"Oh, don't tell me that! I take so much extra work home as it is, that Father Tom Hargrew asks me if I don't do anything at all in school. And, anyway, I didn't think Gee Gee saw me. But, of course, she did." "And then what?" Jess asked. "Why, she shot a question at me, and I didn't get it at first. 'Miss Hargrew! Pay attention!' she went on. Of course, that brought me up standing. 'What is a pseudonym?' she wanted to know. How silly! You know the trouble we've been having with that car Father Tom bought. 'I don't know what it is, Miss Carrington,' I told her. 'But if it is something that belongs to an automobile, father will have to buy a new one pretty soon, I'm sure.'" "And she docked you for that!" exclaimed Jess, as though wildly amazed. "How cruel!" "Really, I am afraid we are sometimes cruel to our dear teachers," laughed Laura. "But if they are too serious they are such a temptation to us witty ones." "Now, don't be sarcastic, Mother Wit," said Jess, shaking her chum a little by the elbow. "You know very well you enjoy nagging the teachers a bit yourself, now and then. And Professor Dimp!" "Oh! Oh! Oh!" gasped Bobby suddenly. "Did you hear the latest about Old Dimple?" "Now, girls," said Laura, quite sternly, "I refuse to hear of Professor Dimp being made a goose of." "Gander, dear! Gander!" exclaimed Jess, _sotto voce_. "He's an old dear," declared Laura, quite as earnestly. "We found that out, I am sure, when we went camping on Acorn Island last summer." "True! True!" admitted her chum. "Oh, nobody wants to hurt the old fellow," chuckled Bobby. "But one day this week there was a bunch of the boys down at the post-office, and Professor Dimp came in to mail a letter. You know he is always reading on the street when he walks; never sees anybody, and goes stumbling about blindly with a book under his nose. He got into the revolving door and Short and Long declares Old Dimple went around ten times before he knew enough to come out--and then he was on the street again and had failed to mail the letter." "Oh, Bobby!" cried Jess, while Miss Steele was quite convulsed by the statement. "He's so absent-minded," said Laura sympathetically. "Why didn't Short and Long tell him he was in the revolving door?" "Humph!" chuckled Bobby, "I guess Short thought the old fellow needed the exercise." Just then the girls came to the corner of Whiffle Street The street was narrow and crooked in an elbow here. The houses were mostly small, and were out of repair. It was, indeed, the poor end of Whiffle Street. On the hill end were some of the best residences in Centerport. "There's the Eaton place across the street," said Jess briskly. "I see there is a light, Miss Steele." "That is mother's room on the first floor--right off the piazza. You know, we could not begin to use all the house," the girl added frankly. "There are only mother and I and Aunt Jinny." "Oh! Your aunt?" asked Jess.