ap of misery at her
feet to the blubbering bully who had retreated to a safe distance and
stood ruefully rubbing his smarting cranium, minus several tufts of
hair; and though inwardly smiling at the spectacle, she demanded
sternly, "Peace Greenfield, aren't you ashamed of yourself for fighting
Thad--"

"Yes," hiccoughed Peace with amazing promptness and candor; "I'm
terribly ashamed to think I _touched_ him--he's so dirty. But I ain't
half as ashamed of _myself_ as I am of him."

Even Miss Peyton caught her breath in dismay. But the principal had not
forgotten her own childhood days, and being still a girl at heart, and
secretly in sympathy with the small maid on the ground, she only said,
"Explain yourself, Peace."

"It ain't half as bad for a little girl like me to fight a big bully
like him, as it is for a big bully like him to fight a little monkey--"

"I wasn't fighting the monkey," sullenly muttered the boy, hanging his
head in shame.

"You were stoning him, and he couldn't hit back, so there!"

"What monkey?" demanded the principal, glancing swiftly around the yard
for any evidence of such a creature.

A dozen hands pointed toward the linden tree, and one small voice piped,
"He's up there!"

"A real monkey?"

"Yes, dressed up in hand-organ pants," Peace explained, scrambling to
her feet and peering up among the thick leaves for a glimpse of the
frightened animal, which had ceased its wild chattering and sat huddled
close against the tree trunk almost within reach. "See it? Poor little
Jocko, I won't hurt you!" She stretched out her hands at the same moment
that unknowingly she had spoken its name, and to the intense amazement
of teachers and pupils, the tiny, trembling creature unhesitatingly
dropped upon her shoulder, threw its claw-like arms about her neck and
hid its face in her curls.

"Whose monkey is it?" gently asked Miss Curtis, breaking the silence
which fell upon the group watching the strange sight.

"I never saw it before," Peace answered.

"But you called it by name," chorused the children, crowding closer
about her.

"That was just a guess. There's a story in our reader about Jocko, and I
happened to think of it. I didn't know it was this monkey's name."

"How odd!" murmured the primary teacher.

"She's the queerest child I ever saw," confided Miss Peyton; but the
principal had seen the janitor approaching the open door to ring the
last bell, and being at loss to know what to do