a custom of the
school to hold such meetings before the tests began, but Elizabeth, not
knowing this, was wholly ignorant of the object of the meeting.

Miss Cresswell as president went through the preliminaries of calling the
Association to order. She was tactful and discreet. Landis, to whom public
speaking was a coveted opportunity, immediately arose and moved forward to
the front of the room where she could face her audience. She carried her
head and shoulders unusually erect. Her clear, decisive manner of speaking
indicated that she believed the mere stating of her opinion on the subject
would forever settle it in the minds of her hearers.

"I regret," she began, "to make such a statement before the new students
at Exeter lest they form a bad opinion of us in general. But at Exeter
Hall, as in other schools, all pupils do not have the same ideals and
views of what is right and wrong. It often happens, and has happened here
within our knowledge, that a student who would scorn to take any property
which was not hers, has taken another's ability, has actually copied work
and handed it in as her own. This has happened and may happen again. So
we," the speaker so placed her emphasis that "we" became the dominant
spirit of the school, "determined to do as we did last year,--call
together the members of the Association to take means to prevent a growth
of the spirit of deception."

Landis walked back to her place. Her manner had been forcible and had
impressed many.

The president asked for expressions of opinions from the members. The
remarks were not slow in coming. Immediately a half-dozen girls were upon
their feet demanding recognition.

Mame Welch in her droll, half-humorous way was the first to speak.

"I do not see why we should trouble ourselves because from one to a
half-dozen girls among several hundred see fit to copy and carry 'ponies'
into class. If they are satisfied, let them do it."

"But, oh," cried Carrie Hirsch, not waiting for permission to speak. "It
is not fair. It may be so, one girl must hard work; another girl, work not
hard. Yet one mark, oh, so high," she raised her hands to express how high
the grades of the delinquent might be, "because into exams she carry
papers, or from her friend's paper she learn all she wishes to write."

The other members could not suppress a smile as Carrie talked. She was so
entirely in earnest, so carried away by her own enthusiasm, and so badly
mixed in he