“I think so, too,” chimed in a half a dozen other voices.

“She delights in showing her authority,” said Lottie Barnes.

“So she does, or she wouldn’t have kept Anna Mory and me on the recitation seat, for missing one or two questions in arithmetic.”

“Don’t you think she is dreadfully cross?  I guess if we should try to keep account of all her cross words and looks, we would have to be pretty busy.”

“Wouldn’t that be a nice idea?  Let us make a mark on our slates every time she is cross, and see what a long string of marks we shall get.”

“Oh yes! let’s do it!  Yes! yes!” chimed in a dozen voices in full chorus.

Poor Miss Capron!  With a sinking at her heart she saw the unloving looks in her scholars’ faces as they entered the schoolroom after this stormy consultation.  She had a severe headache that afternoon, so that, altogether, she did not wear nearly so smiling a face as usual; and the girls, prejudiced as they were, found ample occasion for setting down their cross-marks.

Pretty soon Lottie Barnes held up her slate to view, displaying a long row of marks.  Anna Mory imitated her example; then Lottie Jones; and in less than two minutes the whole school followed suit.  This, of course, called for a reprimand from Miss Capron; and then there was a terrible clicking of pencils.  Soon Marcia Lewis dropped her slate on the floor, and the next instant every slate was on the floor.

“Girls! girls!” said Miss Capron sternly; “you seem to have banded yourselves together to trample on the rules of order.  I shall proceed no further with recitations until you have become quiet and orderly.”

But even this seemed to fail of producing the desired result.  The girls were quiet only a few minutes.  Nellie Jones remembered that she had in her pocket a bottle of snuff for her grandmother, and in ten minutes the schoolroom was resounding with sneezes.  Next, little paper balls began to fly mysteriously from all sides, and every girl appeared intent upon her lesson.  Presently, a half-suppressed titter from Marcia Lewis awakened an answering one from Mattie Lee, and one after another joined, until at length there was an almost deafening peal of laughter.

“The very spirit of mischief seems to have made headquarters here this afternoon,” said Miss Capron.  “It is useless to try to proceed with recitations, while my whole attention is needed to keep you in order.  I will give you another recess of fifteen minutes, and if you do not succeed in getting rid of your excess of fun and frolic, I shall take very prompt and decisive measures to help you.”

The girls felt some little twinges of conscience, but, after all, were quite delighted with the success of their experiment.

“I tell you what it is,” said Marcia Lewis, “Miss Capron has no business to be so awful cross.  Only think what a sight of marks we got.  Let’s act just as bad when we go into school again, and she will have to dismiss us, and then we’ll all go down to the falls and have a nice time.”