e lookin' away from me, and I'd want to start
sayin' something to her, you know, why, I wouldn't know how to get
started exactly, without callin' her something. A person doesn't want to
be always startin' off with 'See here,' or things like that."

"I don't see why you let it trouble you," said Fred. "From how you've
always talked about her, you had a perfectly handy way to start off with
anything you wanted to say to her."

"What with?"

"Why didn't you just say, 'Oh, you Teacher's Pet!' That would--"

"Get out! What I mean is, she called me 'Ramsey' without any bother; it
seems funny I got stumped every time I started to say 'Dora.' Someway I
couldn't land it, and it certainly would 'a' sounded crazy to call her
'Miss Yocum' after sittin' in the same room with her every day from the
baby class clear on up through the end of high school. That _would_ 'a'
made me out an idiot!"

"What did you call her?" Fred asked.

"Just nothin' at all. I started to call her something or other a hundred
times, I guess, and then I'd balk. I'd get all ready, and kind of make a
sort of a sound, and then I'd have to quit."

"She may have thought you had a cold," said Fred, still keeping his back
turned.

"I expect maybe she did--though I don't know; most of the time she
didn't seem to notice me much, kind of."

"She didn't?"

"No. She was too upset, I guess, by what she was thinkin' about."

"But if it hadn't been for that," Fred suggested, "you mean she'd have
certainly paid more attention to who was sitting on the bench with her?"

"Get out! You know how it was. Everybody those few days thought we were
goin' to have war, and she was just sure of it, and it upset her. Of
course most people were a lot more upset by what those Dutchmen did
to the _Lusitania_ than by the idea of war; and she seemed to feel as
broken up as anybody could be about the _Lusitania_, but what got her
the worst was the notion of her country wantin' to fight, she said. She
really was upset, too, Fred; there wasn't any puttin' on about it. I
guess that ole girl certainly must have a good deal of feeling, because,
doggoned, after we'd been sittin' there a while if she didn't have to
get out her handkerchief! She kept her face turned away from me--just
the same as you're doin' now to keep from laughin'--but honestly, she
cried like somebody at a funeral. I felt like the darndest fool!"

"I'm not laughing," said Fred, but he did not prove it by turning so