oldiers after awhile."

She looked up in surprise.

"But I don't want my boys to become soldiers," she protested. "I don't
want war. I don't believe in it. I hate it."

She had reason to hate war, for her own father had been wounded at
Chancellorsville, and she remembered her mother's long years of
privation and sorrow. Again her lip trembled and her eyes filled with
tears. There was an awkward pause; for each boy sympathized with her
and would have been willing to help her had a way been opened that
would not involve too much of sacrifice. Elmer Cuddeback, even in the
face of his forthcoming punishment, was still the most tenderhearted
of the three, and he struggled to her relief.

"Can't--can't we make some sort o' compromise?" he suggested.

But Pen, too, had been thinking, and an idea had occurred to him. And
before any reply could be made to Elmer's suggestion he offered his
own solution to the difficulty.

"I'll tell you what I'll do, Miss Grey," he said, "and what I'll get
our fellows to do. We'll have one, big snowball fight. And the side
that gets licked 'll stay licked till school's out next spring. And
there won't be any more scrapping all winter. We'll do that, won't we,
Elmer?"

"Sure we will," responded Elmer confidently.

Aleck did not reply. Miss Grey thought deeply for a full minute.
Perhaps, after all, Pen's proposition pointed to the best way out of
the difficulty. Indeed, it was the only way along which there now
seemed to be any light. She turned to Aleck.

"Well," she asked, "what do you think of it?"

"Why, I don't know," he replied. "I'd like to talk with some of our
fellows about it first."

He was always cautious, conservative, slow to act unless the emergency
called for action.

"No," replied Pen. "I won't wait. It's a fair offer, and you'll take
it now or let it alone."

"Then," said Aleck, doggedly, "I'll take it, and you'll be sorry you
ever made it."

Lest active hostilities should break out at once, Miss Grey
interrupted:

"Now, boys, I don't approve of it. I don't approve of it at all. I
think young men like you should be in better business than pelting
each other, even with snowballs. But, as it appears to be the only way
out of the difficulty, and in the hope that it will put an end to this
ridiculous feud, I'm willing that you should go ahead and try it. Do
it and have it over with as soon as possible, and don't let me know
when it's going to happen, or anything a