"How did it happen? Did you let her fall?" asked Miss Mullins sympathetically.
"No, I didn't do it. Nora pushed her off my desk on purpose."
Miss Mullins straightened herself from her bending position. "Nora," she said gravely, "is that true?"
Nora, looking honestly ashamed, hung her head. "I did knock her off, but I—I didn't do it on purpose."
"But how came you to be meddling with Ruth's doll?"
Nora was silent.
"I had just taken her up for a minute," Ruth began to explain. "I wanted to measure the band around the waist, and I laid her down just for a second while I cut the band, and Nora leaned over and jogged her elbow just so and Henrietta went sliding off before I could catch her."
Miss Mullins looked again at Nora. "If that is true, it was a wicked thing to do, Nora, and I am greatly grieved that one of my class could purposely destroy another's doll."
Nora began to sniffle and look aggrieved. "I didn't think she would break. I just wanted to scare Ruth."
"You should have known that a doll was liable to break, if it fell from any distance upon a hard floor, and, in any event, you intended to do wrong. Even in trying to scare Ruth, you were to blame." Miss Mullins stood looking from the culprit to the mourning Ruth.