The other, with a wide gesture, disavowed any knowledge of the matter.  “Good Heavens! how should I know?”

Sylvia counted rapidly.  “Fourteen,” she said.

“Well, Mr. Bristol, how would this do for a punishment?  Judith has worked in various ways, digging up dandelions from the lawn, weeding flower-beds, running errands—­you know—­all the things children do—­and she has a little more than five dollars in her iron savings-bank, that she has been saving for more than a year to buy a collie puppy.  Would you be satisfied if she took that money, divided it into fourteen parts, and took it herself in person to each of the girls?”

During this proposal Judith’s face had taken on an expression of utter dismay.  She looked more childlike, more like her years than at any moment during the interview.  “Oh, Father!” she implored him, with a deep note of entreaty.

He did not look at her, but over her head at the Principal, who was rising from his chair with every indication of relief on his face.”  Nothing could be better,” he said.  “That will be just right—­every one will be satisfied.  And I’ll just say for the sake of discipline that little Judith shan’t come back to school till she has done her penance.  Of course she can get it all done before supper-time tonight.  All our families live in the vicinity of the school.”  He was shaking Professor Marshall’s hand again and edging him towards the door, his mind once more on his paper, hoping that he might really finish it before night—­if only there were no more interruptions!

His achievement in divining the mental processes of two children hysterical with excitement, his magnetic taming of those fluttering little hearts, his inspired avoidance of a fatal false step at a critical point in the moral life of two human beings in the making—­all this seemed as nothing to him—­an incident of the day’s routine already forgotten.  He conceived that his real usefulness to society lay in the reform of arithmetic-teaching in the seventh grade, and he turned back to his arguments with the ardor of the great landscape painter who aspires to be a champion at billiards.

Professor Marshall walked home in silence with his two daughters, explained the matter to his wife, and said that he and Sylvia would go with Judith on her uncomfortable errand.  Mrs. Marshall listened in silence and went herself to get the little bank stuffed full of painfully earned pennies and nickels.  Then she bade them into the kitchen and gave Judith and Sylvia each a cookie and a glass of milk.

She made no comment whatever on the story, or on her husband’s sentence for the culprit, but just as the three, were going out of the door, she ran after them, caught Judith in her arms, and gave her a passionate kiss.

* * * * *

The next day was Saturday, and it was suggested that Judith and Sylvia carry on their campaign by going to see the Fingals and spending the morning playing with them as though nothing had happened.