timulus to the class."

Miss North seemed a little surprised.

"That's rather odd," she said. "Miss Root told me only a half hour ago
that Miss Ashe was very indifferent in her mathematics--absolutely
inattentive."

Professor Howe raised her eyebrows ever so slightly, but she made no
comment.

Blue Bonnet could have explained. If not to Miss North's satisfaction,
to her own, entirely. She hated Miss Root, and she hated mathematics,
which added fuel to fire.

At the end of the third week of school Blue Bonnet was summoned to Miss
North's office.

Miss North looked serious as she motioned Blue Bonnet to a seat and
opened the conversation.

"I am very sorry to find that you are not doing well in your
mathematics, Miss Ashe. What is the trouble?"

"I hate mathematics and I dislike Miss Root," Blue Bonnet replied with a
frankness that quite took Miss North's breath away.

"That is very disrespectful, Miss Ashe; I cannot have you speak of one
of your teachers in that way."

"But I don't like her, Miss North, not a bit!"

"That is not to the point. Why are you inattentive?"

"I'm not. I am only stupid!"

Miss North was obliged to smile.

"I can hardly think that," she said. "I have excellent reports from
other teachers regarding your work."

Blue Bonnet let the compliment pass without any show of pride or
pleasure.

"I meant stupid in mathematics. I always have been."

"Perhaps you haven't got hold of them properly. The difficulty often
begins in the primary grades."

"Perhaps that is it. I always had a tutor or a governess on the ranch. I
hated arithmetic, so we didn't bother much with it. When I entered
school in Woodford I just managed to slide through my mathematics. I
never got more than a passing grade."

Miss North looked at Blue Bonnet as if she were some new species of girl
with whom she was unfamiliar. Such honesty was quite without precedent.

"And Miss Root? Why do you dislike her?"

"Miss Root is too sarcastic. When I make a mistake she calls the
attention of the class to it."

Miss North looked stern.

"You may be excused, now, Miss Ashe," she said. "I will investigate this
matter."

A day or two later there seemed to be a change of atmosphere in Miss
Root's classroom. Miss Root was very nice to Blue Bonnet--even trying to
unravel hard knots, and Blue Bonnet gave strict attention. She stopped
Blue Bonnet one day at the end of a period.

"You see what you can do when you try, Mis