[Sidenote: Pertness]
(5) _Talking back for approval of mates._ Sometimes it is not the
dominant sentiment of a social unit, but the opinion and wishes of an
individual, according to which a wrong-doer shapes his deeds. In a
certain seventh grade in Ohio there was a little girl who possessed one
of these shy and cat-like natures which delight in making mischief but
seemed always to escape the consequences. She was pretty and had a
wonderful adaptability of manner. Dear old ladies said she was a sweet
and ladylike little thing, and the roughest boys in school pronounced
her a good fellow. She was essentially neither of these, but she was
always a good actress. Her name was Bernice Storrs.
One day Miss Coffee, the teacher, said to her class in geography, “Now
we’ll close our books and see how many of the products of South America
we can remember.”
“We don’t have to close our books to find that out, do we?” inquired
Horace Selfridge pertly.
“We certainly do! Close your book at once!” Miss Coffee was a
disciplinarian of the old school, and she bristled at this
insubordination. Horace’s book remained open.
“If we don’t look at them it’s the same thing, isn’t it?” he said.
“Horace Selfridge! What do you mean?”
“Nothing. Just what I said.”
“You are very impudent. You may go up to Miss Bell’s office.”
“I won’t do anything of the kind. I asked you a civil question, and you
ought to give me a civil answer.”
This undignified dialogue continued until the outraged Miss Coffee sent
for the principal. When Miss Bell came in, she found a tractable,
courteous and somewhat triumphant boy and a much flustered teacher.
Horace was given a punishment which he endured with admirable fortitude;
and, thereafter, Miss Coffee had trouble with him once in a while, for
he had learned that she could be worried and he loved to do it.
Now the inside history of Horace’s impudence was that Bernice Storrs was
using him as a means of amusement. Impeccable in her own school
behavior, she had skilfully suggested to Horace what a hero he would be
if only he could make the teacher “mad” and defy her authority. To stand
in Bernice’s graces, Horace thought up the spectacular defiance that so
stirred up Miss Coffee; and to stand in her graces, Horace repeatedly
made trouble during the year.