospital and if it doesn't go off right, the whole school
loses credit. Don't you see, Fannie, you weren't just hurting me,
but you were making the whole school fall down."

"You come down to the office with me, Fannie," said Mr. Oliver
sternly. "I think you and I will have a little talk and perhaps you
will see things in a clearer light afterward. Certainly your ideas
need to be set right, if you are to continue in school."

"Oh, dear, I hope he won't scold her," sighed Rosemary, beginning to
stir the chocolate mixture. "As long as she didn't get the salt into
this, I don't care