Page:Fairview Boys and their Rivals.djvu/126

122 "Don't speak of it, Miss Williams," replied Bob, smiling loyally. "It's all right now, isn't it?"

"You are a noble boy, Bob," said his teacher.

"I think it's myself that wronged somebody," said Bob to himself, as he left the schoolhouse. "Here I went and suspected poor Tom Chubb of what he never did. A fine friend I am! I'm going to tell him how mean I've been."

Tom thought Bob quite the best friend he had heard of, when Bob told his story.

"Wouldn't tell on a friend, would you?" said Tom. "The only mistake was your thinking I was smart enough to get hold of that spelling list."

"It wasn't very smart in Jed Burr, the way it has turned out," said Frank.

"That's so," echoed Sammy. "It pays to be straight."

At noon Jed Burr was sent home with a note to his parents. It told that he was suspended from school until the school board were told of his unfairness and misdoings.

Bob felt that something more than being sorry was due to Tom. He invited him and Frank and Sammy to tea to his house that evening.

The four boys were playing a game of tennis just at dusk, when they heard a yell down the road. Bob ran out to the gate.

A man was coming pell-mell down the middle of the road. He was waving his arms wildly.

"Hurry, run!" he shouted, as he espied the boys.

"What's the matter?" bawled Sammy.

"Fire!" yelled the runner, never stopping to take breath. "At the schoolhouse—it's on fire, and burning up!"