Page:Anna Chapin--Half a dozen boys.djvu/227

Rh

sorry, Miss Bess. I was sorry the minute I’d said so, but Ted’s bragging about  his lessons always makes me mad.”

“He didn’t ‘brag,’ dear. I had asked him about school, and you were telling what your  class did. You can’t blame him for standing up for his own class, can you?”

“No,” admitted Fred, “but he needn’t go to crowing over ours.”

“True. But you needn’t have resented it as quickly as you did. If you could have seen Teddy’s face, Fred, and how hard he tried to  keep from answering you sharply, I don’t think  you would have been so angry for a little inconsiderate word.”

“That’s just it!” said the boy forlornly. “Things seem so different now from what they used to, and I never know just how they are  going. ’Tisn’t much use for me to try to be