"She must find it hard to teach her cla.s.s when they are thinking about their toys. Do you think you ought to take the lead soldiers, dear?"
"Oh, yes, Mother, please," Sunny Boy said. "We put them under the sand table and we don"t play with them till recess. Lead soldiers don"t make a noise, Mother, and Miss Davis will like them. She said she likes quiet toys."
So Mrs. Horton said he might take the lead soldiers if he would promise not to play with them during school hours and if he would put them away the moment recess was over and not make Miss Davis speak to him twice.
"What you got, Sunny Boy?" asked Carleton, when Sunny Boy came into Miss Davis" room the next morning, a box under his arm.
Sunny Boy, though he would not have said so, rather wished he had not decided to bring his lead soldiers. They were heavy to carry and it was a very cold morning, so cold that although he kept his hands in his pockets, his fingers were red and stiff when he pulled off his mittens.
He had had to stop all along the way to poke the box further up under his arm, and once he had dropped it. But, never mind, now he had something to show the boys.
"I brought my lead soldiers," he said to Carleton. "Want to see them?"
Carleton did, and he helped Sunny Boy take them out of the box and stand them up on his desk. The boys and girls came crowding around to look and the other toys were forgotten for a moment. When Miss Davis came in she found the train rushing around on the floor and the doll walking and the toy piano playing, as usual, but half a dozen boys around Sunny Boy"s desk were playing "battle" with wads of paper for bullets and pencils for guns.
"The a.s.sembly bell will ring in five minutes, children," said Miss Davis warningly. "Put the toys away under the sand table at once. Are these your lead soldiers, Sunny Boy?"
Miss Davis looked at the soldiers and admired them and then told Sunny Boy to put them back in the box and put the box under the table.
"You may get them out again at recess," she said, smiling.
"Could I keep the general, Miss Davis?" begged Sunny Boy. "Could I let him stand on my desk? I won"t play with him the tiniest bit; I"d just like to have him to look at."
"Well, are you _sure_ you won"t forget and play with him?" urged Miss Davis. "He is a beautiful general, isn"t he? All right, if you promise me not to play with him during school time, you may let him stand on your desk."
So Sunny Boy put all the soldiers away except the general who rode a horse and was very handsome indeed. He stood him up on his desk and left him there while the cla.s.s went into Miss May"s room for a.s.sembly.
When they came back, Miss Davis sent Sunny Boy to the board to color a picture she had drawn. Sunny Boy loved to use the colored chalk, and he forgot all about the lead soldier general while he worked away at the board.
When he had finished the picture--and Miss Davis said he had done it very nicely--it was time for the writing lesson.
"I think we will try to use ink to-day," the teacher said. "We will take great pains and not hurry. And please be careful of your fingers."
Whenever Miss Davis tried to teach her cla.s.s to make an "M" or a "T" or some other letter in ink, it was strange, but more ink seemed to get on their fingers than anywhere else! But Miss Davis said they would learn in good time and that she had inked her fingers, too, when she was a little girl and was learning to write.
Sunny Boy took his seat to be ready for the writing lesson, and the first thing he saw was the lead general lying on his back. He had fallen off his horse!
"Though I don"t see how he could fall off," argued Sunny Boy to himself. "He screws on the little screw in the saddle. I wonder if somebody unscrewed him!"
Carleton Marsh was beginning to hand out the papers for the writing lesson and Jessie Smiley took the box of pens from Miss Davis. It was her turn to distribute them to the children this week.
"I"ll bet Jessie did it," said Sunny Boy, but not out loud. "I"ll bet she unscrewed the general while I was at the blackboard."
Sunny Boy knew that Jessie was mischievous and he also knew that she could not keep her little fingers off anything that might be lying on his desk. She had mortified him very much the first week he came to school by making his camel squeak in cla.s.s, and it would be just like her to play with the lead soldier when Sunny Boy was at the board and Miss Davis was busy helping some pupil.
"I"ll bet Jessie did it," said Sunny Boy again to himself.
Just then Jessie looked at him. She smiled, an impish, naughty little smile, and then Sunny Boy knew he had guessed right. Jessie had unscrewed the lead soldier general.
"I"ll just put him back," whispered Sunny Boy, putting out a cautious hand toward the soldier. He wasn"t going to play with him, he argued, but Miss Davis might call it playing, if she saw him.
