she should finish her lessons with
dispatch, because it was Saturday, and she was going to the city with
Mademoiselle's party to spend an hour in the dentist's chair. But the
weather was not conducive to concentrated effort. After an hour of
half-hearted study, she closed her geometry, and started upstairs to
dress, leaving the stay-at-homes to another hour of work.

She started upstairs; but she did not get very far on the way. As she
passed the open door that led to the back porch, she stepped outside to
examine the cherry tree at close range; then she strolled the length of
the pergola to see how the wistaria was coming on; from there, it was
just a step to the lane, with its double row of pink-tipped apple trees.
Before she knew it, Patty found herself sitting on the stone wall at the
end of the lower pasture. Behind her lay the confines of St. Ursula's.
Before her the World.

She sat on the top of the wall, and dangled her feet out of bounds. The
very most scandalous crime one could commit at St. Ursula's was to go
out of bounds without permission. Patty sat and gazed at the forbidden
land. She knew that she had no time to waste if she were to catch the
hearse and the train and the dentist's chair. But still she sat and
dreamed. Finally, far across the fields on the highroad, she spied the
hearse bowling merrily to the station. Then it occurred to her that she
had forgotten to report to Mademoiselle that she was going, and that
Mademoiselle, accordingly, would not be missing her. At the school, of
course, they would think that she had gone, and likewise would not be
missing her. Without any premeditated iniquity, she was free!

She sat a few moments longer to let the feeling penetrate. Then she slid
over the wall and started--a joyous young mutineer, seeking adventure.
Following the cheery course of the brook, she dipped into a tangled
ravine and stretch of woodland, raced down a hillside and across a
marshy meadow, leaping gaily from hummock to hummock--occasionally
missing and going in. She laughed aloud at these misadventures, and
waved her arms and romped with the wind. In addition to the delicious
sense of feeling free, was added the delicious sense of feeling bad. The
combination was intoxicating.

And so, always following the stream, she came at last to another
wood--not a wild wood like the first, but a tame, domesticated wood. The
dead limbs were cut away, and the ground was neatly brushed up under
the