“I guess you better remember you ast us over here to play with you,” Laurence Coy retorted, and his severity was more than equal to hers. “We never came an’ ast you if we _could_, did we? You better learn sense enough to know that long as you ast _us_, we got a right to play what we want to, because we’re company, an’ we aren’t goin’ to play have you scalp us!” “You _haf_ to,” Daisy insisted. “I got a perfect right to play what I want to in my own yard.” “You go on play it, an’ scalp yourself, then,” Laurence returned ungallantly. “Elsie, what _you_ want to play?” “I doe’ want to play rough games,” Elsie said. “I doe’ like those fighting games.” “Well, what do you like?” “Well, nice quiet games,” she replied. “I’d be willing to play school.” “How do you play it?” “Well, I’d be willing to be the teacher,” she said. “You all sit down in a row, an’ I’ll say what punishments you haf to have.” Daisy instantly objected. “No, _I’ll_ be the teacher!” “You won’t!” Laurence said. “Elsie’s got to be the teacher because she’s company, an’ anyway she said so first.” And the majority agreeing to this, it was so ordered; whereupon Daisy, after some further futile objections, took her place with the boys. They sat in a row upon the grass, facing Elsie, who stood on the steps confronting them. “Now, the first thing to do,” she said, “I better find out who’s the worst; because you every one been very, very naughty an’ deserve the terrablest punishments I can think of. I haf to think what I’m goin’ to do to you.” She paused, then pointed at Laurence. “Laurence Coy, you’re the very worst one of this whole school.” “What did I do?” Laurence inquired. “You said you hated girls.” “Well, I did say that,” he admitted; and then, lest his comrades suspect him of weakening, he added: “I hate every last thing about ’em!” “I bet you don’t,” said Daisy Mears, giggling. Laurence blushed. “I _do_!” he shouted. “I hate every last——” “Hush!” said the teacher. “That’s very, very, very naughty, and you haf to be punished. You haf to be—well, I guess you haf to be spanked.” “I doe’ care!” Laurence said, seeming to forget that this was only a game. “I hate girls and every last thing about ’em!” “Hush!” Elsie said again. “I ’point Robert Eliot and Freddie Mears monitors. Robert must hold you while Freddie spanks you.” But Daisy jumped up, uncontrollably vociferous. “No, no!” she shouted. “_I’m_ goin’ to be a monitor! This is my yard, an’ I guess I got _some_ rights around here! Robert can hold him, but I got to spank him.” “Very well,” said Elsie primly. “I ’point Daisy in Freddie’s place.” Master Coy did not take this well; he rose and moved backward from the enthusiastic Daisy. “I won’t do it,” he said. “I won’t let her spank me.” “You _haf_ to,” Daisy told him, clapping her hands. “You haf to do whatever Elsie says. You said so yourself; you said she had to be the teacher, an’ we haf to do whatever she tells us.”