Page:Anna Chapin--Half a dozen boys.djvu/283

Rh roused her indignation, for she knew the lad well enough to be sure that he had done nothing to justify such extreme measures.

“I’ll tell you about it, Miss Bess,” said Bert. “You see, Phil has been feeling funny all day, and when we marched round to get the dumbbells, he just turned his toes square in, and  waddled along, so,” and Bert illustrated the  proceeding for Bessie’s benefit. “We fellows all laughed, and that rattled Miss Witherspoon  awfully, and started her down on him. I guess she didn’t feel just right to-day, perhaps. Well, by and by, when we were studying, all of a sudden somebody snapped a great agate up  the aisle, right bang against Miss Witherspoon’s  desk. It astonished her and made her jump, but she picked it up and only said, ‘If this  happens again, I shall whip the boy that does  it,’ and then went on with her class. Pretty soon another one went rolling along, but she  wasn’t quick enough to catch the boy, so she  began asking us all if we knew who did it. We were all the other side of the room but Phil, and he was the only one in the room that said he did know. Miss Witherspoon asked