“What could she have done,” thought the frightened little girl.
The principal went on:
“I have been looking over the reports of your room, and I find that yours is rather different from what I expected.” He paused a long moment. Then he went on: “You have done remarkably well, better than I thought you could possibly do in a new school with new studies and new ways. When you go home this noon, you may tell your mother what I have said. And there is one thing more. Do you think you can keep this a secret, and not say a word to any one but your mother?”
“Yes, sir, I will,” Ella declared with emphasis.
It would have been simpler to send a note, but this principal liked to try experiments, and he did not always realize the sensitiveness of children. He thought it would be interesting to see of what kind of stuff this little girl was made, and whether the interview would be agreeable to her hardly entered his mind.
“Good-bye,” he said, “and tell your mother you are doing finely.”
The mother thought Ella was too young to skip a class, so she was not promoted.
A week later, Ella met the principal in the hall, and he asked, “Did you tell any one besides your mother?”
He was pleased with the touch of indignation with which she replied, without deigning to say “No,” “I promised I wouldn’t.”
Ella soon forgot the unpleasant part of this interview, and had a comfortable feeling that she and the principal had a secret together. When the other children blamed him, she always stood by him, and she was never afraid of him again.