"I don't know who would send me anything," said Ann, slowly.
"Never mind the address. Open it!" cried a third speaker, and had Ann noted it, she would have realized that some of the most trying girls in the school had suddenly surrounded her.
With trembling fingers she tore off the outside wrapper without seeing that the box had been mailed at the local post office—Lumberton!
A very decorative box was enclosed.
"H-m-m!" gasped Heavy. "Nothing less than fancy nougatines in that."
She was aiding the heartless throng, but did not know it. It would have never entered Heavy's mind to do a really mean thing.
Ann untied the narrow red ribbon. She raised the cover. Tissue paper covered something very choice——?
A dunce cap.
For a moment Ann was stricken motionless. The girls about her shouted. One coarse, thoughtless girl seized the cap, pulled it from the box, and clapped it on Ann Hicks's black hair.
The delighted crowd shouted more shrilly. Heavy was thunderstruck. Then she sputtered: