A MOUNTAIN OUT OF A MOLEHILL
“Who did this?” demanded the teacher, from her perch. “Who _dared_
commit such an atrocious act? Take them aw-a-ay!”
Her cry ending in such a wail, and her appearance suggesting
approaching hysterics, Dorothy ran forward and tried to “shoo” the
little piglets back into the closet. But most of the other girls were
laughing so outrageously that they could not help, and the little
squealers would not “shoo” worth a cent!
“Are you guilty of this deed, Miss Dale?” demanded Miss Olaine, seizing
a ruler from the desk and trying to strike one of the pigs.
“Oh, don’t hurt the cunning little things!” cried Dorothy. “Please
don’t, Miss Olaine. Oh!”
One of the little fellows got a crack from the ruler and his little
tail straightened out and he made a noise like a rusty gate-hinge.
“Oh, oh! Please don’t!” begged Dorothy.
“Please don’t, Miss Olaine. I’ll get them all shut up----”
Just then the two that she had managed to get into the closet again,
ran out. The teacher was recovering from her fright; but her rage grew
apace.
“You are guilty of this outrage, Miss Dale!” she accused. “You shall be
punished for it--indeed yes!”
“You are mistaken, Miss Olaine,” said Dorothy, ceasing to chase the
tiny porkers, and facing the teacher standing in the chair.
“You did! You did it!” ejaculated the panting teacher. “You know all
about the beasts----”
Then she let out another yell. One of the little fellows stood on its
hind legs against Miss Olaine’s chair and tried to sniff at that lady’s
boots.
“Get them back into that closet!” commanded Miss Olaine, savagely, and
glaring at Dorothy. “Then I’ll ’tend to you, Miss.”
The whole class was silent by this time--“all but the pigs,” as one of
the girls whispered. They were astonished to hear Dorothy accused by
the teacher--more astonished than they had been by the advent of the
pigs in the classroom. As Ned Ebony pointed out afterward, pigs, or
anything else, might come to recitation; but for Dorothy Dale to be
accused of such a prank as this was quite too shocking!
Now, Dorothy was usually pretty sweet tempered; but the manner in which
the new teacher spoke to her--and her unfair decision that _she_,
Dorothy, was guilty of the prank--hurt and angered the girl.
She lifted her head grandly and looked Miss Olaine straight in the eye.
“You may get rid of the pigs yourself, as far as I am concerned,” she
said, distinctly. “We are not in the habit of being accused of things
at Glenwood Hall without there being some evidence against us.”
She whirled around and went to her seat. Miss Olaine fairly screamed
after her: “Come back here, Miss Saucebox, and get rid of these pigs.”
“They’re not _my_ pigs,” said Dorothy, resuming her seat, coolly.
“They’re Jake Bensell’s pigs, Miss Olaine,” piped up one of the girls
from a back seat.
“Run and get Mr. Bensell at once,” commanded the teacher. “I’ll get to
the bottom of this----”
She almost pitched out of the chair then, and all the pigs ran out of
the closet again and gamboled about the platform. Miss Olaine was held
prisoner in her chair--“like a statue of Liberty defying the lightning”
Tavia whispered to Edna.
“She’s an awfully funny statue,” giggled Ned. “But you’ve got Liberty
and Ajax mixed, Tavia.”
Miss Olaine would not allow any of the other girls to help her after
Dorothy had retreated. She waited impatiently until the girl who had
run for Jake Bensell returned with the farmer in tow.
“Is your name Bensell?” demanded Miss Olaine from her perch on the
chair.
“Yes, ma’am!” admitted Jake.
“Are these your pigs--these nasty beasts?”
Jake scratched his head slowly, and grinned. “I expect they be; but
they air kinder dressed up,” he said. “I heard the old one carryin’ on
all this mawnin’; but I didn’t know the litter had strayed clean over
here to school,” and he chuckled.
“Take the insufferable creatures out of here!” commanded Miss Olaine.
“And I believe you knew something about this disgusting exhibition of
Tom-foolery!”
“Eh? No, ma’am! I didn’t have nothin’ to do with it,” declared Jake.
“And I’ll have to go home for a bag to put them in----”
“Get them out of this room at once!” cried Miss Olaine. “I cannot stand
this another minute.”
Hysteria was threatening again. Jake drew a handful of corn from his
pocket. The little pigs were just about big enough to begin to eat
corn. He dropped a few kernels on the platform, trailed it along to the
door of the small room, and then threw the rest of the corn inside.
In two minutes the last curly-cued tail disappeared within, and Jake
closed the door on them.
