u
will know which answer to rub out, which you can easily do without
being suspected. Do as I tell you, and you will be as often successful
as any one of the three best pupils above you is correct. Be clever,
be cunning, there is no harm in wrong-doing, and you will get honor and
reward without any trouble, with plenty of time to go about idle and
amuse yourself. Glide along through life as I do, dear, as smoothly
and as pleasantly as you can, taking everything and giving nothing."

Although Silver Ribbon could not quite shake off her dread of the
snake, and therefore kept her former safe distance, yet the advice was
ingenious and charming. She at once agreed to take it, and having
thanked the cunning reptile, she hurriedly scampered home.

"I shall have you as a choice mouthful yet, and, through you, all the
rest of your nimble pretty crowd," said the snake, when Silver Ribbon
was gone. The reptile was an active specimen of the great
boa-constrictor tribe, thirty feet long. It had taken a trip from the
sunny South to the North, deceiving and doing much mischief on the way.
Its advice was the secret of Silver Ribbon's success.

CHAPTER VI.

THE MODEST MEDALLIST.

In the previous chapter we turned aside and went a long way back--back
nearly as far as the formation of the class--to explain how Silver
Ribbon had come to be the most successful pupil, at least so far as to
win the preliminary silver medal. We come forward now to where we left
off, at the reference to two or three days' rest from study. That rest
passed away very quickly. Then came the final tug-of-war, the day of
special examination which was to reveal who was really the best scholar.

All the pupils were in the garden on a Friday morning at 9 o'clock
prompt. Their black fur was beautiful and glossy--nicely washed and
brushed for the occasion--and their silken ribbons were neatly tied and
clean. Silver Ribbon looked exceedingly well, and her silver medal was
burnished till it shone like a little moon. When all the pupils had
gathered together they gave her a ringing cheer. Black Ribbon looked
clean and tidy, but he seemed as if he had been studying rather than
resting, for his lovely dark eyes were somewhat weary.

Silver Ribbon took up her place against the apple-tree as usual, but
judge of her surprise and alarm when, by Hug-grippy's advice, the
pupils were separated from each other a considerable distance, and
seated on chairs b