"I--don't--know," she said, with a thoughtful pause between each
word. "I am sure I did not mean it to sound so. The idea came to
me to put it that way when I spoke of the 'commanding officer
being held responsible.' I'll tear it up, if you say so, and go
and tell him the whole story instead." And she held it up between
the thumb and forefinger of both hands as if to suit the act to
her words.
"No! no!" "Send it as it is!" "It's all right!" "He'll
understand!" cried several voices; though one weak sister
murmured, with a plaintive sigh: "I'll be glad when it's all
over."
"This having to face a 'court-martial' was overlooked in planning
the campaign, hey?" observed another, with a grimace.
"I don't care! It was fun to hear those teachers tugging at their
doors for dear life, and I have it from an eyewitness, when
Johnson cut Miss Craigis loose she keeled over in the most
undignified manner!" laughed a pert young miss, who was one of the
giddiest in the class. "And, oh!" she went on, breathlessly, "did
you see poor old Webb on the upper floor? It was perfectly
killing! She had on that startling palm-leaf kimono--her false
front had slipped down over one ear; she had her precious
herbarium under one arm, her bird cage in one hand, and a huge
hatbox in the other. She was frightened nearly out of her senses,
and demanded, right and left, 'Young ladies, where is the fire?
oh, where is the fire?'"
A merry shout greeted this graphic description, and it is to be
feared that some of the delinquents were not as deeply impressed
with the enormity of their recent insubordination as could have
been desired.
"Sh! sh! do hush, girls!" cried Miss Archer, waving her paper to
enjoin silence, "This will have to be nicely copied in ink, and
you'll all have to sign it again. And let me warn you," she added,
soberly, "you'd better keep pretty mum about last night, or we
will get a bigger pill than will be comfortable to swallow."
She seated herself at the table again and made a neat copy of her
document, after which the signatures were carefully appended, then
the meeting was dismissed, and the "captain" of the disorderly
sophomores went directly to Prof. Seabrook's study.
It was very nearly supper time, and she had reasoned that he would
issue an order, at the table, for the class to meet him in one of
the recitation rooms, in the near future, to give the guilty ones
an opportunity for confession; and her plan was to forestall this
summons with the paper she had prepared.
When, in response to her knock, he bade her "come in," it must be
confessed that she opened the door with fear and trembling; while
something in her bearing and the tense lines of her face at once
aroused a suspicion of the nature of her errand in the principal's
mind.
"Prof. Seabrook, I have been commissioned to hand you this
communication," she gravely said, as she laid, it on the table
before him.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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