"But I don't believe Miss Davis will be pleased," said Mrs. Horton.
"She must find it hard to teach her class when they are thinking about
their toys. Do you think you ought to take the lead soldiers, dear?"
"Oh, yes, Mother, please," Sunny Boy said. "We put them under the sand
table and we don't play with them till recess. Lead soldiers don't
make a noise, Mother, and Miss Davis will like them. She said she
likes quiet toys."
So Mrs. Horton said he might take the lead soldiers if he would promise
not to play with them during school hours and if he would put them away
the moment recess was over and not make Miss Davis speak to him twice.
"What you got, Sunny Boy?" asked Carleton, when Sunny Boy came into
Miss Davis' room the next morning, a box under his arm.
Sunny Boy, though he would not have said so, rather wished he had not
decided to bring his lead soldiers. They were heavy to carry and it
was a very cold morning, so cold that although he kept his hands in his
pockets, his fingers were red and stiff when he pulled off his mittens.
He had had to stop all along the way to poke the box further up under
his arm, and once he had dropped it. But, never mind, now he had
something to show the boys.
"I brought my lead soldiers," he said to Carleton. "Want to see them?"
Carleton did, and he helped Sunny Boy take them out of the box and
stand them up on his desk. The boys and girls came crowding around to
look and the other toys were forgotten for a moment. When Miss Davis
came in she found the train rushing around on the floor and the doll
walking and the toy piano playing, as usual, but half a dozen boys
around Sunny Boy's desk were playing "battle" with wads of paper for
bullets and pencils for guns.
"The assembly bell will ring in five minutes, children," said Miss
Davis warningly. "Put the toys away under the sand table at once. Are
these your lead soldiers, Sunny Boy?"
Miss Davis looked at the soldiers and admired them and then told Sunny
Boy to put them back in the box and put the box under the table.
"You may get them out again at recess," she said, smiling.
"Could I keep the general, Miss Davis?" begged Sunny Boy. "Could I let
him stand on my desk? I won't play with him the tiniest bit; I'd just
like to have him to look at."
"Well, are you _sure_ you won't forget and play with him?" urged Miss
Davis. "He is a beautiful general, isn't he? All right, if you
promise me not to play with him during school time, you may let him
stand on your desk."
So Sunny Boy put all the soldiers away except the general who rode a
horse and was very handsome indeed. He stood him up on his desk and
left him there while the class went into Miss May's room for assembly.
When they came back, Miss Davis sent Sunny Boy to the board to color a
picture she had drawn. Sunny Boy loved to use the colored chalk, and
he forgot all about the lead soldier general while he worked away at
the board.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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