And now it was Oliver"s turn to be provoked.
"I think girls are perfectly horrid," he said crossly.
CHAPTER XIII
BRAVE LITTLE SUNNY BOY
Miss Davis, feeding the goldfish in the largest gla.s.s bowl, overheard what Oliver said to Helen.
"Why, Oliver!" she said in surprise. "How impolite you are! How can you say such a thing to Helen? Besides, didn"t you have girls at your birthday party?"
"Oh, girls are all right at parties," explained Oliver. "They always go to parties. But I don"t think girls should want to be in a s...o...b..ll fight, Miss Davis."
"Miss May said the girls could have the back lot whenever they wanted it," said Helen. "And if you don"t let us play with you, Oliver Dunlap, there won"t be any s...o...b..ll fight; you haven"t any other place to play."
This was true. Oliver knew it, and Helen knew it. Boys who live in a city can not have a s...o...b..ll fight in the street, lest they hit people who may be walking past. No back yard is a safe place because of the many windows that may be broken. A vacant lot, like the one behind Miss May"s school, is really the only place for this kind of fun. Miss May early in the school year had made a rule that this lot should be for the girls in her school whenever they wanted it. The boys might use it, she said when the girls didn"t care to play on it.
"Boys have more freedom than girls," kind Miss May had said. "They can run and climb and tumble about coming to school and going home. But little girls have to be more careful. So I think they should have the lot to play in whenever they wish."
In the spring Miss May had swings and a sand pile and a few "flying rings" put up for the children to amuse themselves with, but these, of course, were taken down during the winter. When it snowed, the lot was a large white square, and it certainly was an ideal spot for a s...o...b..ll fight.
"I don"t see why you don"t let the girls play," said Miss Davis to Oliver. "You will probably be glad to have them in your army. Sunny Boy, don"t you think the girls ought to play?"
Sunny Boy looked uncomfortable. He wanted to be polite, but he had to be truthful, too.
"Well, girls are a lot of trouble, Miss Davis," he explained earnestly.
"You see, as soon as they start to play their feet get cold. And then they have to stop."
Miss Davis said yes, she could see how that would bother a general.
"But then," she said, "perhaps the girls won"t get cold feet while they are in the s...o...b..ll fight. They will be running about and they will be quite cozy and warm all the time, I am sure."
"Well, let "em play, if they want to," said Oliver. "I shouldn"t think they would want to play when they know n.o.body wants "em."
"Then I"ll be on your side, Oliver," said. Helen Graham, who intended to be in that s...o...b..ll fight whether any one wanted her or not.
It was snowing steadily by this time and all the children in Miss Davis" rooms were excited about the fight. Recess was over before they had chosen generals and sides, but Miss Davis, who was such a dear teacher it was no wonder her pupils loved her, said that she would allow them an extra ten minutes to make their plans.
"Then you must work ever so hard to cover the lost time," she told them, slipping out of the room to speak to Miss May, while the boys and girls began to chatter again.
Sunny Boy was made a general for one side, and Oliver took the other.
Perry Phelps and Jimmie b.u.t.terworth were on Sunny Boy"s side and Jessie Smiley and Dorothy Peters. There were three other boys and two more girls in his army, too. Helen Graham, of course, was on Oliver"s side, and Carleton Marsh and Leslie Bradin. Lottie Carr and her sister were on his side, also, and four other boys. That gave each side ten, you see.
"I"ve been speaking to Miss May," announced Miss Davis, coming back to her room when the ten minutes was up. "She thinks, instead of having you children go home at noon and come back for your s...o...b..ll fight, that it will be better if you have lunch here and then go out to play in the snow. Miss May will telephone every child"s mother and ask permission to have you stay here, and she is going to promise that you will all be home by four o"clock. And now I want you to have the best reading lesson we have had since Christmas."
The children liked to have luncheon in Miss May"s blue and silver dining-room. She invited them, one at a time, to have lunch with her, and it was always a pleasant experience. And to-day it would be great fun not to have to go home and come back again, but to be able to go right out and begin their snow battle as soon as luncheon was over.
The rest of the morning went smoothly, and Miss Davis said she was glad she had given them the extra recess, for they recited very nicely.
