Poor Mary Jones suffered keenly for three days. Both the boys and the girls shunned her as if she were a leper. The girls huddled together and whispered when she passed. Once a rude, unfeeling boy called after her, "Why don't you 'fess up, Mary?" But Mary had really nothing to "'fess up," and on the third day {207} the truth came to light. Out in the hallway, the janitor noticed something shining in a little crack between the boards of the floor. It was in the afternoon, and the light coming through the transom of the west door fell just then upon the spot. The janitor stooped to see what the shining object was. It was money! He pried it out with his pocket knife. It was of the same denomination as that which had been reported stolen. Immediately, the janitor returned it to the teacher with a full explanation. [Sidenote: The tables turned.] It is strange how things turn and turn about. When the money was returned to the girl who had lost it, with the janitor's story, she remembered that she had been skipping there in the hallway, and that she had thought she had heard something strike the floor; but since she had seen nothing she had forgotten it. The girls who had suspected Mary and had shunned her, now flocked about her and assured her that they had never believed her guilty. The two who had started the slander stood shame-facedly apart. The school turned on them, and for many days they were avoided, and were shut out of the school games, as Mary had been. They were mischief-makers, said the pupils. It was only after Mary herself had pleaded for them, that a complete reconciliation was effected, and the school society moved harmoniously forward as before. [Sidenote: An everyday occurrence.]