The next morning was announced for a spelling contest. This meant high marks for those who spelled best, and there was a great deal of talk and excitement over it.
"Spelling is about all I know," said Tom, the next morning, as he and Bob and the others wended their way to school.
"Good at it, are you?" asked Frank.
"Ought to be. My father wouldn't get me my bicycle last year until I had the whole spelling book perfect from end to end. Say, you'll just see me shine to-day."
After recess, the teacher named those who were to do the spelling. Jed Burr was absent, but two or three of his chums were on the list.
"Alphabet," "ardent," "alder," "animal," "beauty," "blanket"—there were no mistakes so far. Miss Smith gave out "cote."
"C-o-a-t," said Sammy, proudly.
"Next."
"C-o-t-e," spelled Bob.
Everybody laughed at this.
"Correct," said the teacher, "I should have explained that the word meant a pigeon-house."
There were a lot of misses after that. There was a great deal of fun, too, for some comical errors were made. One boy spelled knock "noq." Another made "kwal" out of quail, and a pert little girl lisped out "sqwirm" when Miss Smith gave out the word "worm."
When the contest was over, Tom, two of Jed's closest chums, and Bob received high marks. Tom was older than most of those in the class, and it was not wondered at that he did so well. Bob was always at the head of his class. The great surprise was that the friends of Jed, who like him were put down as very backward scholars, got high marks.