"Here"s your pen," said Jessie suddenly.
Sunny Boy jumped a little, for he had not heard her come up to his desk. His blouse sleeve brushed again the lead general, and what do you think happened? Splash! Down into the inkwell on Sunny Boy"s desk went that beautiful soldier, down out of sight in the messy ink!
Jessie looked startled, but she did not say anything. She walked on with her box of pens. Perhaps she thought it was her fault for uns.c.r.e.w.i.n.g the lead soldier general, but Jessie did not like to blame herself for anything.
"This morning you may draw the initial of your first name," announced Miss Davis. "And then you may go over it in ink. I will come around and help you, if you need help."
Sunny Boy was gazing down into his ink well and scarcely heard her.
How could he rescue the lead soldier before he drowned? He took his best pencil and poked it down into the inkwell. Goodness, the ink was deeper than he thought, and before he knew it his fingers were stained black. Then he poked around with the pen Jessie had given him, but though he could feel the soldier at the bottom of the inkwell, he could not make the pen stick in him. Once the pen slipped and the ink splashed out on the desk. Sunny Boy wiped it up with his hands. They were inky anyway, and a little more wouldn"t hurt.
He began to draw an "S" on his paper. Then he remembered that his "truly" name was Arthur like Grandpa Horton"s. Sunny Boy turned the paper over and tried to draw an "A." But all the time he kept thinking of the poor lead soldier down at the bottom of the inkwell.
"That looks very nice, Carleton," said Miss Davis.
Sunny Boy looked up. She was standing at Carleton"s desk in the next aisle. In a few minutes she would come to Sunny Boy"s desk to see his letter. If he was ever going to get that lead soldier, it must be now.
Sunny Boy took another quick glance at Miss Davis, saw that she was busy helping another child, and down went his little right hand into the ink-well!
"I"ve got him!" he said aloud, as he brought up the lead soldier, dripping with ink.
The cla.s.s looked at Sunny Boy in surprise. So did Miss Davis. They saw a little boy with ink spots on his face and blouse, his hands as black as--well, as black as ink, and ink running in streams over his desk.
"Sunny Boy!" cried Miss Davis. "What are you doing? I thought you promised not to play with the lead soldier. Carleton, get the blotter on my desk, quick!"
Carleton got the blotter and that helped to mop up some of the ink.
Miss Davis sent Jessie to get a cloth from Maria, the maid, and she used that to wipe the ink off the desk. Sunny Boy and the lead soldier she sent upstairs to the bathroom, where Maria scrubbed them both with water and a stiff little brush. Not all the ink came off, but most of it did.
Sunny Boy had to sit quietly at his desk during recess while Miss Davis talked to him. He explained that he was not playing with the soldier and Jessie was honest enough to say that she had unscrewed him from his horse, and Miss Davis said she was very glad to know that Sunny Boy had not broken his promise.
"But I think I shall have to say that there must be no more toys brought to school after this," she declared, when she had heard all about the rescue of the lead soldier general and had kissed Sunny Boy so he might know she was not scolding him. "Toys and school do not seem to go very well together."
And Sunny Boy"s mother, when she heard about that morning, said she thought Miss Davis was right.
CHAPTER IX
OUT IN THE BLIZZARD
"Daddy," said Mrs. Horton at the breakfast table one morning, "what do you think about sending Sunny Boy to school to-day?"
Mr. Horton glanced out of the window. The snow was piled high on the sill and the white flakes were still falling steadily.
"I don"t know," he said slowly. "I don"t believe the storm will be much worse, Olive. It has snowed all night, and our storms seldom last twenty-four hours. It may be a little hard going this morning, but the walks will be cleared before it is time for him to come home. And if the wind rises, let him stay at school till Harriet or some one can go after him."
Sunny Boy had listened anxiously. He loved to go to school and he did not mind the snow. Didn"t he have a pair of real rubber boots and a fur cap that covered his ears? And this was the first chance he had had to go to school in a snowstorm. There had been snow, of course, but it had always snowed in the night or after school was out, or during the holidays. Now he was going to go to school while it was snowing, just as Daddy Horton had done when he was a little boy.
"I wonder if Bob has rubber boots?" said Sunny Boy to Harriet, after breakfast. She was watching him put on his boots in the hall.