"Well, dear, take my advice, and when the class meets again go to your teacher in a very modest manner and make a graceful curtsey. Tell him that though you would not in the least mind being at the lower end of the class, yet because of your weak back he might favor you by allowing you the support of the shade tree opposite the 4th place. This will win him, for his mother has taught him to love modesty and to be kind. Having secured that place for the remainder of the session, watch what the three pupils above you jot down on their slates, and copy all their answers if they be different. When the teacher comes to examine the slates, beginning with number one, and mentions who is correct, you will know which answer to rub out, which you can easily do without being suspected. Do as I tell you, and you will be as often successful as any one of the three best pupils above you is correct. Be clever, be cunning, there is no harm in wrong-doing, and you will get honor and reward without any trouble, with plenty of time to go about idle and amuse yourself. Glide along through life as I do, dear, as smoothly and as pleasantly as you can, taking everything and giving nothing." Although Silver Ribbon could not quite shake off her dread of the snake, and therefore kept her former safe distance, yet the advice was ingenious and charming. She at once agreed to take it, and having thanked the cunning reptile, she hurriedly scampered home. "I shall have you as a choice mouthful yet, and, through you, all the rest of your nimble pretty crowd," said the snake, when Silver Ribbon was gone. The reptile was an active specimen of the great boa-constrictor tribe, thirty feet long. It had taken a trip from the sunny South to the North, deceiving and doing much mischief on the way. Its advice was the secret of Silver Ribbon's success. CHAPTER VI. THE MODEST MEDALLIST. In the previous chapter we turned aside and went a long way back--back nearly as far as the formation of the class--to explain how Silver Ribbon had come to be the most successful pupil, at least so far as to win the preliminary silver medal. We come forward now to where we left off, at the reference to two or three days' rest from study. That rest passed away very quickly. Then came the final tug-of-war, the day of special examination which was to reveal who was really the best scholar. All the pupils were in the garden on a Friday morning at 9 o'clock prompt. Their black fur was beautiful and glossy--nicely washed and brushed for the occasion--and their silken ribbons were neatly tied and clean. Silver Ribbon looked exceedingly well, and her silver medal was burnished till it shone like a little moon. When all the pupils had gathered together they gave her a ringing cheer. Black Ribbon looked clean and tidy, but he seemed as if he had been studying rather than resting, for his lovely dark eyes were somewhat weary.