There was a stir among some of the younger children, a bending together of heads, and a faint whispering like the buzzing of bees, then Betty Marshall held up her hand.
"Please, Miss Fanny, there's a metronome just like ours in the pound. Posie and Florrie and I saw it as we came to school."
"In the pound!" Miss Fanny's voice quivered with amazed indignation.
"Yes, the Nicky Nans had taken it."
"But surely no boy would dare to venture into our schoolroom. It's outrageous! I shall have to complain to the schoolmaster if they go beyond bounds like this. To take it off the piano!"
Posie and Betty glanced doubtfully at one another as if uncertain whether to explain further. Then Posie held up a chubby hand.
"Please, Miss Fanny, it wasn't on the piano; it was outside on the window-sill."
"On the window-sill! Who put it there?" The teacher's voice had reached crescendo.
Posie wriggled and looked uncomfortably at Betty and then at Florrie, finally in a rather tremulous whisper she murmured:
"Merle Ramsay."