“You kin come down, ma’am,” he said, with a chuckle. “I’ll go home for
a bag, and I’ll step into that room through the winder--it’s open--and
gather ’em all up.”
“They must have been put in at that window,” remarked Miss Olaine,
suspiciously, and breathing heavily after sitting down again. “What do
you know about it, sir?”
“Nothing a-tall--I assure ye,” chuckled Jake.
“Those horrid beasts could not have got into that open window without
help,” snapped the teacher.
“I dunno,” said the farmer, gracelessly. “They wander a good ways
now----”
“I believe you are in league with that girl!” and she pointed her
finger at Dorothy.
“Miss Dorothy? My goodness, no!” gasped Jake. “I’m dead sure _she_
ain’t in it,” he added.
“Why not, sir?”
“’Cause she ain’t never into no such practical jokes----”
“Jokes!” cried Miss Olaine. “She’ll find it’s no joke. It--it is a
crime! She should be instantly dismissed. Oh, if Mrs. Pangborn were
only here----”
Jake retreated, shaking his head. The class was in a buzz of
excitement. Dorothy was angry enough to reply in heat to Miss Olaine;
but she had bethought herself now that she was likely to make the real
culprit more trouble if she “fought back.”
Of course that “real culprit” was Tavia. The practical joke had assumed
rather serious proportions, however. Tavia looked commiseratingly at
Dorothy. When she caught her friend’s eye she mouthed:
“I’ll tell her I did it, Doro.”
“Don’t you do it!” snapped Dorothy, almost out loud. “Let her find it
out herself--if she can.”
Dorothy was quite furious--to be doubted and insulted in this public
way! She was almost glad that Tavia had originated the foolish joke
with the cunning little pigs. Only--she well knew--in the end, Tavia
must suffer for it.
Miss Olaine was not a person to give up the trail so easily. Edna
whispered that she would be “a red Indian” on the scent of the joker.
Poor Tavia would have to “take it” in the end; for of course she would
not let Dorothy suffer for her sins.
The recitation hour drew to a close. Miss Olaine rapped for order at
last. “Miss Dale will remain,” she said.
The other girls looked at Dorothy, and she sat down. But Tavia got up
with an exclamation and tramped up to the desk.
“You can let her go, Miss Olaine,” she declared. “Doro had nothing to
do with the pigs. _I_ did it.”
“What is that?” demanded the teacher, stiffening and turning very red.
“Doro didn’t have anything to do with putting the pigs in at the
window. I did it before recitation. Doro didn’t even know I was going
to do it.”
Tavia was defiant, and held her head up. Miss Olaine seemed to be
doubly enraged because she had been deluded into making a mistake in
the identity of the culprit.
“Why didn’t you tell me so?” she demanded of Dorothy.
“I told you I was not guilty,” replied Dorothy.
“But why didn’t you tell me who _was_ at fault?”
The girls all chorused a gasp of dismay. Dorothy actually turned pale
with anger.
“To tell on another girl?” she cried. “We don’t do things like that in
Glenwood Hall, Miss Olaine.”
“You are saucy, Miss!” declared the teacher. “Let me tell you that Mrs.
Pangborn shall hear of your impudence when she returns. As for you,
Octavia--is that your name?”
“So they tell me, Miss Olaine,” returned Tavia, drawling in her speech.
“You go into this room!” commanded Miss Olaine, pointing at the door
behind which the piglets had been shut. “You will find company there
quite of your own kind, Miss. Come, march! I tell you, I mean to be
obeyed. Go in there, Octavia.”
“Oh--of course--if you mean it,” said Tavia, lightly. “And the company
of the pigs will be preferred to some I might mention.”
But this last the graceless girl was wise enough to murmur too low for
the teacher to hear. She went into the closet-like room instantly. The
girls at once heard the pigs begin squealing. Tavia was rescuing the
pretty ribbons before Mr. Bensell should return for his five little
porkers.
Miss Olaine did not speak to Dorothy again, so the latter followed the
other girls out of the classroom. Cologne was saying:
“She just made a mountain out of a molehill. It wasn’t nothing--just
a joke. And now she is going to tear the whole school up by the roots
about it.”
“You are just right, Rose-Mary,” agreed Ned Ebony.
“Bear it in mind,” said Dorothy, firmly, “we are going to have a lot
of trouble while that teacher remains in Glenwood School. Oh, dear me!
I didn’t think I ever should be glad to leave the Glen for good; but
if Miss Olaine stays till June I know I shall be delighted to get away
from here.”
“Me, too!” “And I!” “And we-uns!” was the chorused agreement to this
statement.