Conferences with the teacher about matters which were puzzling to the children brought teacher and pupils into a close and delightful relationship which made unkindly feeling toward the teacher or insubordination almost out of the question. Once or twice earlier in the year, when planning the excursion, Mr. Merryman had been obliged to say, “But only those will be invited whose work and conduct in school have been satisfactory.” But even this precaution was now unnecessary; he simply took the precaution to place the more troublesome of the pupils on whatever committee would have to consult most frequently with himself. In this way the feeling of coöperation between himself and them grew stronger with each succeeding school “event.” (5) _Play and truancy._ There is no better preventive of truancy than just such outings as that above described, especially if the teacher is wise enough and tactful enough to utilize some part of the day’s experiences in the regular school work, nature study, geography, history, etc. This is by no means difficult to do. Such a course would have prevented entirely the unfortunate situation of the following case. CASE 98 (SEVENTH GRADE) [Sidenote: Play and Truancy] Darrow King deliberately planned the truancy of his classmates one bright May day, although he did not actually suggest it to them. He had been good a long time, nothing exciting had happened since cold weather, and he wanted to get out-of-doors and away from the stuffy school-room. There was no fun in playing truant alone, or he might have done that; he had no grudge against Miss Haynes except as she represented an irksome educational system of which he did not approve. When he grew eloquent of fishing lines and a warm sunny swimming hole out by Pike’s Mill, every boy within sound of his voice felt the primal impulse to take to the fields. So they did, leaving seventeen girls and three righteous quitters to take care of Miss Haynes and Grade Seven. “This is Darrow King’s work,” said Miss Haynes to herself. “If I don’t conquer that boy he’ll be running the school before long. I’m fearing he’s on the downward path.” So Darrow King was called before the bar and arraigned. It was a private session after school. “Darrow, I believe you planned that truancy, and I want you to tell me the truth about it. Didn’t you tell the other boys to skip school last Friday afternoon?” “No, ma’am, I didn’t. I just said there was a good place to fish out there, and that Mr. Pike would let us swim below the dam, and all the fellows said they wanted to go. I didn’t say they should, they just wanted to.” “Perhaps that’s true, but it was you who planned it, wasn’t it?” “No’m, I didn’t plan it. I just remarked how nice it would be for us all to go together if it wasn’t a school day, and Bob Darcy he said let’s go anyway, and I guess they all wanted to, for they did—except the two Jones boys and the Righter kid.”