m, snug place,
with books and manuscripts for her companions.

Helen heard the threat without alarm, for she believed it uttered in
sport. The pleasant glance of the eye contradicted the severity of the
lips. But Master Hightower was anxious to try the experiment, since all
approved methods had failed, and when the little delinquent blushed and
hung her head, stammering a faint excuse for her slighted task, he said
nothing, but slowly lifting up the lid of his desk, he placed his black
ruler in a perpendicular position, letting the lid rest upon it, forming
an obtuse angle with the desk. Then he piled the books in the back part,
leaving a cavity in front, which looked something like a bower in a
greenwood, for it was lined with baize within and without.

"Come my little lady," said he, taking her up in his arms, "I am going
to try the effect of a little solitary confinement. They say you are not
very fond of the _dark_. Well, I am going to keep you here all night, if
you don't promise to study hereafter."

Helen writhed in his strong grasp, but the worm might as well attempt to
escape from under the giant's heel, as the child from the powerful hold
of the master. He laid her down in the green nest, as if she were a
downy feather, then putting a book between the lid and the desk, to
admit the fresh air, closed the lid and leaned his heavy elbow upon it.
The children laughed at the novelty of the punishment, all but the
orphan child; but when they heard suppressed sobs issuing from the
desk, they checked their mirth, and tears of sympathy stole down the
cheeks of the gentle orphan girl. Mittie's black eyes sparkled with
excitement; she was proud because the master had acted upon her
suggestion, and inflicted a punishment which, though it involved
humiliation, gave no real suffering.

Burning with shame, and shivering with apprehension, Helen lay in her
darkened nook, while the hum of recitation murmured in a dull roaring
sound around her. It was a cold winter's day and she was very warmly
clad, so that she soon experienced a glowing warmth in the confined air
she was breathing. This warmth, so oppressive, and the monotonous sound
stealing in through the aperture of the desk, caused an irresistible
drowsiness, and her eye-lids heavy with the weight of tears,
involuntarily closed. When the master, astonished at the perfect
stillness with which, after awhile, she endured the restraint, softly
peeped within, she was lying