THE BITTERNESS OF INJUSTICE
There was a tense silence in the schoolroom. Every eye was directed
toward the two lads whose appearance had been the signal for so much
commotion. They had made a decidedly disturbing entrance into school,
to say the least.
Miss Leonard regarded Harry searchingly. His clear, unwavering glance
seemed to assure her of his honesty of purpose. “Suppose you tell me
all about this argument,” she said quietly. “You appear to understand
what it means. First, let me ask you why you say that this boy,” she
indicated the fat youth, “is not telling the truth.”
“I know that he is not telling the truth, because I was in the
lunch-room when Ted--this boy, upset his tray. It was entirely an
accident. He was looking at something else and bumped into the boy. The
boy was very angry. He tried to make my friend pay fifteen cents, when
his dinner cost ten. My friend gave him ten cents, and I suppose he
bought another dinner.”
“He said he’d get even with me,” put in Teddy.
“Wait a moment!” Miss Leonard held up her hand. “I have not asked you
to say anything yet,” she reminded. Then she turned to the fat boy.
“Howard, did you make all this commotion simply because you wanted to
‘be even’ with this boy?”
“He called me ‘elephant’ and ‘Fatty Felix,’” whined the boy addressed
as Howard. “He spoiled my dinner apurpose.”
“He made a face at me,” declared Teddy, scowling. “That’s why I called
him names. We were minding our own affairs and he----”
“Howard, it looks to me as though you began this quarrel. Therefore,
you are to apologize to Theodore for speaking falsely of him and for
making a face at him. You, Theodore, must apologize to Howard for
calling him unkind names. Now, Howard.”
Howard glared at the red-haired boy, whose impish face wore a most
tantalizing grin, then he mumbled a most unwilling apology.
“I’m sorry I had to call him names. I wouldn’t have done it if he
hadn’t made a face at me.” Teddy addressed this naïve apology to Miss
Leonard, rather than the injured Howard.
Miss Leonard had difficulty in keeping an unsmiling face. Teddy’s
offhand, unrepentant manner of apologizing was funny in the extreme.
She felt her heart warm toward this mischievous-faced, ruddy-haired
boy. She liked the honesty that peeped out from behind the mischief,
just as she disliked the mean, dishonorable spirit of which she knew
Howard Randall, her oldest and most stupid pupil, to be possessed.
“Now, boys, I shall expect you to mind your own affairs strictly, in
future. If any more such scenes occur, I shall send you to Mr. Keene.
As it is, I shall give each of you a demerit. Hand me your cards.”
The boys’ hands traveled reluctantly to the breast pockets of their
coats. Teddy brought forth a card devoid, by lucky chance, of black
marks. Howard Randall’s card, however, was decorated with several
evidences of his failure to obey the rules of Martin Brothers’ store.
“I am sorry to be obliged to give a boy a demerit before he has been my
pupil ten minutes,” she said with a significance that made Teddy hang
his head and resolve to keep his card clear thereafter.
Her pretty face grew perceptibly harder as she leveled cold eyes upon
the fat boy. “This is the fifth demerit for you this month, sir.
Remember, October is not half over. It would pay you to make up your
mind to be a good boy. Now, listen to me. The next time I have occasion
to speak to you I shall send you to Miss Pierce and tell her that I do
not care to have a boy like you in my class.”
The fat boy listened in sulky silence to Miss Leonard’s threat. As she
turned and walked down the aisle to her desk, he made a face at her
retreating back. Several boys, who were watching him, giggled. The
teacher eyed him sharply as she faced her class, but by this time the
fat boy’s face had returned to its expression of sullenness.
After this break in the usual routine of the school work, matters
progressed more smoothly. Miss Leonard interviewed Teddy and Harry as
to their class standing in the schools which they had attended previous
to their entry into the store. She was not slow to perceive Harry’s
eagerness for study, and that he was farther advanced than the majority
of the boys in her class. He seemed so anxious to learn, too. She
felt that it would be a pleasure to teach him. She had serious doubts
of Teddy, however. By no means did she hold him blameless for the
recent disturbance. Still, there was something very likable about him.
At least Teddy was honest and straightforward. This would, perhaps,
outweigh his mischievous tendencies. She determined to keep him busy
every moment of the time he spent in her class-room, and in this
respect she showed that rare good sense which had made her the most
successful teacher in Martin Brothers’ school for boys.
As each boy had only two mornings in the week in which to attend
school, these mornings were extremely busy ones. On Tuesday and Friday
Company B went to school, on Wednesday and Saturday it was Company
C’s turn. School opened promptly at half-past seven o’clock, with the
reading of the Bible. In Miss Leonard’s room each boy was required
to recite a Bible verse or poetical quotation. The recital of the
quotations followed the Bible reading. Then the remainder of the time
until eight o’clock was devoted to penmanship, the boys copying a
paragraph placed on the large blackboard which took up most of the wall
space directly behind Miss Leonard’s desk. A peculiarity of the writing
lesson was that once the copy was begun it could not be erased or
re-written. It must stand as it had been originally put down. This was
Miss Leonard’s own idea, and it went far toward inculcating the habits
of neatness and carefulness in writing.
From eight o’clock until half-past eight, the three sections joined in
gymnastic exercises on one morning and on the other the same period was
devoted to concert singing. On the same floor with the schoolrooms a
small gymnasium had been fitted with wands, dumb-bells, Indian clubs,
and all the paraphernalia of a high-school gymnasium. Their instructor
was a young salesman in the sporting goods department, who left the
selling floor for a half hour every other morning to give the boys the
benefit of his services.
