piano, and then have little Caroline Peck to lead the drills."
"Caroline isn't so young as Mabelle."
"No, but she's so small, and she isn't so straight and soldier-like as Nell Smith. I think that Bertha ought to play the piano, and Nell lead the drill."
"So do I," and the girls walked on in silence for a few moments.
"I like Mabelle, though," said Kittie, suddenly, "and Caroline, too. They are perfectly lovely girls; but I just don't understand Teacher's choosing them, that's all."
"Oh, of course! I like them, too," said Grace. "I always did, but I just wondered."
A good many of the girls and boys in school wondered, also; but they were very careful not to let the two favored girls know that the choice was not perfectly satisfactory to them.
Every day, at one of the recesses, the children went through what was called the fire drill, rising from their seats, and marching out in order, to the tune of the simple march or exercise which Mabelle played for them. The
