“It was me,” said Bert doggedly, if ungrammatically. “I was the fellow that let that mouse out. I brought him to school on purpose to have some fun; it wasn’t Elizabeth at all.”
“I know that,” Miss Jewett said calmly, “and I was pretty sure of the guilty person, but on Elizabeth’s account I overlooked it. It was pretty good of her, don’t you think, Bert, to try to shield you?”
“It was, sure,” replied Bert. “She’s the stuff, but I ’most wish she hadn’t.”
“You think that since she did not succeed in preventing a disturbance it would have been better all around? Well, I think so too, so far as that one thing was concerned, but it has done something else which I think is more worth while. It has proved to you and to me that she is loyal to her brother and to me, that she has courage, moral courage, which is the best kind, and so we have learned how absolutely she is to be depended upon.”
“She’s all right,” repeated Bert.
“It has proved to me another thing that I might not have found out,” Miss Jewett went on: “it has shown me that you have moral courage, too, and that you are not willing to let your sister shoulder the blame which is really yours. That is worth while knowing, too, Bert. I am mighty glad of that. So, because it would grieve your sister to know that in spite of her efforts you were punished, and because of one or two other things, we are going to close the subject right now. But, listen, Bert, if ever you do such a thing again—” Miss Jewett did not say what would happen but by the expression of her face Bert knew he would not be let off easily.
He stood for a minute not knowing exactly what to say. He had had something of a lecture, to be sure, but he had been commended for having the courage to own up. He did not feel that he could depart with flying colors, exactly, yet he was not in disgrace, nor was there any occasion to show defiance. Probably the best thing was to show neither the mien of conqueror nor of vanquished, but to take his leave in a polite but firmly resolute manner. So he bowed and said pleasantly: “Good-evening, Miss Jewett. I don’t believe I will bother with bringing any more mice to school.” Then he went without a moment’s delay, leaving Miss Jewett shaking with laughter.
“They are so ridiculous, those two Hollins children,” she said to herself. “I wonder if I will get through the year with any dignity left. Teaching does take it out of one, but I must say that at times there are compensations. I wish I could tell exactly what was passing through that youngster’s mind when he went out in that absurd way.”
It did not make the slightest difference to Bert whether she knew or not; his whole feeling was of relief at having put an unpleasant interview behind him. There was but one more thing required of him and that could be made short work of. He put his intention into effect at the very first moment he could. There was no need of appearing anything but lordly before his own sister, so with hands in his pockets, he sauntered into Elizabeth’s presence.
He found her absorbed in studying her lessons for the next day, being fired with new ambition after the reconciliation. “I say,” said Bert, breaking in upon the doings of the English kings.