It was quite warm in the schoolroom one day, and the teacher of the
animal children, who was a nice young lady robin, had all the windows
open. But even then it was still warm, and the pupils, including Bully
and Bawly No-Tail, the frog boys, and Lulu and Alice and Jimmie
Wibblewobble, the ducks, weren't doing much studying.
Every now and then they would look out of the window toward the green
fields, and the cool, pleasant woods, where the yellow and purple
violets were growing, and they wished they were out there instead of in
school.
"My, it's hot!" whispered Bully to Bawly, and of course it was wrong to
whisper in school, but perhaps he didn't think.
"Yes, I wish we could go swimming," answered Bawly, and the teacher
heard the frog brothers talking together.
"Oh, Bully and Bawly," she said, as she turned around from the
blackboard, where she was drawing a picture of a house, so the children
could better learn how to spell it, "I am sorry to hear you whispering.
You will both have to stay in after school."
Well, of course Bully and Bawly didn't like that, but when you do wrong
you have to suffer for it, and when the other animal boys and girls ran
out after school, to play marbles and baseball, and skip rope, and jump
hop-scotch and other games, the frog boys had to stay in.
They sat in the quiet schoolroom, and the robin teacher did some writing
in her books. And Bawly looked out of the window over at the baseball
game. And Bully looked out of the window over toward the swimming pond.
And the teacher looked out of the window at the cool woods, where those
queer flowered Jack-in-the-pulpits grew, and she too, wished she was out
there instead of in the schoolroom.
"Well, if you two boys are sorry you whispered, and promise that you
won't do it again, you may go," said the teacher after a while, when she
had looked out of the window once more. "You know it isn't really wicked
to whisper in school, only it makes you forget to study, and sometimes
it makes other children forget to study, and that's where the wrong part
comes in."
"I'm sorry, teacher," said Bully.
"You may go," said the young robin lady with a smile. "How about you,
Bawly?"
"I'm not!" he exclaimed, real cross-like, "and I'll whisper again," for
all the while Bawly had been thinking how mean the teacher was to keep
him in when he wanted to go out and play ball.
The robin lady teacher looked very much surprised at the frog boy, but
she only said, "Very well, Bawly. Then you can't go."
So Bully hurried out, and Bawly and the teacher stayed there.
Bawly kept feeling worse and worse, and he began to wish that he had
said he was sorry. He looked at the teacher, and he saw that she was
gazing out of the window again, toward the woods, where there were
little white flowers, like stars, growing by the cool, green ferns. And
Bawly noticed how tired the teacher looked, and as he watched he was
sure he saw a tear in each of her bright eyes. And finally she turned to
him and said:
"It is so nice out of doors, Bawly, that I can't keep you here any
longer, no matter whether you are sorry or not. But I hope you'll be
sorry to-morrow, and won't whisper again. For it helps me when boys and
girls don't whisper. Run out now, and have a good time. I wish I could
go, but I have some work to do," and then with her wing she patted Bawly
on his little green head, and opened the door for him.
Bawly felt rather queer as he hopped out, and he didn't feel like
playing ball, after all. Instead he hopped off to the woods, and sat
down under a big Jack-in-the-pulpit to think. And he thought of how his
teacher couldn't live in the nice green country as he did, for she had
to stay in a boarding-house in the city, to be near her school, and she
couldn't see the flowers growing in the woods as often as could Bawly,
for she nearly always had to stay in after school to write in the
report-books.
"I--I wish I hadn't whispered," Bawly said to himself. "I--I'm going to
help teacher after this. I'll tell her I'm sorry, and--and I guess I'll
bring her some flowers for her desk."
Every one wondered what made Bawly so quiet that evening at home. He
studied his lessons, and he didn't want to go out and play ball with
Bully.
"I hope he isn't going to be sick," said his mamma, anxious-like.
"Oh! I guess maybe he's got a touch of water-lily fever," said Grandpa
Croaker. "A few days of swimming will make him all right again."
Bawly got up very early the next morning, and without telling any one
where he was going he hopped over to the woods, and gathered a lot of
flowers.
Oh, such a quantity as he picked! There were purple violets, and yellow
ones, and white ones, and some wild, purple asters, and some blue
fringed gentian, and some lovely light-purple wild geraniums, and
several Jacks-in-the-pulpit, and many other kinds of flowers. And he
made them into a nice bouquet with some ferns on the outside.
Then, just as he was hopping to school, what should happen but that a
great big alligator jumped out of the bushes at him.
"Ha! What are you doing in my woods," asked the alligator, crossly.
"If--if you please, I'm getting some flowers for my teacher, because I
whispered," said Bawly.
"Oh, in that case it's all right," said the alligator, smacking his
jaws. "I like school teachers. Give her my regards," and would you
believe it? the savage creature crawled off, taking his double-jointed
tail with him, and didn't hurt Bawly a bit. The flowers made the
alligator feel kind and happy.
Well, Bawly got to school all right, before any of the other children
did, and he put the flowers on teacher's desk, and he wrote a little
note, saying:
"Dear teacher, I'm sorry I whispered, but I'm going to help you to-day,
and not talk."
And Bawly didn't. It was quite hard in school that day, but at last it
was over. And, just when the children were going home, the robin lady
teacher said:
"Boys and girls, you have all helped me very much to-day by being good,
and I thank you. And something else helped me. It was these flowers that
Bawly brought me, for they remind me of the woods where I used to play
when I was a little girl," and then she smelled of the flowers, and
Bawly saw something like two drops of water fall from the teacher's eyes
right into one of the Jacks-in-the-pulpit. I wonder if it was water?
And then school was over and all the children ran out to play and Bawly
thought he never had had so much fun in all his life as when he and
Bully and some of the others had a ball game, and Bawly knocked a fine
home run.
Now, in case the cuckoo clock doesn't fall down off the wall and spatter
the rice pudding all over the parlor carpet, I'll tell you in the story
after this one about Bully and Sammie Littletail.