"Did you ever know me to punish any girl placed in my charge?" asked Miss Preston, a slight flush creeping over her face.

"Certainly not! Certainly not!" cried Mrs. Stone, hastily, for she had touched upon a point which she knew to be a very sensitive one with her princ.i.p.al, and wished to smooth matters down a trifle. "I do not mean punishment in the generally accepted term, but do you think it wholly wise to let the girls feel that they can do such things and, in a measure, find them condoned?"

"Do you think that forbidding them would put an end to them?"

"Merely forbidding might not do so, but exacting some penalty for such disobedience would probably make them think twice before they disobeyed again."

"Did they disobey this time?" Miss Preston asked quietly.

Mrs. Stone looked a trifle disconcerted as she answered:

"Possibly it was not direct disobedience, but it certainly savored of deceit."

"I should be glad to have you ask any girl who has become a member of that comical C. C. C. if she thinks she has been guilty of deceit, and I'll venture to say that she will look you squarely in the eyes and say: 'Deceit! How could _that_ fun be deceitful?'"

"Do you not think that it may lead to other undesirable lines of conduct?"

"It may lead to other sorts of innocent fun," was the dry remark. "Mrs.

Stone, were you ever young? Surely, you have not forgotten what the world looked like then. Wasn't it invariably the thing you were least expected to do that it gave you the most satisfaction to do? Listen to me one moment, for, while I appreciate your sincere interest in my work and myself, I cannot allow you to run off with the idea that I regard my girls as p.r.o.ne to deceitful actions. It is just fun, pure and simple, and the natural result of happy, healthy girlhood. Far better let it have a safe vent than try to suppress it, and take very strong chances of directing it into less desirable channels. At the worst, a deranged stomach can follow, and a gla.s.s of bi-carbonate of soda-water is a simple remedy, if not an over-delightful one. I knew all about the feast several days ago, and took my own way of letting the girls know that I'd found it out. It was no use to forbid it for that night, for, just as sure as fate, they would have planned it for another, and devoured a lot of stuff far less wholesome than the contents of Toinette's box and my tub. As it was, we all had a good time, and I'll warrant you that the next time the C. C. C.'s meet I'll get a hint regarding the tub, at any rate."

"Perhaps it will prove so. I trust so, at all events. You are a far wiser woman than I am."

"Perhaps no wiser, but better able to recall the things which helped to make my girlhood a sunny one, and school frolics played no small part in them."

"I can but hope that the girls will refrain from practicing deceit. Of course, they cannot deceive _me_; no girl has ever yet succeeded in doing so, although many have tried to. But I can invariably detect the sham, and meet it successfully."

"I hope you may never find yourself undone," said Miss Preston, with a laugh. "Girls are pretty quick-witted creatures."

Girls are not blind to their elders' weaknesses and pet delusions, and it was an understood thing among them all that Mrs. Stone was easily "taken in," to use their own expression. Consequently, they told her things, and laid innocent little traps for her to walk into, such as they would never have thought of doing for a more wide-awake teacher, or, at least, one who did not make such a strong point of her power of discernment.

It was the very night after the Caps and Capers escapade that the girls were gathered in the upper hall talking about the previous night's fun.

"It's no use talking; you _can't_ get ahead of Miss Preston," said one of the older girls. "You may think you have, and feel aglow clear down to the c.o.c.kles of your heart, then--whew! in she walks upon you as cool as--"

"Ice cream!" burst in another girl. "To my dying day, girls, I shall never forget that red ghost."

"How did she ever find it out, I'd like to know," asked Toinette. "Not a soul said a word, and my box didn't come till the very last minute. I hardly had time to let the girls know, and how Miss Preston ever got her tub of cream in time is more than I can puzzle out. Maybe Mrs. Stores had it on hand."

"Mrs. Stores! Yes, I guess so," cried the girls, scornfully. "You don't for one moment suppose that _she_ would let us have a whole tub of ice cream, do you? Not much," said Lou Perry.

"Why, if Miss Preston wanted it it would be different, you see," answered Toinette.

"No, it wouldn't, either. Miss Preston never bothers with the housekeeping or the housekeeper, although she is always just as lovely to her as she can be--she is to everybody, for that matter."

"For my part, I'm glad she found it out," laughed Cicely, "but if I'd suspected beforehand that she would, wild horses wouldn't have dragged me into that laundry. It's pretty easy not to be afraid of such a teacher; she seems just like one of us. Wasn't she too funny with that big spoon and the red mask?"

"Are all the other teachers so quick to 'catch on?'" asked Toinette.

"Most of them are sharp as two sticks," replied Ethel, "but they never let on. There is only one who makes the boast that she has never been deceived by any girl, and we've all been just wild to play her some trick, only we've never yet hit upon a really good one."

"You ought to get Toinette to do the scene from 'Somnambula,'" said Cicely, laughing.

"What is it? What is it? What is it?" cried a half-dozen voices.

"The funniest thing you ever saw in all your born days," said Cicely.

"Oh, tell us about it; please, do," begged the girls.

"Let her do it for you; it will be ten times funnier than telling it."

"When will you do it?"

"To-night, if I can manage it; it will be a good time after last night's cut-up."

CHAPTER XI

"LA SOMNAMBULA"

When the bell for retiring rang at half-past nine that night, it produced a most remarkable effect, for, instead of suggesting snug beds and dream-land, it seemed instantly to banish any desire for sleep which the previous study hour from eight to nine had aroused in several of the girls.

They all went to their rooms, to be sure, but once within them a startling change took place. Instead of undressing like wise young people, they slipped off their dresses, and put on their night-dresses over the rest of their clothing, then all crawled into bed to await the first act of "La Somnambula."

They had barely gotten settled when footsteps were heard coming softly down the corridor, as though the feet taking the steps were encased in wool slippers, and the owner of those feet wished to avoid being heard. A few steps were taken, then a pause made to listen, then on went the cat-like tread from door to door.

Toinette's and Cicely's rooms communicated, and just beyond, with another communicating door, was the room occupied by Ruth and Edith, but the door was always fastened. Perhaps Miss Preston considered three communicating rooms altogether too convivial, and decided that "an ounce of prevention was always worth a pound of cure."

As the stealthy footfalls pa.s.sed on down the hall, a light tap fell upon Toinette's door, and, springing out of bed, she flew to give a corresponding tap, and listen for what might follow.

"Sh-h!" came in a whisper from the other side.

"Yes," was the low reply.

"Did you hear the 'Princess' walk down the hall?" The Princess was the big Maltese house cat, and a privileged character.

"A pretty big _cat_," was whispered back.

"That was Mother Stone, and she was just as anxious to avoid being heard by Miss Preston as she was anxious to hear what might be going on in our rooms. If Miss Preston caught her listening at anybody's door, she would be angrier than if we sat up all night."

"What does she think we're up to, anyway?" whispered Toinette.

"No telling, but she knows we had a frolic last night and is on the lookout for another to-night, I guess."

"Maybe she won't look in vain," laughed Toinette, softly.