't know
when I do it, and it is hard for Mary--"

"Of course not! I never heard of such a thing! Next time you do it you
must stand on your chair."

Soon Jeremy is standing on his chair. Soon his poetry book drops with
a terrible crash to the ground, and five million pins stab Miss Jones's
heart. With white face and trembling hands, she says:

"Go and stand in the corner, Jeremy! I shall have to speak to your
mother!"

He goes, grinning at Mary, and stands there knowing that his victim is
watching the door in an agony lest Mrs. Cole should suddenly come in
and inquire what Jeremy had done, and that so the whole story of his
insubordination be revealed and Miss Jones lose her situation for
incapacity.

How did he discover this final weakness of Miss Jones? No one told him;
but he knew, and, as the days passed, rejoiced in his power and his
might and his glory.

Then came the climax. The children were not perfectly sure whether,
after all, Miss Jones might not tell their mother. They did not wish
this to happen, and so long as this calamity was possible they were not
complete masters of the poor lady. Then came a morning when they had
been extremely naughty, when every game had been played and every
triumph scored. Miss Jones, almost in tears, had threatened four times
that the Powers Above should be informed. Suddenly Mrs. Cole entered.

"Well, Miss Jones, how have the children been this morning? If they've
been good I have a little treat to propose."

The children waited, their eyes upon their governess. Her eyes stared
back upon her tormentors. Her hands worked together. She struggled. Why
not call in Mrs. Cole's authority to her aid? No; she knew what it would
mean--"I'm very sorry, Miss Jones, but I think a younger governess,
perhaps--"

Her throat moved.

"They've been very good this morning, Mrs. Cole."

The eyes of Mary and of Jeremy were alight with triumph.

They had won their final victory.

III

I know what Miss Jones suffered during those weeks. She was not an old
lady of very great power of resistance, and it must have positively
terrified her that these small children should so vindictively hate
her. She could not have seen it as anything but hatred, being entirely
ignorant of children and the strange forces to whose power they are
subject, and she must have shivered in her bedroom at the dreariness
and terror of the prospect before her. Many, many times she must have
resolved no