Page:Anna Chapin--Half a dozen boys.djvu/215

Rh “I had no idea of it,” said Mr. Washburn. “He is always so demure in the choir, and I fancied that Fred was very quiet, too.”

“He usually is, but Rob is in one of his wild moods to-night, and I suspect they set each other  on, for it isn’t like either one of them, alone. Please excuse them, for I know it was simple thoughtlessness, and they had no idea of being  rude.”

Bess spoke with such a pretty air of earnestness that Mr. Muir would have excused her boys twice over, even if he had been  annoyed by their mischief, instead of thoroughly  amused.

“Who are these boys?” he asked. “Is one the darker of the choir-leaders, the one with  the high soprano voice? I think Mr. Washburn said he was your cousin. And who is the other? I think you ought to make them appear now.”

Bess hesitated for a moment.

“If Mr. Washburn will tell you about Fred while I am gone, I will go to call them,” she  said.

Rob had prudently gone home, and Fred was