d aloud from
it. Beth became so interested in the subject that she forgot the
dictation, and burst out at last, "Well, I never knew that before."

"You are doing dictation now," Miss Bey observed severely.

"All right, go on," Beth cheerfully rejoined.

Miss Bey did not go on, however, and on looking up to see what was the
matter, Beth found her gazing at her with bent brows.

"May I ask what your name is?" Miss Bey inquired.

"Beth Caldwell."

"Then allow me to inform you, Miss Beth Caldwell, that 'all right, go
on,' is not the proper way to address the head-mistress of the Royal
Service School for Officers' Daughters."

"Thank you for telling me," Beth answered. "You see I don't know these
things. I always say that to mamma."

"Have you ever been to school before?" Miss Bey asked.

"No," Beth answered.

"Oh!" Miss Bey ejaculated, with peculiar meaning. "Then you will have
a great deal to learn."

"I suppose so," Beth rejoined. "But that's what I came for, you
know--to learn. It's high time I began!"

She fixed her big eyes on the blank wall opposite, and there was a
sorrowful expression in them. Miss Bey noted the expression, and
nodded her head several times, but there was no relaxation of her
peremptory manner when she spoke again.

"Go on, my dear," she said. "If I give as much time to the others as
you are taking, I shall not get through the new girls to-night."

Beth finished her dictation.

"What a hand!" Miss Bey exclaimed. "Wherever did you learn to write
like that?"

"I taught myself to write small on purpose," Beth replied. "You can
get so much more on to the paper."

"You had better have taught yourself to spell, then," Miss Bey
rejoined. "There are four mistakes in this one passage."

Beth balanced her pencil on her finger with an air of indifference.
She was wondering how it was that the head-mistress of the Royal
Service School for Officers' Daughters used the word "wherever" as the
vulgar do.

The examination concluded with some questions in history and
geography, which Beth answered more or less incorrectly.

"I shall put you here in the sixth," Miss Bey informed her; "but
rather for your size than for your acquirements. There is a delicate
girl, much smaller than you are, in the first."

"Then I'd rather be myself, tall and strong, in the sixth," Beth
rejoined. "If I don't catch her up, at all events I shall have more
pleasure in life, and that's something."

Again Miss B