“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.”