in her own right-and her son had earned a certain degree of notoriety, so that those who concerned themselves at all with the situation, under- stood with varying degrees of insight the processing of justice which they were viewing. Not that there was universal approval nor accep- tance--for example, one might have noticed the shaken composure of the assistant pastor at his first sight of Peter-but there was a tacit understanding that the Coopers had a "problem."

It might be noted, as a further sidelight, that after four or five such appearances, certain unruly children whose parents attended the same church found their lives disrupted in an astonishingly similar pattern, had anyone cared to summarize all the details.

On the last day of school, Peter was surprised to find his mother going to school with him. Classes were to be held for only a half-day and Peter somehow had a premonition that the end of classes meant an end to his strange captivity. Now, it must be noted that due partly to this self-same restriction of activity-and the ensuing boredom, young Peter had actually found himself studying from time to time. In fact, this had had such astonishing results that Mrs. Cooper had been requested to appear at school for a conference with Peter's teach- ers. This worthy assemblage shared several distinct opinions: first of all, was the fact that Peter's scholastic work showed a complete lack of content or merit, and as such, it was felt that he should be required to repeat the year. However, it was also pointed out that there had been a dramatic upsurge near the end of the school year—not enough to re- deem the entire year-but enough to warrant further investigation be- fore any action was taken.

Mrs. Cooper then told them of the plan of action they had followed; there were several differences of opinion regarding the merits of this, but all agreed that it had had a most signal effect. After further de- liberation, it was decided that, provided Peter followed a serious course of home study that summer- -a course supervised by one of the teachers present, he would be allowed to go on. Even the most adamant of the critics yielded the point that once good study habits were implanted, they might well remain. Meanwhile, Miss Carson-the proposed super- visor was happily discussing summer plans with Mrs. Cooper. When the bell rang announcing the end of classes for the year, they rushed off to tell Peter the good news.

As might be expected he was less than overjoyed. Not only was his summer to be ruined by the spectre of a continuation of studies, but he could see the handwriting on the wall. Nor was he helped a great deal

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