Page:Penrod by Booth Tarkington (1914).djvu/230

216 question in another form: "May I ask which of our public schools you attend?")

"Me? What number do I go to?" said the stranger, contemptuously. "I don't go to no number in vacation!"

"I mean when it ain't."

"Third," returned the fat-faced boy. "I got 'em all scared in that school."

"What of?" innocently asked Penrod, to whom "the Third"—in a distant part of town—was undiscovered country.

"What of? I guess you'd soon see what of, if you ever was in that school about one day. You'd be lucky if you got out alive!"

"Are the teachers mean?"

The other boy frowned with bitter scorn. "Teachers! Teachers don't order me around, I can tell you! They're mighty careful how they try to run over Rupe Collins."

"Who's Rupe Collins?"

"Who is he?" echoed the fat-faced boy incredulously. "Say, ain't you got any sense?"

"What?"

"Say, wouldn't you be just as happy if you had some sense?"