When the noon bell rang, it seemed strange instead of going to the cloak room for coats and hats and rubbers, to go upstairs and wash their hands and faces and then come downstairs and go into the dining-room with Miss May and Miss Davis and have Maria bring in their lunch.
"I"d like to have a table like this every noon," said Miss May, smiling at the circle of little faces that went all around her big mahogany table. "We"d both like it, shouldn"t we, Miss Davis?"
"I think it would be lovely!" nodded Miss Davis, squeezing Sunny Boy"s hand. He sat next to her. "Think of all the questions we could answer, Miss May."
Miss May laughed and said she didn"t mind answering questions at all.
As soon as lunch was over, Miss Davis helped them get into their coats and wraps and watched them march out to the back lot for their fun.
Jessie Smiley wore a new scarlet sweater that came down to the edge of her dress and was so warm and snug that she said she did not need to wear her coat with it. Miss Davis said she thought she would be warm enough, too, without the coat, and she knew she could run more easily.
"Not that a good soldier runs," she explained, laughing a little as she b.u.t.toned the sweater under Jessie"s chin. "But a s...o...b..ll army soldier has to run, I know."
Jessie left her rubbers in the cloakroom, too, for she had her rubber boots. She had worn her rubbers to school that morning. The boots had been left in the cloakroom since the last snowstorm. Jessie wanted to wear one rubber and one boot, but Miss Davis said she thought that two boots would be better, so Jessie had taken her advice.
"Whee, there"s a lot of snow!" cried Sunny Boy, wading out into the middle of the lot, followed by his army. "We ought to get a lot of bullets made. And a fort. We must build a fort."
Oliver took his army over at one end of the lot and set them to work making s...o...b..a.l.l.s. The boys made more b.a.l.l.s than the girls did. But then the girls were so anxious to make theirs smooth and round that they did not work very quickly. Sunny Boy soon noticed that Dorothy Peters sc.r.a.ped and packed and patted one s...o...b..ll while he was making four.
Finally General Dunlap shouted to General Sunny Boy and the battle was about to start when something happened that put all thoughts of a s...o...b..ll fight out of the heads of soldiers and generals alike.
The battlefield, that is the back lot, you know, was directly back of Miss May"s school. A large porch ran across the rear of the building and the back yard joined the vacant lot. Just as Sunny Boy waved his hand to signal Oliver that he was ready, Maria came out on the porch of the school.
"Fire!" she shouted. "Fire! The school is on fire!"
If Miss May or Miss Davis had been in the building, it never would have happened. Miss May would have telephoned the fire department quietly at the first sign of smoke and Miss Davis would have picked up the bra.s.s fire extinguisher that stood in the hall and at least have tried to put the fire out. But Miss May and Miss Davis had gone down town, believing that the children were safe and happy, playing in the snow, and Maria was alone in the house. When she saw smoke creeping out around the door of Miss Davis" schoolroom, Maria lost her head entirely.
"Fire!" she screamed, rushing out on the porch and beckoning to the children. "The school"s on fire!"
But when they came rushing toward her, pellmell, she seemed to remember what she ought to do.
[Ill.u.s.tration: They came rushing toward her, pellmell.]
"You can"t come in," she told them, as they gathered at the bottom of the porch steps. "You can"t come in, because you"ll get burned! The school is on fire."
She opened the door behind her and, sure enough, out poured smoke.
"My coat!" wailed Jessie Smiley. "My lovely new coat. Santa Claus brought it to me for Christmas and it has real beaver fur on the collar! Oh, oh, I don"t want my coat burned up! And my rubbers are brand new, too."
"I"ll get them for you," promised Sunny Boy. "Don"t cry, Jessie. I know where they are in the cloakroom."
"Will you get my rubbers, too?" asked Jessie, smiling through her tears.
"Yes, I"ll get everything," said Sunny Boy.
"You can"t go in there, it"s on fire!" screamed Maria, when he ran up the steps. "Sunny Boy, I tell you the school is burning up! Come back here!"
But Sunny Boy opened the door and ran in past her. He knew that Jessie Smiley was very proud of her new winter coat with its pretty beaver collar.