“I knew it!”

“That’s too mean.”

“There’s not another teacher left.”

“What’ll we do?”

“Leave it to me,” Louise said slowly. “I think I can fix it, I’ll go talk to her. Wait here for me.” And she was gone.

The girls waited, carrying on a fragmentary conversation, and in less than fifteen minutes Louise returned. She was met by a volley of questions:

“Will she go?”

“What did she say?”

“Tell us the worst.”

“How did you fix it?”