ual, but half a dozen boys
around Sunny Boy's desk were playing "battle" with wads of paper for
bullets and pencils for guns.

"The assembly bell will ring in five minutes, children," said Miss
Davis warningly. "Put the toys away under the sand table at once. Are
these your lead soldiers, Sunny Boy?"

Miss Davis looked at the soldiers and admired them and then told Sunny
Boy to put them back in the box and put the box under the table.

"You may get them out again at recess," she said, smiling.

"Could I keep the general, Miss Davis?" begged Sunny Boy. "Could I let
him stand on my desk? I won't play with him the tiniest bit; I'd just
like to have him to look at."

"Well, are you _sure_ you won't forget and play with him?" urged Miss
Davis. "He is a beautiful general, isn't he? All right, if you
promise me not to play with him during school time, you may let him
stand on your desk."

So Sunny Boy put all the soldiers away except the general who rode a
horse and was very handsome indeed. He stood him up on his desk and
left him there while the class went into Miss May's room for assembly.
When they came back, Miss Davis sent Sunny Boy to the board to color a
picture she had drawn. Sunny Boy loved to use the colored chalk, and
he forgot all about the lead soldier general while he worked away at
the board.

When he had finished the picture--and Miss Davis said he had done it
very nicely--it was time for the writing lesson.

"I think we will try to use ink to-day," the teacher said. "We will
take great pains and not hurry. And please be careful of your fingers."

Whenever Miss Davis tried to teach her class to make an "M" or a "T" or
some other letter in ink, it was strange, but more ink seemed to get on
their fingers than anywhere else! But Miss Davis said they would learn
in good time and that she had inked her fingers, too, when she was a
little girl and was learning to write.

Sunny Boy took his seat to be ready for the writing lesson, and the
first thing he saw was the lead general lying on his back. He had
fallen off his horse!

"Though I don't see how he could fall off," argued Sunny Boy to
himself. "He screws on the little screw in the saddle. I wonder if
somebody unscrewed him!"

Carleton Marsh was beginning to hand out the papers for the writing
lesson and Jessie Smiley took the box of pens from Miss Davis. It was
her turn to distribute them to the children this week.

"I'll bet Jessi