The quilt of happiness; Creeping Jenny; and other New England storiesWiggin, Kate Douglas Smith
General
The quilt of happiness; Creeping Jenny; and other New England stories
Wiggin, Kate Douglas Smith
New England -- Social life and customs -- Fiction; Short stories, American
"2. No member shall attack the swing-shelf or wire netting box in the
cellar as being too easy and not risky enough, and not a pantry
anyway.
"3. No member shall be greedy or really thievish, nor shall he nibble
or take away anything that is needed for the next meal, if he knows
it; this being not nice, besides making trouble all round.
"4. Any member who does a rioting act of great daring right under the
eye of the enemy shall be allowed to wear a red button to school.
"5. Any member who is caught in the act of rioting and reprimanded,
and so forth, shall wear a blue button to school and describe all the
circumstances, however painful, at a meeting of the club, where he
will receive comfort and sympathy.
"6. Any little titbit subtracted from the pantry may be shared with
another member, thus removing any suspicion of evil from rioting; the
idea being to show that a person could take a tart, doughnut, frosted
cake, or spoonful of preserves at any time if only he was not so good
and honest."
Oh, how delicious were the last school days of the June term when The
Pantry Rioters first came into being! Who could forget the morning
when Romeo Smith arrived at school flushed and panting and took his
place in the line within one minute of being tardy? And there, in
the button-hole of his coat lapel, gleamed the red badge of courage,
the button covered by the girls with scarlet ribbon, but never worn
before!
At ten o'clock Miss Dearborn remarked: "Romeo Smith is well prepared
with his lessons and is behaving himself with perfect propriety,
except for a perpetual grin, for which I can see no reason. However,
as many of the scholars cannot help staring at him, I would ask him
please to remove the red button he is wearing and place it in his
vest pocket."
In the reading lesson when Sam Simpson came to the phrase, "The spy
gave a paltry excuse," he read it, "pantry excuse," and there was
such a flood of laughter let loose in the schoolroom that Miss
Dearborn was obliged to say: "Did no one ever mistake a word before?
It is not polite to make fun of another scholar. You may be the next
one yourself."
And then, after school, to hear from Romeo's lips that his mother, in
passing out of the pantry with a colander full of fresh doughnuts
under her left arm, had paused to lean from the window and speak to
her husband; whereupon Romeo, with magnificent audacity--grandmother
in adjacent kitchen, mother holding pan, and father outside
window--had seized a hot doughnut and, mindful of the red button, had
further tempted fate by taking the knife from the cheese plate and
carving off a piece two inches wide! With this rich booty, avoiding
the safe side door, he went through the living-room, passing a
visiting aunt and two younger brothers of highly suspicious
disposition, and sped to school in time to avoid the tardy mark.
"How perfectly elegant!" ejaculated Emma Jane Perkins.
"Where is the doughnut?" asked Rebecca, mindful of the sixth by-law.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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