“I was late. My mother overslept this morning. I had to hustle to get here. I was only ten minutes late, though. Mr. Duffield didn’t scold. My, but he’s good. He just said, ‘Try not to be late again.’ Mr. Hickson says he’s always like that to everybody. Mr. Hickson’s a pretty good fellow, too. I’d do most anything for him. I like all the folks in kettles and pans, except the old Gobbler. Maybe she didn’t gobble the other day, though.” Teddy launched forth with the tale of the purloined feather duster. “You ought to have heard her gobble the next morning when she went to fish out her duster and got nothing but a handle.” He giggled gleefully at the memory. “I was watching her to see what she’d do. She made a lot of fuss. She went around making the folks in the department show her their dusters to see if any of ’em had hers.”
“But didn’t she know her duster when Mr. Hickson showed it to her?” asked Harry, his eyes dancing with amusement.
“He didn’t happen to be on the floor when she was going around the department. Te, he! I went and got the duster and took it over to her. She was telling Mr. Duffield her troubles. ‘Is this your duster, Miss Newton?’ I asked. That’s her real name. She looked at it and gobbled, ‘That duster, mine? No, sir. My duster’s brand new. That’s all cut up, and the top’s gone.’ So I put it away again. Maybe Mr. Hickson didn’t laugh when I told him. He said he was even with her now for taking a big sale away from him the other day.”
“You’re a bad boy, Teddy,” laughed Harry. But his tone contained little rebuke.
“I’m good sometimes,” defended Teddy stoutly. “Doesn’t it seem funny to think we won’t have to go to school any more until after Christmas?” Teddy preferred not to speak of his shortcomings.
“I’m sorry, aren’t you?”
“Well,” Teddy squinted reflectively, “school isn’t so bad. I have a pretty good time in my department, though. How’s dear, kind Mr. Barton to-day?” he asked sarcastically.
“Dear, kind Mr. Barton has been quite mild lately. I hope it lasts.”
“He’s glad he’s going to get a holiday. He has something to be thankful for on Thanksgiving. He can be thankful he isn’t any uglier than he is,” berated Teddy.