e did it," said Sunny Boy, but not out loud. "I'll bet
she unscrewed the general while I was at the blackboard."

Sunny Boy knew that Jessie was mischievous and he also knew that she
could not keep her little fingers off anything that might be lying on
his desk. She had mortified him very much the first week he came to
school by making his camel squeak in class, and it would be just like
her to play with the lead soldier when Sunny Boy was at the board and
Miss Davis was busy helping some pupil.

"I'll bet Jessie did it," said Sunny Boy again to himself.

Just then Jessie looked at him. She smiled, an impish, naughty little
smile, and then Sunny Boy knew he had guessed right. Jessie had
unscrewed the lead soldier general.

"I'll just put him back," whispered Sunny Boy, putting out a cautious
hand toward the soldier. He wasn't going to play with him, he argued,
but Miss Davis might call it playing, if she saw him.

"Here's your pen," said Jessie suddenly.

Sunny Boy jumped a little, for he had not heard her come up to his
desk. His blouse sleeve brushed again the lead general, and what do
you think happened? Splash! Down into the inkwell on Sunny Boy's desk
went that beautiful soldier, down out of sight in the messy ink!

Jessie looked startled, but she did not say anything. She walked on
with her box of pens. Perhaps she thought it was her fault for
unscrewing the lead soldier general, but Jessie did not like to blame
herself for anything.

"This morning you may draw the initial of your first name," announced
Miss Davis. "And then you may go over it in ink. I will come around
and help you, if you need help."

Sunny Boy was gazing down into his ink well and scarcely heard her.
How could he rescue the lead soldier before he drowned? He took his
best pencil and poked it down into the inkwell. Goodness, the ink was
deeper than he thought, and before he knew it his fingers were stained
black. Then he poked around with the pen Jessie had given him, but
though he could feel the soldier at the bottom of the inkwell, he could
not make the pen stick in him. Once the pen slipped and the ink
splashed out on the desk. Sunny Boy wiped it up with his hands. They
were inky anyway, and a little more wouldn't hurt.

He began to draw an "S" on his paper. Then he remembered that his
"truly" name was Arthur like Grandpa Horton's. Sunny Boy turned the
paper over and tried to draw an "A." But all the time he ke