Page:Arthur Stringer-The Loom of Destiny.djvu/124

The Loom of Destiny greeted this sally. The school bell rang before Johnnie Armstrong had a chance to meet the crushing charge. The children scampered away and Johnnie's head fell. All afternoon the sense of his defeat hung over him and made him miserable.

Late in the day there came a knock at the door and the teacher was called out.

As the teacher stepped in again Johnnie noticed his Aunt Martha in the hall. She was holding a handkerchief up to her eyes.

The teacher called Johnnie up to her desk. There she started to tell him something, stopped, slipped her arms around him, and burst out crying, to the wonder of the entire, open-eyed school. Johnnie turned crimson with shame. To be seen with a woman petting one was a terrible and awful thing to him. Jimmie Carson giggled audibly.

The teacher wiped away her tears, kissed the child sorrowfully, and falteringly whispered something in his ear.

She expected an outburst, but there was none, not even a sob.

As the child walked down to his desk for 112