r, and in that laugh sounded the doom of
the hedges which Peace had lamented so long.

CHAPTER IX

GIUSEPPE NICOLI AND THE MONKEY

The next morning dawned bright and clear and cool, and Peace, hurrying
to school with her nose buried in a great bunch of early roses from the
stone house, pranced gaily down the hill chanting under her breath,
"Roses, roses, yellow, red and white, you are surely lovely, sweet and
bright--another rhyme! They always come when I ain't trying to make 'em.
I wonder if I'll ever be a big poet like Longfellow was. It must be nice
to have folks learn the things you write and speak 'em at concerts and
school exercises like I'm going to do his 'Children's Hour' next Friday.
I've got it so I can say it backwards almost. Elizabeth says I know it
perfectly. I hope Miss Peyton will think the same way. She is lots
harder to please and I 'most never can do anything to suit her."

She sighed dolefully, for her ludicrous mistakes and blunt remarks were
the bane of her new teacher's methodical life, and many an hour she had
been kept after school as a punishment for her unruly tongue.

Unfortunately, Miss Peyton belonged to that great army of teachers who
teach because they must, and not because they love the work. To be
sure, she was most just and impartial in her treatment of the fifty
scholars under her supervision, but, possessed of about as much
imagination as a cat, she failed to analyze or understand the
dispositions of her charges; and well-meaning Peace was usually in
disgrace.

But her sunny nature could not stay unhappy long, and as she thrust her
small nose deeper among the fragrant blossoms, she smilingly added, "I
guess she'll like these roses, anyway. They are the prettiest I ever
saw, even in greenhouses. There goes the first bell. I 'xpected to be
there early this morning, but likely Annie Simms has beat me again.
Well, I don't care, there is only one more week of school and then
vacation--and p'raps I can go home. Why, what a crowd there is on the
walk! I wonder if someone is hurt again. Where can the principal be?"

She broke into a run, forgetful of her cherished bouquet, and dashed
heedlessly across the school-grounds to the group of excited, shouting
boys and girls, gathered around the tallest linden, throwing stones and
missiles of all sorts up into the branches at some object which Peace
could not see. But as she drew near, she could hear a queer, distressed
chattering,