“Yes,” said Ella, remembering the Doctor’s generous package of specimens. “I have some that were given me and two that I found.”
It was too dark for the reading lesson. The school was dismissed, and Ella went home, her eyes sparkling and her cheeks all aglow. She loved the public school.
CHAPTER XIII
THE TORIES’ ALPHABET
Ella kept a diary because her mother wanted her to. It was not always easy for her to think of something to write in it, but now she had a new subject, “Getting up head.” If she planned carefully, she could make this subject serve her need for three days. For the first day she wrote, “I got up to the head of the class. After I have been there three recitations, I go to the foot and have fifteen extras.” For the second day she wrote, “I hope I can stay at the head of the class three recitations and then go to the foot and have fifteen extras.” For the third day she wrote, “I stayed at the head three recitations, then went to the foot to-day and now have fifteen extras.” It is small wonder that she awoke one morning saying over to herself:
| “I get up head | We get up head |
| Thou gettest up head | You get up head |
| He gets up head | They get up head” |
After two or three weeks, there was much talk about reports. The first one was coming at the end of her first month in the school, and Ella’s heart sank whenever she thought about it. She had been at the head a number of times, and thought she had had more than enough extras to balance her few failures. Still, she had a feeling that something might come that would give her a low rank or might even put her into a lower room.
The reports were to be given out on Friday. Thursday the principal came to the door and asked the teacher to send Ella to the office. Ella turned pale and her hands were cold. She had heard of severe scoldings and even worse that had taken place in that office. She did not know of anything that she had done, but there might be something. She wished she was back in the private school. Her fingers trembled as she knocked at the door.
“Come in,” said the voice of the principal, and she went in.
He said, “There is a matter about which I wish to speak to you, and perhaps it will not be necessary to see your mother.”
This was worse and worse.