"Let the bowl of water stand just as it does. See! Look at the 'spot-light' on the floor. Why, the oil in the floor fairly smokes! See!

A great burning-gla.s.s!"

She swished the wastepaper basket, again almost full of sc.r.a.p paper, so that the rays of the sun, pa.s.sing through window pane and water-filled bowl, struck upon the loose papers. In a few minutes a light smoke began to rise from the basket. A bit of the paper turned brown slowly, and then curled up and broke into flame.

"Great Heavens!" gasped the princ.i.p.al. "John, put that out! The girl is a regular little firebug! Is that what you have learned from your dipping into physics and chemistry?"

He ran and pulled down the shade to shut out the sun. Then he turned with both his hands held out to the trembling girl.

"I see! I see!" he cried. "I should have seen it before. 'Mother wit,'

indeed! Colonel Swayne is right. You are an extraordinarily smart girl.

That is how the fire started before-and the fish were dead when you emptied the bowl of water upon the burning basket.

"Your young friend is freed of suspicion, Miss Belding. I congratulate her on having such a friend. I congratulate you-- Why, why! my dear child! You are crying?"

"Because I am such a dunce!" gasped Laura, through her tears, and with both hands over her face.

"Such a dunce?" demanded the amazed princ.i.p.al.

"Ye-yes, sir! I should have known what started the fire all the time. I should have seen it at once!"

"Why, pray?"

"Because it was a burning gla.s.s that started another fire in Bobby's father's store that very day-and I put it out by shutting out the sun. I should have seen this right then and there, and saved poor Bobby all this trouble. Don't call me smart! I-I'm a regular dunce."

But other people did not think just as Laura did about it. Indeed, the princ.i.p.al's statement that she possessed "Mother wit," went the rounds of the school and the neighborhood, and those who loved Laura Belding-and they were many-began to call her from that time, in gentle sportiveness, by that nickname-"Mother Wit." And if you wish to read more about Laura Belding, and her friends, and the athletic trials and triumphs of the girls of Central High, they will be found narrated in the second volume of this series, ent.i.tled, "The Girls of Central High on Lake Luna; Or, The Crew That Won."

Bobby Hargrew's delight when she was called up publicly before the whole school at Morning a.s.sembly, and Princ.i.p.al Sharp told her that she was freed from any taint of blame in connection with the fire in his office, can scarcely be described. But she knew who to thank particularly for her escape from expulsion, and if one would wish to find a more loyal supporter of Laura Belding than Clara Hargrew, one must search "the hill district" of Centerport well.

And the other girls were glad that Bobby was freed from suspicion, too.

Now the crew of the eight-oared sh.e.l.l hoped to make a better showing in the forthcoming water sports. Bobby was active in other athletics. The girls of Central High were out to win all honors, and in the future it was hoped that the standing of the school in the Girls' Branch League would be high indeed.

And with that hope we will leave them.

THE END