Before school began the next morning, a large group of the children gathered together. A 'plan' had been hatched, by some of the

boys, to slowly begin to drive Miss Hummer out of her mind.

Charlie listened, thinking that the boys had come up with some good bit of cleverness-no doubt Monte had had a lot to do with the

planning. He was mostly silent, while the other boys expanded on the plans-but Charlie could tell he'd had a part in it because of the way

he jingled the coins in his pocket, and looked satisfied with himself. The fact that Monte was, indeed, a mastermind behind the plans became evident

when Chester Carter waved his arm around as if throwing a baseball, and said, "We'll take care of her, won't we, Monte?"

"Yep," Monte said, his cheek bulging with bubblegum.

Miss Hummle came out and began to ring the school bell, her face already set in seemingly disapproving lines.

"There's going to be trouble," Rebecca said, in a whisper, to Charlie.

Charlie nodded in agreement.

There was no hesitation in putting the 'plans' into effect. When the first few students were called to stand to do their reading aloud, three boys

and a girl stood up beside their desks. The girl was the younger sister of one of the boys, and when all three boys schooled their expressions

into surprise and confusion, saying, one after the other, "You didn't assign those pages as homework-"

For the first boy's denial, Miss Hummel tapped her foot on the floor, and fixed Chester with an angry look.

"I certainly did, Chester," she insisted.

"No, ma'm," Chester said, sounding convincing, "It was pages past that-" he looked down at his book. "Pages 36 to 45."

"It was pages 15 thru 35," Miss Hummel said.

"No, ma'm," Chester said, again. "We read those pages already-yesterday-"

"Yes, ma'm, that's right, we did," Bobby Jenkins spoke up. "In those pages we read the poem about the sheep."

For a moment, Miss Hummel looked as though she was going to explode, but when all four boys kept their expressions of innocence, Charlie

thought she saw a look of confusion pass over the teacher's face. It was gone then, and she allowed the reading of the pages 36 to 45. When that group had taken their seats, Mrs. Hummle very deliberately wrote out on the chalkboard the next day's reading assignment.

Pages 46 to 55.

L

At recess, the boys were joyous with their success. When Rebecca asked innocently what the point was, of pretending that Miss Hummel had

assigned different reading, Monte said, impatiently, "Don't ya get it, Becca? When she assigns pages and we say we've already

done those-and we know what was on those pages, and tell her that she assigned ones ahead of that-she's gonna get

real confused."

"Yeah," Chester chimed in, with a laugh, "And if we keep doin' it, for lots of stuff, she's gonna think she's losin' her mind."

"So everybody read ahead tonight," Monte said. "Read the 46 to 55, and then 55 to 70, and we'll do the same thing tomorrow."

"Even though that's alot of readin'," Chester said. "It'll be worth it-"

"She wrote it on the chalkboard, though," Charlie pointed out.

"I'm gonna sneak in and change it to read 55 to 70," Monte said, with a snicker. "Ya'll can keep her busy in the cloakroom, sayin' you

can't find your lunch pail or somethin', and I'll slip in the side door and do it."

"Watch what we've got planned for arithmetic," Chester bragged.

And, so on the day went. The students were the models of good behavior, with no whispering or acting out, at least not

openly. One of the younger girls, who liked John, became quite vocal in her tears, claiming convincingly that Miss Hummel was

confusing her with the way she was explaining things. Charlie had to admit she rather enjoyed sitting back and watching

Patty carry on the way that she did.

At the end of the day, Monte did his rewriting of the board, as Patty and another girl kept Miss Hummel's attention in the

cloakroom. Charlie, curious to see how it went, waited just down from the school building a bit, with Rebecca.

"Done and done," Monte said, coming on a run with Chester, to stand beside Charlie and Rebecca.

"What if she notices?" Charlie asked, just as Monte nudged her in the side, and pointed towards the school building, where

Miss Hummel was coming down the steps, to take her leave for the day.

"See?" Monte said, triumphantly. "She wasn't in there long enough to notice-"

Jason whistled from a distance, motioning to Rebecca to hurry along.

"See you tomorrow," Rebecca said, and ran to join Jason.

Left standing there with Chester and Monte, Charlie shifted her books under one arm.

"Won't she notice that the writing looks different?" Charlie asked Monte.

"Nah," he said, unconcerned. "I was real careful. I've been payin' attention to how she writes her numbers and all-she won't see any

difference."

"I've got to go," Charlie said, and began her trek towards the stables to retrieve Gurth.

"I'll walk with ya," Monte said, and without waiting for an answer, he said, "See ya, Chester," and moved to catch up with

Charlie.

As they walked, Charlie asked, "How's John?"

Monte shrugged. "He's okay."

"Is he coming back to school?"

Again, Monte shrugged. "I dunno. Guess we'll wait till Pa gets home and see what he says. Ma says it wasn't right, what ole Humbug did

to John."

