punishment for her.
Anyway, what did the promise we solemnly made _mean_? Nothing? We're a
nice bunch! _I'm_ perfectly willing to take Ginny Cox's place, but I
think each Raven ought to have the chance and we should draw lots----"

"Yes, that would be the fairest way," agreed Pat Everett in a tone that
suggested someone had died just the moment before.

"I always draw the unlucky number in everything," shivered Peggy Lee.

"There'll have to be two this time, then, for I always do, too," groaned
a sister Raven.

"Shall we do it, girls? Shall we prove to the world that we Ravens can
make any sacrifice for our school?"

"Yes--yes," came thickly from paralyzed throats.

In a dead silence Gyp and Pat prepared seven slips of paper. Six were
blank; upon the seventh Pat drew a long snake with head uplifted, ready
to strike. The slips were carefully folded and shaken in Jerry's hat.
Gyp put the hat in the middle of the room.

"Let's each one go up with her eyes shut tight and draw a slip. Then
don't open it until the last one has been drawn." They all agreed--if
they had to do it they might as well make the ceremony as much of a
torture as possible!

So horrible was the suspense that a creaking board made the Ravens jump;
a shutter slamming somewhere in another part of the building almost
precipitated a panic. After an interval that seemed hours each Raven sat
with a white slip in her nervous fingers.

"Now, one--two--three--_open_!" cried Gyp.

Another moment of silence, a sharp intake of breath, a rattle of paper,
then: "Oh--_I have it_!" cried Jerry in a small, frightened voice.

CHAPTER XVII

DISGRACE

"Will the young gentleman or lady who built the snow-woman that stood on
the school grounds yesterday morning go at once to my office?"

Dr. Caton's tone was very even; he might have been asking the owner of
some lost article to step up and claim it, but each word cut like a
sharp-edged knife deep into poor Jerry Travis' heart.

She sat in the sixth row; that meant that, to reach that distant door,
she must face almost the entire school! Her eyes were downcast and her
lips were pressed together in a thin, bluish line. She heard a low
murmur from every side. Above it her steps seemed to fall in a heavy,
echoing thud.

Not one of the Ravens dared look at poor Jerry; each wondered at her
courage, each felt in her own heart that had the unlucky slip fallen to
_her_ lot she could never have done as well