Somebody way in the back part shouted out, “Don’t believe it!”
“Silence!” said the master. And he thumped his ruler on the desk.
Then he told me to take off my jacket, and fold it up. And I did.
He told me to hand my collar and ribbon to a teacher. And I did.
Then he laid down his ruler, and took his rod and bent it to see if it
was limber. It wasn’t exactly a rod. It was the thing I told you about
when I first came to this school.
[Illustration]
He tried it twice on the desk first.
Then he took hold of my shoulder and turned my back round towards him.
He said I had better bend down my head a little, and took hold of the
neck of my shirt to keep me steady. I shut my teeth together tight.
At that very minute Bubby Short cried out, “Master! Master! Stop! Don’t!
He didn’t do it! He didn’t kill it! I know who! I’ll tell! I will! I
will! I don’t care what Tom Cush does! ’T was Tom Cush killed it!”
The master didn’t say one word. But he handed me my jacket.
The boys all clapped and gave three cheers, and he let them.
Then he said to me, whispering, “Is this so, William?” And I said, low,
“Yes, sir.”
Then he took hold of my hand and led me to my seat. And when I sat down
he put his hand on my shoulder just as softly,--it made me remember the
way my mother used to before she died, and, says he, “My dear boy,” then
stopped and began again, “My dear boy,” and stopped again. If he’d been
a boy I should have thought he was going to cry himself. But of course a
man wouldn’t. And what should he cry for? It wasn’t he that almost had a
whipping. At last he told me to come to his room after supper. Then
Bubby Short was called up to the platform.
Now I will tell you how Bubby Short found out about it.
He sleeps in a little bed in a little bit of a room that lets out of
Tom’s. ’T isn’t much bigger than a closet. But it is just right for him.
That morning when Tom got up so early and threw pebbles at me, Bubby
Short had been keeping awake with the toothache. And he heard Tom
telling another boy about the rabbit.
He made believe sleep. But once, while Tom was dressing himself, he
peeped out from under the bedquilt, with one eye, to see a
black-and-blue spot, that Tom said he hit his head against a post and
made, when he was running.
But they caught him peeping out, and were dreadful mad because he heard,
and said if he told one single word they would flog him. But he says he
would have told before, if he had known it had been laid to me.
Wasn’t he a nice little fellow to tell?
O, I was so glad when the boys all clapped! And when we were let out,
they came and shook hands with Bubby Short and me. Great boys and all.
Mr. Augustus, and Dorry, and all. And the master told me how glad he was
that he could keep on thinking me to be an honest boy.
Now aren’t you glad you didn’t feel sorry?
Your affectionate grandchild,