"You'll not go one step to school till you do," said her aunt.
"I don't care; I don't want to go, when I don't know my lessons."
"Then you shall go! Just take your bonnet, and start this minute. I'll make you do something I bid you," said her aunt.
Ella obeyed, only too glad to get rid of doing her work over again; though she had spoken truly in saying that she did not care to go to school without knowing her lessons.
"The most high-tempered, obstinate child that ever breathed," said aunt Prudence, turning away from the window, where she had been standing to watch Ella out of the gate.
"Now," said Ella, talking to herself, as she had a habit of doing, as she walked slowly along: "I can't get to school in time, and I'll be sure to get a bad mark for attendance anyhow, so I may just as well walk a little slower, and get my spelling lesson as I go along."
Ella had a very retentive memory, and was quite a good speller for a child of her age, and as the lesson happened to be an easy one, she had learned it quite perfectly by the time she had reached the school-house door. The opening exercises were quite over when Ella entered the room. Miss Layton looked up as she came in, and motioned to her to come to her.
"How has it happened that you are so late this morning, my child?" said she.
"I couldn't help it, Miss Layton; aunt Prudence made me stay to mend my dress."