The man refused to move on, and at last gave as his excuse, that he had been hired by one of the scholars to play there an hour. The teachers tried to make him tell who had hired him, and finally he said it was a small boy with red hair. Finding him determined to earn his money by playing the whole hour, the teachers went back to their rooms, sure that they knew the culprit and that he should be punished. There was only one small boy with red hair in the school, and he was called up and accused of the prank. He declared that he knew nothing about it,--that he never did it,--and began to cry when the teacher brought from his desk a long ruler which the boys knew too well, for when one broke the rules he was punished by being first lectured before the whole school, and then ordered to hold out his hand and receive several blows from it. The poor little red-haired boy cried harder than ever when this appeared, and again protested that he did not do it. Then a voice from the back of the room spoke timidly: "Perhaps the girls know something about it." This was a new idea; it had not occurred to the master that the man might have told a falsehood to shield the real culprit, and he laid down the ruler, telling the sobbing boy that he might go to his seat while he inquired into it. Meanwhile the organ-grinder went on with his work and the whole school was in an uproar. When the girls' teacher heard the suggestion that perhaps some of her pupils might be guilty, she was very much vexed. But ordering all books put aside, she gave them a serious lecture on the trouble that had been made by that mischief, and then called upon the guilty one, if she were there, to rise and receive her sentence, and save the small boy sobbing in the next room from a punishment that he did not deserve. Upon this, sixty girls--the whole room full--rose together as one girl. The teacher was amazed--almost in consternation. She first made one of them tell the story, when it came out that it was the prank of one of their number--whose name she would not give. * * * * * "Who was it?" interrupted Kristy eagerly; "was it Bessie?" "No," answered her mother, "not alone; but it was her cousin Helen who was full of such foolish jokes, seconded by Bessie. She had asked the organ-grinder how much he would charge to play under the school windows an hour, and when he said sixty cents, she had gone around among the girls and got a penny from each so that all should be guilty." * * * * * The teacher's next thought was how to punish sixty girls, but she was quick-witted, and bidding them resume their seats, she gave them another lecture, and then said: "Since you are all guilty, you shall all be punished." She then ordered text-books to be laid aside and slates and pencils to be brought out--for this happened before quiet paper had taken the place of noisy slates.