They pulled and they pulled, digging their feet into the ground and bracing themselves against the rocks which stuck up out of the playground. Sometimes the teacher’s side yanked them along by quick jerks, and then they’d all set their feet hard when Ralph shouted out, “Now, ALL TOGETHER!” and they’d slowly drag the other side back. And all the time everybody was shouting and yelling together with the excitement. Betsy was screaming too, and when a wagon passing by stopped and a big, broad-shouldered farmer jumped down laughing, put the end of the rope over his shoulder, and just walked off with the whole lot of them till he had pulled them clear off their feet, Elizabeth Ann found herself rolling over and over with a breathless, squirming mass of children, her shrill laughter rising even above the shouts of merriment of the others. She laughed so she could hardly get up on her feet again, it was such an unexpected ending to the contest. The big farmer was laughing too. “You ain’t so smart as you THINK you are, are you!” he jeered at them good-naturedly. Then he started, yelling “WHOA there!” to his horses, which had begun to walk on. He had to run after them with all his might, and just climbed into the back of the wagon and grabbed the reins the very moment they broke into a trot. The children laughed, and Ralph shouted after him, “Hi, there, Uncle Nate! Who’s not so smart as he thinks he is, NOW!” He turned to the little girls near him. “They ’most got away from him THAT time!” he said. “He’s awful foolish about leaving them standing while he’s funning or something. He thinks he’s awful funny, anyhow. Some day they’ll run away on him and THEN where’ll he be?” Elizabeth Ann was thinking to herself that this was one of the queerest things that had happened to her even in this queer place. Never, why never once, had any grown-up, passing the playground of the big brick building, DREAMED of such a thing as stopping for a minute to play. They never even looked at the children, any more than if they were in another world. In fact she had felt the school was in another world. “Ralph, it’s your turn to get the water,” said the teacher, handing him a pail. “Want to go along?” said Ralph gruffly to Ellen and Betsy. He led the way and the little girls walked after him. Now that she was out of a crowd Elizabeth Ann felt all her shyness come down on her like a black cloud, drying up her mouth and turning her hands and feet cold as ice. Into one of these cold hands she felt small, warm fingers slide. She looked down and there was little Molly trotting by her side, turning her blue eyes up trustfully. “Teacher says I can go with you if you’ll take care of me,” she said. “She never lets us first-graders go without somebody bigger to help us over the log.”