Page:Fairview Boys and their Rivals.djvu/28

24 Miss Williams went on quietly writing at the desk. Bob got tired looking around the room. He dropped his head upon his arms and tried not to feel mean. Miss Williams thought he was sulking, and did not disturb him. Suddenly Bob raised his head quickly.

"Sit still, dearie," spoke a strange voice. "Sit still now, or I'll stick you."

Bob's eyes opened to their widest. The door of the storeroom was now open. A woman had come from it. She had stolen up behind the school teacher without being seen or heard by Miss Williams.

As she spoke the words that caused Bob to look up, she grasped the long back hair of the school teacher in one hand. In the other she waved a long sharp-pointed pair of scissors.

Miss Williams tried to turn around, but the woman kept a firm hold on the coils of her hair.

"Why, Mary," spoke the teacher, turning pale, but trying to act calmly, "how did you come here?"

Bob also knew the woman at a glance. She was called Simple Mary. Some years before, her husband and child had been drowned in a great storm on Rainbow Lake. The shock drove the poor creature out of her mind.

Since then she had had frequent spells, when the authorities had to shut her up in an asylum. Then she would be very quiet for weeks at a time, when she would roam about the country. Some kind-hearted people always gave her work or shelter.

Bob held his breath, for it was quite startling to see Mary waving the scissors. Her eyes looked wild, and she was not in one of her quiet moods, that was certain.

"I've been here hiding in the storeroom since before school," began Mary, with a sly laugh.

"Why, what for?" asked Miss Williams.