Page after page of the spelling-book was turned.  That tricksey little list of “goblin, problem, conduct, rocket, pontiff, compact, prospect, ostrich” finally left but three scholars between Ruth and Julia at the head of the class.  One of these was Oliver Shortsleeves, a French Canadian lad whose parents had Anglicised their name when they came down into New York State.  He was as sharp as could be and he had pushed Julia Semple and Rosa Ball hard before in the spelling matches.  But he was the only boy left standing within the next few minutes, and again the pupils moved up.  There were but fifteen of them.  Rosa Ball came next to Ruth, below her, and the girl from the Red Mill knew very well that Miss Ball would only be too delighted to spell her, Ruth, down.

Indeed, when Ruth waited a moment before spelling” seraglio,” Rosa in her haste blurted out the word, and Julia smiled and there was a little rustle of expectancy.  It was evident that many of the scholars, as well as the audience, thought Ruth had failed.

“Wait!” exclaimed Miss Cramp, sharply.  “Did I pass that word to you, Rosa?”

“No, ma’am; but I thought

“Never mind what you thought.  You know the rule well enough,” said Miss Cramp.  “That will be your word, and I will give Ruth Fielding another.  Spell ‘seraglio’ again, Rosa.”

“’S e r a l g i o’,” spelled Rosa.

“I thought in your haste to get ahead of Ruth you spelled it wrongly, Rosa,” said Miss Cramp, calmly.  “You may go down.  Next—­ ‘Seraglio.’”

Miss Ball went down in tears—­ angry tears—­ but there was not much sympathy shown her by the audience, and little by her fellow-pupils.  It was soon seen that there was some sort of rivalry between Ruth and Julia, and that the girl from the Red Mill had not been treated fairly.

Oliver Shortsleeves became sadly twisted up after hearing those immediately before him spell in succession “schooner, tetrarch, pibroch and anarchy” and tried to spell “architrave” with so many letters that he would have needed no more to have spelled it twice over.  So Ruth then became fourth in the line.  She continued to spell carefully and serenely.  Nothing disturbed her poise, for she neither looked around the room nor gave heed to anything that went on save Miss Cramp’s distinctly uttered words,

On and on went the steady voice of Miss Cramp.  She bowled over one pupil with “microcosm,” another the next minute with “metonymy “; “nymphean” and “naphtha” sent two more to their seats; while the silent “m” in “mnemonics” cut a most fearful swath in the remainder, so that after the smoke of that bomb was dissipated only Julia, Ruth, and two others stood of all the class.

Julia Semple had darted many angry glances et Ruth since the cutting down of her friend, Rosa Ball, and her flaunting of the girl from the Red Mill, and her scornful looks, might easily have disturbed Ruth had the latter not been wise enough to keep her own gaze fixed upon the teacher.