“I am still waiting,” said Mrs. Abbott, but no one spoke. “Perhaps, then, we can find out in some other way. If any one present knows or suspects who copied these verses I wish her to raise her hand.”
“Some one knows,” said Mrs. Abbott, sternly, “and I think the one who committed the offense would feel better to confess it; but if she is not courageous enough to face us all let her come to me alone this evening.”
But the offender preferred keeping her secret, and no advantage was taken of Mrs. Abbott’s invitation, and she passed the twilight hour alone, pondering sadly on the troublesome elements that were disturbing her school.
Further reference was made to the subject a few days later, when Mrs. Abbott announced that although she did not know herself who the offender was she had learned that Mary Ann saw one of the scholars put a paper the size and shape of the compositions into the pile before school began on Friday morning.
“But no persuasions,” she continued, “will make Mary Ann tell me who the girl was.”
“Confessing my part of that mean transaction,” said Lily, as soon as the girls were alone together, “was no fun, and ‘the party or parties unknown,’ as the papers I copy for papa say, who brought me to open disgrace have my sincere contempt. I never felt so small in all my life as I did when I saw poor Mary Ann all broken up by my wicked poetry. I should like to have hired a mouse-hole and gone to housekeeping in it with the front door shut and never been heard of again. I think we have all of us been too dreadful for any thing. Now, why have we treated her so? She is one of the smartest, brightest girls in school; she’s as good as gold, as true as steel, and as bright as silver—in short, she’s a rough diamond.”
“According to you she belongs to the mineral kingdom,” sneered Edna; “but she’s as common as copper, if you’ll allow there is any base metal about her.”
“Copper isn’t bad if you have plenty of it in the shape of pennies,” said Katie, sagely.
“I don’t allow that there’s any base metal about her,” said Lily; “and I don’t see why we are all so mean to her. Every one of us has had proofs enough of her good-nature.”