THAT night when Meadowcroft alighted from the train at South Paulding,
he found Tommy waiting.
“I didn’t mean to be so fresh this morning, honest and true,” the
boy burst forth breathlessly. “I’m just no end cut up about it, Mr.
Meadowcroft. I don’t see--gee! I wish you had given me one good
licking.”
“That’s all right, Tommy,” Meadowcroft assured him warmly. “I realized
afterwards it was nothing but bluster. We are too good friends to let
anything come between us now.” And he rested on one crutch so that they
could shake hands.
“I wish you’d flung a book at my head,” Tommy exclaimed as they went on
up into the avenue.
“Your slamming the door made sufficient commotion,” Meadowcroft
remarked with a smile. “And then, too, don’t forget you’ve got
something more coming to you Monday.”
Tommy grinned. Meadowcroft waited a little, hoping the boy would
have something to say of the real matter at issue. Tommy’s reticence
confirmed his recent conclusion that he wasn’t the culprit he had
believed him. His participation in the mischief had been, like the
falsehood he had told, solely for the sake of shielding Betty Pogany,
who had apparently suddenly been seized with an impulse to be as
naughty as she could be to see what it was like. So instead of blaming
Tommy, Meadowcroft felt like showing his appreciation of his loyalty.
And as the surest way to Tommy’s heart was through magic, he asked the
boy if he had succeeded in getting the red, white, and blue layers in a
jar of water.
“Not yet,” said Tommy, “nor soon either, for that matter.”
“What do you mean?” Meadowcroft demanded.
“No magic for yours truly till school’s out in June,” Tommy returned,
grinning.
“Tommy Finnemore, what do you mean?” cried Meadowcroft. Had he sent the
boy home to set the house afire or do something equally destructive
with his magic?
“Dad was fierce when he heard I’d been sassing you, so he handed me out
that sentence,” returned the boy coolly.
“How did he hear? Who told him?”
“I did. He wanted to know why I was home at that time o’ day and I said
I was sent home for talking back.”
Which proved that Tommy wouldn’t lie to serve himself. Meadowcroft’s
heart sank. He wished he had done anything rather than bring that
punishment upon the boy. It began to look as if it had been a
mistake--a huge error for him to take the school. He had brought this
upon one of his friends and had apparently alienated the other. And
yet, had he wished to refuse to help out Mr. Appleton he could hardly
have done so. And having gone so far, he couldn’t retreat now.
“I am right sorry about that. Tommy. I wish with all my heart I could
do something about it,” he said earnestly.
“You needn’t be sorry. It was just right. For once in his life dad did
the correct thing,” the boy declared staunchly.
Reaching the house, Meadowcroft asked Tommy to come in, but Tommy was
due at home. Meadowcroft hesitated.
“Shall you see Betty?” he asked. And Tommy said that he should.
“You might say to her that I shall be right here to-night and to-morrow
after school and all day Saturday and Sunday,” he said. “If she should
feel like talking things over, it might be easier and simpler here.”
Tommy delivered the message immediately. Betty heard it indifferently.
Indeed, it failed to penetrate her wretchedness sufficiently to make
any impression. Terrible as the experience of that morning had been, it
already seemed to the girl far, far in the past. Her one thought was
of Rose and of the weekly visits to Dr. Vandegrift. If the latter were
over, if Rose was condemned to perpetual blindness, what did anything
matter?
All day, the girl’s heart had been like a stone. Never in her life
had she known such wretchedness. She had proposed to Rose that they
should take the train home. It wasn’t that she wouldn’t have preferred
to walk, but that she knew she couldn’t possibly keep up her courage
with Rose for so long a period. Rose apparently hadn’t suffered greatly
yet; but that was because she hadn’t yet realized the import of it
all. Betty, convinced against her will that all was lost, wouldn’t,
nevertheless, give up yet. But she wanted to have forced some hope out
of the situation before she should see Rose again.
Finally, it came to her that they could get Dr. Vandegrift to see them
on Wednesday at three o’clock or a quarter of an hour before. His time
was all taken, she knew, but he might be able to manage it by changing
another patient. Then they could go directly after school. That would
make them very late in getting home and it would be very difficult to
arrange with Aunt Sarah and Mrs. Harrow. Tommy could probably contrive
something to satisfy the latter; but Aunt Sarah seemed hopeless. And
yet, Betty couldn’t let her block Rose’s cure--couldn’t let her ruin
Rose’s whole future. Over Sunday Betty debated appealing to her father.
