said Neale.

"And Jenny Rosity and Ella Gant. Who are _they_?"

"Then there's that very lively girl, Annie Mation," pursued Neale,
racking his brain to discover other punning words. "And despite her
superabundance of avoirdupois, Ellie Phant cannot be overlooked."

"Well, I never! _Elephant!_" gasped Tess. "And caramel!"

"And elegant and generosity," added Agnes.

"Don't forget Annie Mation," said Neale, grinning. "She's a lively one.
But Annie Mosity is one of the most disagreeable girls I ever met."

From that they began making out lists of such punning names, including
Amelia Eation, E. Lucy Date, Polly Gon, Hettie Rodoxy, Jessie Mine,
Sarah Nade, and dozens of others, even searching out "Mr. Dick" to help
them in this remarkably erudite task.

Finally Ruth called them to time and warned them that the evening was
supposed to be spent in serious study.

"Monday we must all go to school," she said, for even she was to take
several studies during the coming term, although she did not mean to
attend recitations full time at the Milton high school.

"Let us be able to answer a few questions intelligently."

"I guess," said Tess, "we won't any of us be as ignorant as one of the
boys was in my class last term. It wasn't Sammy, for he was home sick,
you know," she hastened to add, fearful that Sammy Pinkney might suspect
her of "telling on him."

"Who was it then?" asked Sammy.

"No. I'll only tell you what he said," Tess declared, shaking her head.
"'Cause I guess he knows more now. The teacher read us a lot about
hist'ry. You know, things that happened to folks away back, and what
they did. You know about the Pilgrims, don't you, Sammy?"

"Sure," said Sammy. "They brought over from England all that old
furniture Mrs. Adams has got in her parlor. She told me so."

"Were--were the Pilgrims furniture movers?" asked Dot, as usual in
search of exact information. "I know a little girl whose father owns a
moving van."

Tess tried to continue her story after the laughter subsided. "Anyway,
teacher told us how the Pilgrims landed on Plymouth Rock and how it
looked and what they engraved on a plate and put there; but this little
boy wasn't paying much attention I guess."

"Why? What did he do, Tess?" asked Sammy.

"She told us all to draw a picture of Plymouth Rock, just as she had
described it; and while we were all trying to that boy didn't draw a
thing. Teacher asked him why he didn't draw Plymouth Rock, and