"You don't know how hard it is, Uncle George, to do something better than anybody else. You might think it would be easy, but somebody always gets ahead of you in everything, you can't even keep your desk the cleanest. Some girls never bring in anything from the woods, so of course they can keep dusted. "I'm afraid you'll be disappointed in "Your loving niece, "MARIAN LEE." CHAPTER XIX THE MOST TRUTHFUL CHILD IN SCHOOL IN the early morning the schoolhouse was a quiet place, and there Miss Virginia Smith went to study. No one knew why she worked so hard, though Marian often wondered. It was her delight to please Miss Smith, and when the teacher waited several mornings until a certain mail train passed and the letters were distributed, Marian offered to stop at the post-office and get the mail. "Are you sure you won't lose anything?" asked Miss Smith. "Sure," promised Marian. "You go to school early as you used to do and I'll bring your letters when I come." Usually the postmaster gave Marian something to carry to Miss Smith, and all went well until a few days before school closed. Elizabeth Gray called for Marian that morning and together they went to the post-office where they waited on tiptoe for the postmaster to distribute the mail. There was one letter for Miss Smith, a thin, insignificant looking letter. "That's nothing but an old advertisement," declared Elizabeth; "it wasn't worth waiting for." "I guess you're right," agreed Marian, "see what it says in the corner. What's a seminary, anyway? Do you know?--'Young Ladies' Seminary.' Some kind of a new fashioned place to buy hats, may be, come on." "Yes, let's get started before the Prior kids and the Perkinses catch up with us. I can't bear that Tommy Perkins." "We could play De Soto if we had a crowd," suggested Marian. "You and I could be the head leaders and the Priors and the Perkins could be common soldiers." "How do you play De Soto?" asked Elizabeth. "I never heard of it." "You've heard of De Soto, the man that discovered the Mississippi River, I hope." "Of course, he's in the history." "Well, Elizabeth, I've been reading about him in one of Mr. Golding's books about early explorations and I knew in a minute that it would be fun to play De Soto on our way to school. Now, I'm De Soto." "No, I'm going to be De Soto," insisted Elizabeth. "You don't know how, Elizabeth Jane Gray, and you didn't think of it first. All right, though, you be De Soto if you want to. What are you going to do? Begin." "You always want to be the head one in everything, Marian Lee. You needn't think I'm Tommy Perkins!" "I don't, Elizabeth, I think you're that brave Spaniard Moscoso who was leader of the soldiers after De Soto died and was buried in the Mississippi River where the Indians couldn't find him. But if you want to be De Soto, go on, only I don't believe you know a thing about him except what the history says. Well, you're De Soto."