lenge? . . . and how could a kid be so capable of making it without words?

We have a new kind of wax gum, one cent apiece," she said. "A pencil, Edith said, "with soft lead."

There was a noise at the back of the store. "Larry? That you? Come 'ere a minute. I want you to meet my pretty little girl friend. Comes in every morning. This is my fiance, Larry," she said as he came from the rear of the shop. "We're going to get married."

An explosion occurred so deep in Edith she was sure no one could tell. The man had blue eyes too. He seemed pleasant enough, Edith classified his face among those she termed the carnival faces. The lines about his mouth. presented his smile with a flourish lines bowed around the lips; a twink-

le applauded behind the eyes. "Hi, sis," he said, tle thing. You'll be a knockout some day."

say, you ARE a pretty lit-

"Hey, I'm jealous," the young woman laughed. Edith put her penny on the glass counter. "Thank you," she said and left the store.

In class Edith sat at a desk in back close to the big mullioned window. She could see the store from there. "But EVERY body gets married," she thought. "What if she DOES marry him?"

Edith Hobson." The sound of her name came slowly to her; brought the raised hands down. She felt her face grow hot. Miss Jasper had apparently asked a question. "I don't know... Words like naked feet stumbling over

rocky terrain.

"Edith, please rise." Miss Jasper tightened her fist about her thumb and pencil. She pondered for effect. "Remain standing," she said, "until I tell you to be seated. And come to me after class."

After class seemed forever. Edith did not approach the yellow desk till the last pupil had gone. Miss Jasper was fumbling with assignments self-consciously and did not raise her eyes to the child for a moment. Finally: "What is WRONG, Edith?" she said.

Edith hated that question. She did not know how to answer it.

"Are you going to make me believe you're a stupid girl, Edith? Is that what you want me to think?"

Edith wanted to swallow but she knew her teacher would see. She would see her fear. The little lump in her throat moved like a frightened thing up and down. She watched the nostrils of Miss Jasper's nose grow so wide she thought they would burst and wondered what it would be like if her nose splattered suddenly against the face a flat, square face with no chin and eyes like dim exits.

Miss Jasper capped the ink bottle self-consciously. There was a silence about this child that bred distrust. She seemed amenable like fish out of water are amenable. A hazard to her job. The child's eyes were directed toward her but there was a soluble quality of unseeing about them. The firm round concentration she was accustomed to seeing in her pupils' eyes seemed dissolving here. "I'm TALKing to you, Edith!" she said. The child blinked twice as though to pump attention back into them. It was like opening a door perhaps and disconcertedly Miss Jasper said, "You're dismissed." And called after, "Don't think your father won't hear about THIS!"

"EAT, Edith! How do you ever expect to be like the others if you don't.. Oh, Harry, it's you." Her mother sprang from her chair, turning to Edith's father. "Did you bring the vase? Good. Let me see." She stepped back, put her hand on her chin, closed an eye. "I think I'll put it in the rumpus room and send all that old furniture to the Salvation Army. The first thing I'll do -" "Ye Gods!" Harry wiped the back of his fingers over his cheek as if to examine the bristle,

"What's the matter with YOU, Harry?"

"Did I say anything?" he said.

"You don't have to."

Edith watched the yellow beam of sunlight that came from the windy trees