er
equanimity, which was more than Miss Dearborn had. The last clattering
foot had echoed through the hall, Seesaw's backward glance of penitence
had been met and answered defiantly by one of cold disdain.

"Rebecca, I am afraid I punished you more than I meant," said Miss
Dearborn, who was only eighteen herself, and in her year of teaching
country schools had never encountered a child like Rebecca.

"I hadn't missed a question this whole day, nor whispered either,"
quavered the culprit; "and I don't think I ought to be shamed just for
drinking."

"You started all the others, or it seemed as if you did. Whatever you
do they all do, whether you laugh, or miss, or write notes, or ask to
leave the room, or drink; and it must be stopped."

"Sam Simpson is a copycoat!" stormed Rebecca "I wouldn't have minded
standing in the corner alone--that is, not so very much; but I couldn't
bear standing with him."

"I saw that you couldn't, and that's the reason I told you to take your
seat, and left him in the corner. Remember that you are a stranger in
the place, and they take more notice of what you do, so you must be
careful. Now let's have our conjugations. Give me the verb 'to be,'
potential mood, past perfect tense."

"I might have been "We might have been
Thou mightst have been You might have been
He might have been They might have been."

"Give me an example, please."

"I might have been glad
Thou mightst have been glad
He, she, or it might have been glad."

"'He' or 'she' might have been glad because they are masculine and
feminine, but could 'it' have been glad?" asked Miss Dearborn, who was
very fond of splitting hairs.

"Why not?" asked Rebecca

"Because 'it' is neuter gender."

"Couldn't we say, 'The kitten might have been glad if it had known it
was not going to be drowned'?"

"Ye--es," Miss Dearborn answered hesitatingly, never very sure of
herself under Rebecca's fire; "but though we often speak of a baby, a
chicken, or a kitten as 'it,' they are really masculine or feminine
gender, not neuter."

Rebecca reflected a long moment and then asked, "Is a hollyhock neuter?"

"Oh yes, of course it is, Rebecca"

"Well, couldn't we say, 'The hollyhock might have been glad to see the
rain, but there was a weak little hollyhock bud growing out of its
stalk and it was afraid that that might be hurt by the storm; so the
big hollyhock was kind of afraid, instead of being r