the oftenest during the term, and so win
a little prize that Mr. Williams had offered to the best speller in the
school. As neither of them ever missed a word in the lesson, they held
the head each alternate Friday evening. In this way the contest bade
fair to be a tie. But Sarah meant to win the prize by fair means or
foul.

One Friday morning before school-time, the boys and girls were talking
about the relative merits of the two spellers, Joanna maintaining that
Sarah was the better, and others that Jack could spell better than
Sarah.

"Oh!" said Sarah Weathervane, "Jack is the best speller in school. I
study till my head aches to get my lesson, but it is all the same to
Jack whether he studies or not. He has a natural gift for spelling, and
he spends nearly all his time on arithmetic and Latin."

This speech pleased Jack very much. He had stood at the head of the
class all the week, and spelling did seem to him the easiest thing in
the world. That afternoon he hardly looked at his lesson. It was so nice
to think he could beat Sarah Weathervane with his left hand, so to
speak.

When the great spelling-class was called, he spelled the words given to
him, as usual, and Sarah saw no chance to get the coveted opportunity
to stand at the head, go down, and spell her way up again. But the very
last word given to Jack was _sacrilege_, and, not having studied the
lesson, he spelled it with _e_ in the second syllable and _i_ in the
last. Sarah gave the letters correctly, and when Jack saw the smile of
triumph on her face, he guessed why she had flattered him that morning.
Hereafter he would not depend on his natural genius for spelling. A
natural genius for working is the best gift.

CHAPTER XXVI

UNCLAIMED TOP-STRINGS

With a sinking heart, Jack often called to mind that this was his last
term at school. The little money that his father had left was not enough
to warrant his continuing; he must now do something for his own support.
He resolved, therefore, to make the most of his time under Mr. Williams.

When Pewee, Riley, and Ben Berry got through with their punishment, they
sought some way of revenging themselves on the master for punishing
them, and on Jack for doing better than they had done, and thus escaping
punishment. It was a sore thing with them that Jack had led all the
school his way, so that, instead of the whole herd following King Pewee
and Prime Minister Riley into rebellion, they now "knuc