"Well, Tim, that was a surprise attack for fair, wasn't it?" he asked pleasantly. "I think we'll have to say the Black side won. Congratulations, Bobby. And now, Generals, shake hands, and the biggest fight in Oak Hill school history will be over." Tim put out his lip stubbornly. "I didn't know it was fair to play like that," he argued sourly. "We could have taken their fort easy, if you'd said that was the way to play. 'Sides Meg Blossom put 'em to it. Bobby hadn't a thing to do with that." "Yes, Meg did," said Bobby hurriedly, trying to edge out of the crowd. "She really won the war." "Just one moment," Mr. Carter spoke coolly, and yet there was an odd little snap in his voice that made every boy and girl turn toward him. "Look at me, please, Bobby. What happened to your eye?" "Oh, gee," mumbled Bobby unhappily. He had hoped to get away unnoticed. "I guess--I guess a snowball hit it." "A packed ball, probably dipped in water first," announced Mr. Carter, gently touching the poor sore eye. "Tim, do you know anything about such a ball?" "No, I don't," said Tim hastily. "Nobody can say our side packed balls." "No one can prove your side threw a packed ball," corrected the principal pointedly. "Still, it is hardly likely that Bobby's men would have hit their own general with a frozen ball. I don't intend to try to find out any more, Tim. But I'm sorry that in every game there must always be some one who doesn't play fair." Mr. Carter said that Bobby should go home at once and let his mother put something on his eye. It was a real victory for the Black's side, he announced firmly. And Bobby, going home with Meg, his handkerchief tied over his puffy eye, felt like a real general, wounded, tired, but successful and happy. Mother Blossom always knew what to do for the little hurts, and she bandaged Bobby's eye and listened to the account of the snow fight with great interest. "Meg, Meg!" Dot's voice sounded from the front hall, as Mother Blossom finished tying a soft handkerchief around Bobby's head to hold the eye-pad in place. "Is Meg home yet?" Dot appeared in the doorway of Mother Blossom's room. "What's the matter with Bobby?" she asked. Bobby explained, but Dot was too excited to pay much attention to the story of the fight. She had other matters on her mind. "Meg, you've got a letter," she announced. "We all have. Only Twaddles and I opened ours." "A letter!" repeated Meg, delighted. "Who wrote it?" "Give Bobby his," directed Mother Blossom. "Open them, dears. That is the only sure way to know what is inside." Meg and Bobby tore open the square pink envelopes together, but Meg read hers first. "Marion Green's going to give a birthday party!" she exclaimed. "Isn't that fun! I can wear my white dress. What'll we take her, Mother?"