Page:Anna Chapin--Half a dozen boys.djvu/284

254 him who it was, but he just shut his mouth. Then she asked if he did it, and he just said ‘No.’ And then she told him she’d whip him unless he told, but he just wouldn’t, and I say, Good for him!”

“Hurrah for Phil!” said Ted, turning a somersault on the turf.

Bess looked perplexed. She knew Miss Witherspoon too well, a veteran teacher who had grown hard in the service, a nervous old maid who ruled her children with an iron rod, and then went home and wept bitter tears because they did not love her, conscientious to a fault, and at heart anxious for the good of her pupils, although no consideration would make her take back a hasty word, or lighten a punishment ordered in a moment of anger. This was the first time that one of the I. I.’s had been  publicly punished in this way, and each one of  them felt the disgrace as keenly as if it had  been his own, while with one consent they had come to Bess for advice and consolation.

“There comes Phil, now!” exclaimed Rob.

Bess gave one look at the small figure coming along the street, with his hat pulled down