combined."

Anne, herself, the center of the whole affair was very quiet. This
remarkable young girl seemed to possess some secret force that she was
able to draw upon when she most needed it.

"Anne, you precious child," exclaimed the impetuous Nora, "you must not
get scared. Whatever happens, the whole class means to stand by you.
Don't we, girls?"

"Yes," came from all sides.

"I don't think anything in particular will happen," replied Anne. "I
believe Miss Leece really wants to prevent my winning the prize. That's
all."

"She has certainly adopted a pet," cried Marian Barber.

"What did Miriam Nesbit mean by studying ahead like that?" exclaimed
another. "It was disloyal to the whole class."

"It looks very much as if they had fixed it up between them," continued
Grace. "I'm sorry about the effigy, but I won't stand that kind of
favoritism. It's mean and underhanded."

After school Anne lingered in the corridor until the other girls had
gone. Then she made her way slowly to the office of the principal. "Come
in," came the answer to her timid knock.

Miss Thompson, the principal, was a fine woman, much beloved by the
people of Oakdale where she had served as principal of the Girls' High
School for many years. She had adjusted numerous difficulties in her
time, but never such a knotty problem as the present one. It was
incredible that Anne Pierson, who stood so well in her classes that she
had already been mentioned by the faculty, should have engaged in such
an escapade as Miss Leece had accused her of.

"Sit down," she said kindly to the young girl, whose small, tired face
appealed to her sympathies. "What is this trouble between you and Miss
Leece, Miss Pierson?" she continued, plunging into the subject.

"I do not know myself, Miss Thompson," answered Anne quietly.

"But she accuses you of rather terrible things, Miss Pierson," went on
the principal, picking up a slip of paper and reading aloud,
"'inattention, insubordination, impertinence and a tendency to make
trouble.' Have you any answer to make to these charges?"

"No," replied Anne.

"Have you nothing to say?"

"Only that they are untrue."

"Miss Pierson," continued the principal, opening a closet door, "do you
recognize this figure."

[Illustration: "Miss Pierson, Do You Recognize This Figure?"]

There, hanging by its neck on a coat hook and still wearing its
fantastic bonnet and green veil, was the famous effigy.

Anne looked at t