On Monday morning she decided to go to him that night and ask his
permission to come home late for one night a week, explaining that Rose
wished it very much. By the time she reached school, the girl was full
of hope.
But hope was suddenly and finally quenched very shortly after the
opening of school. Again, the three offenders were summoned to the
bench before the desk that was like the prisoner’s cage--a refinement
of cruelty which even Tommy admitted to be “piling it on.” But for
Betty the walking the length of the room with everyone staring at her
and sitting in that conspicuous place was so terrible that it acted
rather as an anæsthetic rendering her less sensitive to the trial and
verdict. Perhaps, however, it would be nearer fact to liken it to
suffering with a severe tooth-ache the while a broken arm is being set.
For certainly her sensibility wasn’t deadened.
Meadowcroft’s manner was different to-day. He was quiet, seemed rather
sad than indignant, and his voice was weary--almost discouraged. He
asked whether anyone had any explanation to offer or any extenuating
circumstances to submit. But nothing was forthcoming.
“I confess that I hardly know how to deal with such flagrant
insubordination,” he admitted, “nor understand how young people can
be so unmoved after sufficient time to meditate upon deliberate
wrong-doing. It makes me regret for the first time that another than
I did not take Mr. Appleton’s place during his absence, one who would
have been more skilful to handle such an affair--or better yet, one
whom pupils would have liked and respected too well to defy in such
fashion.”
Rose caught her breath quickly as if in protest. Tommy flushed so
deeply that his freckles were swallowed up, and Betty, whose face
couldn’t have been whiter, unconsciously wrung her hands.
“Of course all that is beside the point,” Meadowcroft was going on.
“Here I am in the master’s chair, with the duty before me of dealing
with the case as best I can. I can’t help doubting whether the two of
you who offended a second time, who having been held up for breaking a
rule and warned deliberately, broke it again--I rather doubt whether
such rebels against duly-constituted authority belong in the school or
ought to be allowed to remain longer in this law-abiding body.”
The silence was appalling. Glancing at Betty, Tommy wished with all his
heart, he had followed her sooner so that he could share the worst with
her. Meadowcroft glanced at the girl, too, and made a final appeal.
“Perhaps, Miss Pogany, even though you acted deliberately, you wouldn’t
do it again? Perhaps you regret it now?” he asked very kindly.
Betty looked at him almost wildly. If only he knew! And she strove to
cling to the remembrance that he didn’t know, lest she begin to hate
him. He thought the look defiant.
“Then I am to infer that you acted deliberately and that you have no
regrets?” he concluded. And her silence gave consent.
Tommy raised his hand. Meadowcroft noticed the stains on it and even
at the moment realized that when they had worn off there would be no
others for many weary weeks.
“Yes, Finnemore?” he said kindly.
“It was just the same for me. Mr. Meadowcroft, as for the girls.” Tommy
said quietly. “I heard what you said the first time and of course I
understood.”
“I daresay. Well, then none of you would seem to belong to the school
whose discipline you have flouted. However, in the absence of the
regular master, I am not going to put you out. I shall see to it,
nevertheless, that so long as we all remain, you shall break no further
rules. Also, penitent or impenitent, you shall do what is possible
towards making up what you have lost. There are three weeks before
the Easter holidays. During that period you are not to leave the
school-grounds after you arrive in the morning until you go to the
station at night. And beginning to-day the three of you are to remain
after school every day until quarter-past four o’clock. The extra time
is to be devoted solely to Latin Composition with a daily recitation
beginning at half-past three. I shall do my best to prepare you to take
the examination with the others on the last day of the term. Prepare
the first lesson in the book for to-day, please.”
Tommy, who couldn’t help admiring the neatness of this arrangement
even as he groaned within himself, raised his hand.
“That will make sixteen or seventeen lessons for us, and the rest
of the class only gets about twelve in all, and Miss Cummings has
a roomful to teach and you’ll only have us three,” he remarked
ingenuously.
“A little extra drill won’t do any harm,” remarked Meadowcroft dryly.
“I am hoping, indeed, to make the course thorough. That will do. You
may go to your seats.”