recess time with the strange children, but she had no time to feel shy,
for in a twinkling she was on one end of a long rope with a lot of her
schoolmates, pulling with all her might against the teacher and two of
the big boys. Nobody had looked at her curiously, nobody had said
anything to her beyond a loud, "Come on, Betsy!" from Ralph, who was at
the head on their side.

They pulled and they pulled, digging their feet into the ground and
bracing themselves against the rocks which stuck up out of the
playground. Sometimes the teacher's side yanked them along by quick
jerks, and then they'd all set their feet hard when Ralph shouted out,
"Now, ALL TOGETHER!" and they'd slowly drag the other side back. And all
the time everybody was shouting and yelling together with the
excitement. Betsy was screaming too, and when a wagon passing by stopped
and a big, broad-shouldered farmer jumped down laughing, put the end of
the rope over his shoulder, and just walked off with the whole lot of
them till he had pulled them clear off their feet, Elizabeth Ann found
herself rolling over and over with a breathless, squirming mass of
children, her shrill laughter rising even above the shouts of merriment
of the others. She laughed so she could hardly get up on her feet again,
it was such an unexpected ending to the con test.

The big farmer was laughing too. "You ain't so smart as you THINK you
are, are you!" he jeered at them good-naturedly. Then he started,
yelling "WHOA there!" to his horses, which had begun to walk on. He had
to run after them with all his might, and just climbed into the back of
the wagon and grabbed the reins the very moment they broke into a trot.
The children laughed, and Ralph shouted after him, "Hi, there, Uncle
Nate! Who's not so smart as he thinks he is, NOW!" He turned to the
little girls near him. "They 'most got away from him THAT time!" he