"I hope you know your lessons," said the old lady, as Anne, escorted by her faithful pets, started off.
"Oh, I studied them on Friday, before Judy came--how long ago that seems--" and with a rapturous sigh in memory of her three happy days, and with a wave of her hand to the little grandmother, Anne went on her way.
Tommy Tolliver came to school that morning in a chastened spirit. He had been lectured by his father, and cried over by his mother, and in the darkness of the night he had resolved many things.
But it is not easy to preserve an att.i.tude of humility when one becomes suddenly the center of adoring interest to twenty-five children in a district school. From the babies of the A, B, C, cla.s.s to the big boys in algebra, Tommy"s return was an exciting event, and he was received with acclaim.
Hence he boasted and swaggered for them as on Sat.u.r.day he had boasted and swaggered for Judy"s admiration.
"You ought to go," he was saying to a small boy, as Anne came up, but when he caught her reproachful eye on him, he backed down, "but not until you are a man, Jimmie," he temporized.
During the morning session he was a worry and an aggravation to Miss Mary. The little girls could look at nothing else, for had not Tommy been a sailor, and had he not had experiences which would set him apart from the commonplace boys of Fairfax? And the boys, a little jealous, perhaps, were yet burning with a desire to be the bosom friend of this bold, bad boy, while the l.u.s.ter of his daring lasted.
And so they were all restless and inattentive, until finally Miss Mary, who had a headache, lost patience.
"You are very noisy," she said, "and I am ashamed of you. I am going to put a list of words on the board, and I want you to copy them five times, while I take the little folks out into the yard for their recess. The rest of you don"t deserve any, and will have to wait until noon."
That was the first piece of injustice to Anne. She had been as quiet as a mouse all the morning, and Miss Mary should have seen it and not have punished the innocent with the guilty. But Anne was a cheery little soul and never thought of questioning Miss Mary"s mandates, and so she went on patiently writing with the rest.
Miss Mary stopped in the door long enough to issue an ultimatum.
"I shall put you on your honor," she said, "not to talk. And any one who disobeys will be punished."
And she went out.
For a little while there was perfect decorum. Then Tommy grew restless. Six weeks out of school had made sitting still almost impossible. He wiggled around in his seat, and began to whistle, "A Life on an Ocean Wave."
That was a signal for general disorder among the boys. Without speaking a word, and so preserving the letter of the rule, if not the spirit, they, with Tommy as leader, went through various pantomimic performances. They hitched up their trousers in seamanlike fashion, they pretended to row boats, they spit on their hands and hauled in imaginary ropes, and as a climax, Tommy danced a hornpipe on his toes.
And then Anne spoke right out--"Oh, Tommy, _don"t_," she said, in an agony of fear lest Miss Mary should come in and catch him at it.
But Miss Mary did not come, and the little girls giggled and the boys capered, and Anne in despair went on writing her words.
When Miss Mary came back finally, with the little people trooping in a rosy row behind her, twenty-five virtuous heads were bent over twenty-five papers.
"Did any one speak while I was out?" asked the teacher.
A wave of horror swept over Anne. She had not meant to do it, but she had spoken, and to try to explain would be to condemn Tommy and the rest of the school.
"Did any one speak?" asked Miss Mary again.
Anne stood up, her face flaming.
"I--I--did--" she faltered.
"Oh, Anne--" said Miss Mary, while the girls and boys dropped their eyes for very shame. "Oh, Anne, why did you do it--"
"I just did it--" stammered Anne, who would rather have died than have blamed Tommy, and Nannie, and Amelia, and the rest of her friends.
"Well, then," said Miss Mary, firmly, "I"m sorry, but you will have to sit on the platform the rest of the morning, and I can"t let you take part in the Sat.u.r.day"s entertainment. I must have order and I will have it."
And that was Miss Mary"s second piece of injustice. But then she had a headache, and children on Monday mornings are troublesome.
For one hour Anne sat with her head held high and her fair little face flushed and burning. But she did not cry. And Tommy, bowed to the ground by his sense of guilt in the matter, did not dare to look at the patient, suffering martyr.
It was thus that Launcelot Bart, coming in just before twelve o"clock to see Tommy, found her.
As soon as he got Tommy outside of the schoolroom he collared him.
"What"s the matter with Anne?" he demanded.
"She talked in school," said Tommy, doggedly.
"I don"t believe it."
"Well, she did, anyhow."
"Whose fault was it?"
"Hers, I suppose."
"You don"t suppose anything of the kind. Anne Batch.e.l.ler never broke a rule in her life willingly, and you know it, Tommy Tolliver."
The children were coming out of the schoolroom in little groups of twos and threes--the girls discussing Anne"s martyrdom sympathetically, the boys with hangdog self-consciousness.
Inside the room, Anne, released from her ordeal, had gone to her desk and was sitting there with her head up. Her face was white now, the little lunch-basket was open before her, but the cookie and the apple were untouched.
Launcelot looked in through the window.
"Poor little soul," he murmured.
And then Tommy blubbered.
"It was really my fault, Launcelot," he confessed.
"What!"
Tommy explained.
"And you let Anne bear it--you let Anne be punished--oh, you miserable--little--little--cur," said the indignant squire of dames, in a white heat.
"Aw, what could I do?" whimpered Tommy.
"Go in and tell Miss Mary," said Launcelot.
"Aw--Launcelot--"
"_Go in and tell Miss Mary!_"