Page:Pipetown Sandy (Sousa 1905).djvu/30

14 first boy was about to name the states forming the northern part of the Union, when a sharp knock was heard at the door, and almost immediately Tom Foley's mother rushed in, holding her unruly son by the collar, and literally dragging him after her. The woman was so angry that she did not notice how at every stride she ran the boy against some obstruction. First it was the door, then the hat-rack, and finally the chairs loosely placed about the teacher's platform. Each separate bump brought a cry from the boy, but the excited woman grasped his collar more tightly, and shouted: "I'll teach you to bring disgrace on your hard-working mother!"

"I ain't doin' nuthin'," came with the yells from her son.

"Please do contain yourself, Mrs. Foley," implored the teacher.

The irate woman, in appearance almost too young to have a son of fourteen, her handsome face flushed with excitement, her eyes flashing with anger, brought up suddenly in front of the desk. Plumping the terrified boy firmly on his feet, with her hand still on his collar, she addressed the schoolmistress.

"Maisie Latham, this is the third time this