From half-past eight until nine o’clock came the arithmetic recitation,
followed by a half hour of geography. From half-past nine until ten
o’clock was a study hour, followed by half an hour of English grammar
and composition. From half-past ten until a quarter to eleven was also
given over to study, and the last fifteen minutes of the morning were
devoted to spelling. As far as possible the boys were given no home
work to do, although they were privileged to prepare their arithmetic,
English or geography lessons outside of school, if they failed to
finish them during the time allotted during each school morning for
study.
Such was the programme of the school in which Teddy and Harry now
found themselves. Harry’s eyes shone with a great happiness, as the
morning wore away and the several periods of recitation and study came
and went, while for the first time in his life, perhaps, Teddy was
genuinely interested in school.
When, at eleven o’clock, Section A filed out of the schoolroom, Teddy
hurried to catch up with Harry, who was walking a few steps ahead of
him. “How about it?” he asked jocularly. He was not quite sure how
Harry had taken his lapse from good conduct.
“How about what?” retorted Harry, purposely dense.
“Wh-y--er--school,” beamed Teddy. “It wasn’t so _bad_, after all.”
“Oh, no, _school_ wasn’t bad,” flung back Harry with unmistakable
emphasis.
Teddy grinned cheerfully. “Well, it wasn’t your fault, anyway. You told
me not to call people names. I’m much obliged to you for being on my
side, though.”
“I wouldn’t have helped you at all if that boy had told the truth,”
informed Harry calmly. “You got just what you deserved, a demerit. But
it wasn’t fair in that Randall boy to say what he said.”
“Well, I’m not going to get any more demerits. Not unless I’m asleep
and somebody steals my card and puts ’em there.”
“You’d never get any while you were asleep. That’s when you are really
good,” was Harry’s sly comment.
Teddy’s grin grew broad again. “Some knock,” he murmured. “Well, here’s
where I leave you. See you to-night.”
“All right,” nodded Harry. His eyes followed Teddy as he ran down a
basement stairway. He turned in the direction of his own department.
Suddenly a peevish voice addressed him: “Where’s the perfume counter,
boy?” He felt a decided poke between the shoulders.
Harry whirled and saw a cross-looking old man with a cane partly
raised, as though to poke him again if necessary.
“Two aisles down, turn to your left, sir,” answered Harry politely.
“I’d like to know who can make anything of that information,” snapped
the old man. “You take me down there, boy. That’s what you’re here for.”
“Very well, sir, I will.” Harry led the way down the aisle toward
the perfumes, while the old man trotted after him, grumbling that he
couldn’t see why department stores tried to hide their wares if they
expected to sell them.
It was at least ten minutes before Harry succeeded in getting away from
the ill-natured customer, who insisted that the boy call a salesgirl to
wait on him.
“Oh, dear,” he breathed in consternation, as, free at last, he hurried
toward his department. He had caught sight of the clock in the book
department. It was seventeen minutes past eleven. He hurried down the
aisle that separated the books from the jewelry, so intent on reaching
the exchange desk that he did not see a man, carrying several books,
who stepped from a narrow aisle, formed by several tables, into the
main one.
Crash! The books fell from the man’s hands to the floor. The impact of
the collision sent both man and boy backward several steps.
“I beg your pardon, sir. I did not see you coming.” Harry stooped.
Gathering up the fallen books, he presented them to the stranger, a
fine-looking man of perhaps forty-two, with keen, gray eyes and black
hair, lightly touched with gray at the temples.
“It was my fault, my lad,” smiled the man. “I was so busy thinking I
was not looking where I walked.”
His gray eyes took in the boy from head to foot with a searching glance
that contained decided approval.
“What a nice man,” was Harry’s thought as he turned away. “I wonder
who he is. He must be a salesman in the books. He had all those books.
My goodness! It’s twenty minutes after eleven o’clock. What will Mr.
Barton say, I wonder. Still, I couldn’t help taking that man to the
perfumes.”
Harry was soon to learn what Mr. Barton had to say. He had hardly
reached the exchange desk when he saw the aisle manager bearing down
upon him, looking like a cross old bird.
“Look at that clock,” began Mr. Barton in a voice that could be heard
the length of the department. “Eleven minutes late. Give me your card.
If you play along the way, you mustn’t expect I’m going to excuse you.
Oh, no!”
“Mr. Barton, I would have been here on time if----”
“You hadn’t stopped to fool with some other boy,” supplied the man
sarcastically. “Where’s your card? Give it to me, I say.”
“But, Mr. Barton,” protested Harry, “I had to show an old gentleman
where the perfume----”
“That’ll do,” roared the aisle manager. Harry’s mild protest had
aroused his temper. “Either give me your card, or up to the front you
go.”
Harry said no more. With his boyish face white and set he handed Mr.
Barton his precious card, the card he had dreamed of keeping clear and
fair.
“There’s one for tardiness, one for impertinence, and one for--lying.
You can’t fool me with a yarn about having to show a customer a
department. I’ll let you go with demerits, this time, but don’t you
ever lie to me again. I know too much about boys.”
Harry’s face turned from white to scarlet. He clenched his hands in an
effort to control himself. It seemed to him that for the first time
in his life he knew what hatred really meant. Now he understood, or
thought he understood, Teddy’s rooted dislike for his former teacher,
Miss Alton.
“Here, take your card and put it away.” Mr. Barton thrust Harry’s card
into his hands and stalked off. The boy gazed gloomily at the three
black marks that loomed in a sinister row on the bit of cardboard that
spelled his future in the store, while, for the first time, deep in his
soul, rankled and stung the bitterness of injustice.