d her out!"

"She never did such a thing! Don't you dare say she did!" cried Amasa,
hoarsely.

But there it was in black and white; there it was word for word. Amasa
knew every word of Viola's composition, he had been so proud of it. Cosy
whistled softly, with his hands in his pockets, as Amasa ran his eye
over "School-girl Friendships."

"There's some mistake," faltered Amasa. "Viola is the honestest girl."

Cosy's whistling ended in a sharp, expressive, little crescendo squeak.
"There's no telling what girls will do," he said, sagely. "When folks
know it, why, Elkanah Rice's niece will be pretty apt to get the Pine
Bank School, and I'm kind of 'fraid Viola'll have to take a back seat
altogether. It'll come hard on Lizette."

Cosy folded the Gilead _Gleaner_, and thrust it firmly and impressively
into his pocket. Amasa had been acquainted with Cosy Pringle since they
were both in long clothes, and he understood that that paper had its
price. If he could pay the price, why, even Lizette need never know!

"I suppose it's my duty to show this paper," said Cosy, with an air of
unflinching virtue, "but still, amongst old friends, and if you'll do a
little good turn for me that you can do as well as not, why, I'll just
chuck the paper into the fire, and agree not to tell anybody, and we'll
call it square. I ain't a mean feller."

Amasa's heart thrilled with hope. What was the good turn that he would
not do for Cosy on those terms? He thought of his fan-tailed pigeons,
and of his dog Trip on whom Cosy had always had his eye because he could
do so many tricks; it would be an awful wrench to part with Trip, but
to save Viola from disgrace he would not hesitate.

"I only want to go into your wood-shed chamber for a few minutes.
There's--there's something there that I want to see. If you'll let me,
why, nobody shall ever know about Viola's cheating."

"It's father's old workshop; there's nothing there," Amasa said. "Nobody
ever goes near it but Lizette."

Cosy hesitated a little, then he decided that it would be as well to be
more frank; Amasa was so stupid. "She's up to something, Lizette is," he
said, in an impressive whisper. "I've seen a light burning in that
workshop half the night! She's trying to make an improvement on the
knitting-machine that they use in the factory. Of course she can't do
it--a girl!--but you'd better look out or it will kill her, just as it
killed your father. How do I know what she's doing?