Miss Lawrence began to give out the words, and the children spelled away blithely. Now and then one would miss and another would go above.
To everybody's surprise, Marjorie began to work her way up toward the head of her line. She spelled correctly words that the others missed, and with a happy smile went along up the line.
At last the "spelling down" began. This meant that whoever missed a word must go to his seat, leaving only those standing who did not miss any word.
One by one the crestfallen unsuccessful ones went to their seats, and, to the amazement of all, Marjorie remained standing. At last, there were but six left in the match.
"Macaroni," said Miss Lawrence.
"M-a-c-c-a-r-o-n-i," said Jack Norton, and regretfully Miss Lawrence told him he must sit down.
Three more spelled the word wrongly, and then it was Marjorie's turn:
"M-a-c-a-r-o-n-i," said she, triumphantly, remembering her father's remark that there were no double letters in it.
Miss Lawrence looked astounded. Now there were left only Marjorie and Gladys, one on either side of the room. It was an unfortunate situation, for so fond were the girls of each other that each would almost rather fail herself than to have her friend fail.
On they went, spelling the words as fast as Miss Lawrence could pronounce them.