was due her; and she proceeded
to mete out that punishment in full accordance with the offence. Blue
Bonnet's privileges were taken away for a week. That meant she could
have no communication with the girls outside of school hours. She could
not visit during the chatting hour; she was denied shopping
expeditions--even the Friday afternoon Symphony concert; which was,
perhaps, the hardest thing to bear, because Blue Bonnet loved music.

Severe? Yes, perhaps; but nothing could have served half so well to
give the girl a proper regard for authority and self government. Blue
Bonnet finished the week happier for having expiated her treason to
school law--ready to begin the next week with the slate wiped clean.

The week slipped by quickly, too, as weeks have a habit of doing. There
were other things beside visiting with the girls and dancing in the
gymnasium after dinner. There was the half hour every day just after
lunch when Miss North read to the girls in the study hall--a half hour
Blue Bonnet always looked forward to eagerly. Miss North was an
excellent reader, as well as a keen critic. She read from the poets
usually,--Shakespeare, Tennyson, Browning,--though sometimes, by way of
variety, an essay or modern drama was substituted.

Miss North felt the pulse of her audience by instinct. She could tell
without so much as a glance who was giving attention and who was
indifferent. She had a habit of pointing a long, slender finger at some
particular girl, and asking for an explanation of what she had been
reading.

Blue Bonnet's strict attention pleased her. She liked the girl's
appreciation of good literature and her ability to fathom difficult
passages.

"Give me the text of 'A Grammarian's Funeral,'" she said to Blue Bonnet
one day during this week of penance, after finishing the poem. She knew
that she was asking a difficult thing; but she wanted to test Blue
Bonnet's perception--her mental acuteness.

"You mean tell what it is about?" Blue Bonnet asked.

"Exactly, Miss Ashe."

"Well--" Blue Bonnet halted lamely for a second, "I couldn't understand
it--that is, all of it--but I think it's about some students taking the
body of their teacher up a mountain to bury it--and singing as they
went."

Miss North smiled and a laugh went round the room.

Blue Bonnet sank down in her seat, covered with confusion, totally
unaware that she had said anything that might be regarded as funny. She
looked up in surprise, he