it?" commented Patricia, as she and Polly
and Leonora walked back into the schoolroom.

"I wish they wouldn't," scowled Polly, glancing across to Ilga's desk,
where she was in excited conversation with three or four girls.

"What does fanfaron mean?" questioned Leonora.

"I don't know," answered Polly. "Let's find out!"

Patricia was first at the dictionary, and turned quickly to the word.

"It means, 'A bully; a hector; a swaggerer; an empty boaster,'"
reading from the page.

Polly looked over.

"Fan"--she began, "why, they haven't got it right! It isn't fan_fa_ron
at all, the accent is right on the first syllable, and _fan_faron
doesn't rhyme a bit! Oh, just you wait!" and she walked quietly away.

Patricia and Leonora followed at a little distance.

Polly went straight to the author of the ditty. There was no distress
in her face now. Her eyes were twinkling.

"If I could write as good poetry as you do," she dimpled, "and I
wanted to use uncommon words, I think I'd make sure that the accent
was right, and that they rhymed."

"Wha' do you mean?" he frowned.

Polly laughed, and ran away.

"There's only one uncommon word in it," mused Vance. "I supposed that
was--"

"Those girls have been looking in the dictionary," suggested Amos
Rand. "I saw them there a minute ago."

"I'll find out!" cried Vance.

Two or three sprang to accompany him.

"You stay here!" he commanded, waving them back.

He returned talking with Polly.

"Have you told Ilga?" he asked.

"Of course not," she answered.

"Will you promise not to?" he entreated.

She smiled into his anxious face.

"I'll never hear the last of that blunder if she gets hold of it," he
fretted. "Say, Polly, don't tell--her or anybody!"

Polly was still silent.

"I thought you didn't b'lieve in hurting folks," he pouted.

"I don't," she replied. "But you only laughed when I begged you not to
sing that any more."

"And you're going to pay me off," he responded gloomily.

"Yes," Polly smiled, "that's just exactly what I'm going to do!"

The lad's face darkened.

"I shall pay you off," she went on slowly, "by not telling a single
person, and I'll get Patricia and Leonora not to tell either."

"Polly Dudley, you're a dandy girl!" His eyes sparkled.

Polly ran off laughing.

"It's all right!" she reported gleefully to Leonora and Patricia.
"Nobody'll ever hear that song again! I was sure of it when I saw the
word in the dictionary, for Van