"Scott said he didn't think so, either," Charlie volunteered, and Monte's face lit up in a bright grin.

"Yeah?" he asked. "He did?"

At Charlie's nod, Monte said, "I reckon he's an alright sort of fellow."

"He is."

"We're thinkin' a bunch of stuff up, to pull on Humbug," Monte talked on. "You wanna help?"

"Like what, exactly?" Charlie asked.

"Well-I haven't got it all figured out yet, but somethin' that will give her a good scare, or keep makin' her think she's losin' her

marbles-"

"It's called gas lighting," Charlie said.

"Huh?" he asked, looking confused.

"Gas lighting. It's where you convince somebody to doubt themselves, by making them believe they've forgotten things that they

really haven't-stuff like that."

Monte gave a whistle, and said, looking proud, "How 'bout that? Didn't know we was doin' somethin' that had a fancy name."

Charlie giggled. She couldn't help it. Monte looked so pleased with himself.

At Charlie's laugh, Monte looked even more pleased, and gave her a grin.

"You wanna go fishin'?" he asked her. "We can go to my house and get my fishin' poles. My Ma might let us take some cookies

and stuff."

"I have to get home. They'd worry about where I was, if I wasn't home on time. And I'd be in trouble for not getting

permission first and all," Charlie said.

"Oh," Monte said, looking disappointed.

"Maybe another day," Charlie said.

"Yeah," Monte said, as they neared the stables. He paused, jamming his hands in his pockets. "So, you wanna help with the

plans?"

"I don't know," Charlie said.

"How come? I thought you hated her as much as the rest of us-"

"I don't know if I hate her, exactly," Charlie said. "I don't like her, and I don't think she's a good teacher."

"Yeah? So?"

Charlie sighed, thinking of the promise Scott had extracted from her, that she wouldn't participate in any nonsense at school. There was

no question that he'd been extremely serious about it all. He'd meant it. No doubt.

"I promised Scott I wouldn't," Charlie admitted.

"Oh. Well, that's what's so great about this gas lighting stuff. There's no way she can pin anything on anybody. Not if we stick together,

and keep makin' her think it's her brains that are goin'," Monte said.

"I'll think about it," Charlie said.

"Okay." Monte grinned again, his sunny nature returned. "See ya, Charlie."

"See ya," Charlie echoed.

When she reached the ranch, Charlie still hadn't decided what she would do, if she was approached by Monte again, and other kids, too,

about helping with a scheme to further confuse Miss Hummel. Scott had said, nonsense, in his conversation with her. Not to participate in any nonsense.

For a moment, Charlie told herself that what the boys were doing so far wasn't a bad thing. If anything, they were doing more

schoolwork than was required, by reading ahead. It wasn't as though they were putting snakes in her desk drawer or dropping books and

whispering.

It was while she was still turning over things in her mind, and brushing Gurth, that Murdoch came across the courtyard towards

her. "Hello, darling," he greeted her, coming to stand beside Gurth.

"Hullo," Charlie said, pausing in her brushing.

"How was it today?" By 'it' there was no question that he meant school.

"It was alright."

Murdoch raised an eyebrow. "No mischief?"

Charlie hesitated. "The kids were quiet, and they did their lessons," she said, feeling it was an honest answer.

"Well, that's good," Murdoch said, sounding relieved. "Things might settle down after all, hmm?"

Charlie nibbled her lower lip, looking up at him.

"I don't think the kids are done-with mischief, I mean," Charlie said.

"I see," Murdoch said, looking thoughtful. For a long, long moment Charlie wished she'd just kept quiet. What if he asked her,

outright, if she knew of any misbehavior planned. Then she'd have to confess that there were, indeed, plans afoot, or else

lie. But Murdoch would be able to tell if she was lying. He would.

"Well," he said, "I'm sorry to hear that. Although I'm not particularly surprised by it, either."

His eyes seemed to take her in, entirely. "You'll keep doing what you need to do. Don't let yourself be drawn

into anything that shouldn't be. Behave." He reached out to lift her chin, just slightly, with his large hand. "Hmmm?" he asked, in question.

"Yes, sir," Charlie said. There was no other answer. Not when he spoke that way. He was being kind, but still-Charlie felt a shimmer

of something under the surface of his words. That same something that could easily scare the daylights out of her.

Murdoch gave her a smile, and released her chin. "I need to go to the Widow Carson's to deliver some things that Maria

has baked up for her, since she's been ill. Would you like to ride along with me? You can drive the buggy."

Charlie gave him a dimpled smile. It would be nice, so very nice, to go along with Murdoch, and enjoy the sunshine,

and drive the buggy with Barthalomew in front, and not think about school, or Miss Hummle for a while.

"I sure would," she said, happily.

7