"We will have poor lessons every day, if you will punish us this way, Mr. Newman," said one of the biggest boys.
"This kind of punishment is given only when a six-inch snow covers the school yard at Hamlet," said the teacher.
The boys all went happily home with cold noses and fingers and toes, but warm hearts for their teacher, whom they were beginning to think was the greatest man they knew.
"I tell you I'm going to be up on that geography and grammar to-morrow," said Fred Walton.
"And I'm going to know how to do those examples to-morrow," said Leonard King.
And the next day the boys all had extra good lessons, if the school yard was covered with trampled snow and the battered snow fort still under the trees.
ELSIE'S ADVICE.
"Now, Maud Anna Belinda," said Elsie, "I want you to sit up straight and listen to me. I have something to say to you; something you should be glad to hear."
It was hardly worth while to ask Maud Anna Belinda to sit up straight, for she was already straight, indeed, with her hands hanging down stiffly at her sides, and her eyes right out in front of her.