Daisy was a talkative child. Her eyes went everywhere and her ears
picked up all the news that passed her way.
[Sidenote: “Telling on” the Pupils]
“Teacher, Tommy’s whispering”—“Jennie lost her book”—“Philip said some
bad words”—“Annie’s papa’s dead, and she says she don’t care.” After a
few interruptions of this sort, her teacher broke out with:
“If you don’t shut up, I shall go crazy. Why don’t you go to work and
leave other people’s affairs alone?”
Such a rebuke closed up the torrent of tattling for only a very few
minutes.
The next string of remarks was cut off with, “Not another word from you
this morning. You’re a regular little tattle-tale.” When another remark
began it was blocked by:
“I can’t hear any more tales from you today.”