"Oh--I don't think so," Flip said. "It was just our class initiating the new girls. I was the only one who really had to be initiated because all the other girls did a Courageous Deed so they were exempt." "Why didn't you do a courageous deed?" "I couldn't think of any. The things I thought would be brave I didn't think they would, and I couldn't think of any of the same kind of things the others did." "Things like what?" "Things that were funny, too." "Like Gloria's spitting her teeth into Fräulein Hauser's hand?" Madame Perceval asked with a twinkle. Flip nodded. "I don't think about things being funny until they _are_ funny. My mother and father always told me my sense of humor was my weak point. It's awful to be born without a sense of humor. Sort of like being born color blind." "Sometimes you can grow a sense of humor, you know," Madame Perceval told her. "Now I have an idea. Why don't you turn the tables on the girls and not be here when they come for you?" "That would be wonderful," Flip said. "Only there's no place I'm allowed to go except the Common Room and they're all there. We aren't allowed in our bedrooms and if I hide in the bath room Miss Tulip will come and knock on the door." "Come along with me to my room," Madame Perceval said. "You're allowed to be there if I invite you." "Oh--that would be wonderful!" Flip cried. "But--but you were going somewhere." "Just for a walk, and it's colder than I thought it was. Legs unlimbered?" "Yes, thank you." Flip grinned and shook out her gangly legs. "Come along, then." Madame Perceval took her arm in a friendly way and they set out for the school. They walked in silence, Flip desperately trying to think of something to say to the art teacher to show that she was grateful. Every once in a while she stole a look at Madame Perceval's face, and it was serene and quiet and Flip remembered the way she had looked that evening when she leaned against the tree and looked out over the lake. "We'll go in the back way," Madame Perceval said, "So we'll be sure not to bump into anyone." She took Flip's hand and opened the small back door and together they crept upstairs like two conspirators. Flip felt ecstatically happy.