"But I might be able to straighten the matter out. You mustn't lose your school."
"I'll lose it always, rather than be a tell-tale."
The boys were loud in their exclamations when they heard, the next morning, that Phil was suspended from school. One after another, they coaxed, wheedled, begged, and stormed by turns, but Phil could not be induced to tell them his secret, although one word would have put him back in his classes again. At Bessie's suggestion, Fred urged Phil to tell him, as long as he was outside the school set, but it did no more good than Bessie's call did on Miss Witherspoon.
"Yes, I am sorry," that worthy woman confessed; "I was tired that day, and I think I was hasty, for I don't think Philip is a bad boy at heart. It was a little thing to punish so severely, but, if I give in now, I shall lose all my control for the future. Let the boys once feel that they can make me yield, and I might as well give up teaching."
Poor Miss Witherspoon! After all her years of teaching, she had yet to learn how quickly
