"You did," said Maggie, taking down her arms, the sense of her wrongs overcoming her bashfulness. "That was a very hard lesson, but I knew it quite well; but I could not say it when you stared at me, and shook your head at me, and laughed at me; and I missed and missed, so I had to go down foot, and I was next to head before. And it wasn't my fault, and it's too bad, now!" and the tears welled up to poor Maggie's eyes.
"So it was, Maggie," said Miss Maynard; "and I am truly sorry, I did not think, but I promise not to do so any more. Will you kiss and be friends?"
Forgiving little Maggie was quite willing, and the treaty was sealed with a kiss; the child feeling more relieved than Kate would have thought possible, at the thought that those mischievous eyes would not work her any more trouble.
"Maggie, come to your music, dear," said Miss Ashton's voice at the door.
"There, now! Miss Ashton will see she has been crying, and I shall get into trouble," said Kate.
"Maggie will not say anything about it, if she can help it," said Bessie. "She never tells tales. Mamma has brought us up not to."
"What a wise mamma!" said Julia, laughing. "But did not Maggie tell Miss Ashton the day Kate made her miss."
"No," said Bessie; "she did not tell any one but mamma. We have to tell her all our troubles, you know."
"But about these prizes, Bessie," said Kate. "Since you 'have to be rather lazy,' I suppose you do not hope to gain any."
"I know mamma would not like me to study so much as to gain the composition or perfect-lesson prize," said Bessie, "so I did not think much about those, 'cept for Maggie; but"—