"Well! of all the nerve! I want you to understand that I don't have to steal pens."
"Hold on, girls," put in Ruth. "This must not go on. You know, I shall be obliged to report you both."
"Of course!" snarled Amy. "You big girls are always telling on us."
"Oh!" and "Shame!" was the general murmur about the classroom; for most of the girls loved Ruth.
"Why, you nasty thing!" cried Mary Pease, glaring at Amy. "You ought to be ashamed. I'll tell what I know about you!"
"Mary!" exclaimed Ruth, with sudden fright. "Be still."
"I guess you don't know what I know about Gregg, Ruth Fielding," cried the excited Mary.
"We do not want to know," Ruth said hastily. "Let us stop this wrangling and turn to our work. Suppose Miss Brokaw should come in?"
"And I guess Miss Brokaw or anybody would want to know what I saw that night of the fire," declared Mary Pease, wildly. "I know whose room the fire started in, and how it started."
"Mary!" cried Ruth, rising from her seat, while the girls of the class uttered wondering exclamations.