Page:Anna Chapin--Half a dozen boys.djvu/281

Rh minds, replacing the War of 1812 with a boat-race, and making the puzzling mysteries of the binomial theorem give place to an imaginary  brook and a fish-line! Well, well! It is only what comes to us grown-up children, when we  have taken a day, or a week, or a month from  our business, and then have to settle down to  work again.

One afternoon about two weeks after the opening of school, as Bess was coming in from  some errands, she found five excited boys  sitting on her front steps, eagerly waiting to  see her. As she approached, she heard Rob saying,—

“I didn’t think Phil had so much grit. If it had been you, Bert, or Sam”—

“Well, my boys,” said Bess, as she sat down in the midst of them, and took off her hat,  “what is the occasion of this call? You look as if something were the matter.”

“Matter enough!” said Sam. “That Miss Witherspoon hadn’t ought to teach school anyway!” And he scowled darkly on the unconscious Fred, who chanced to be in range of his  glance.