Laura had thrown the book out of the window!
In the exaltation of this triumph, he forgot that it was not yet the hour for a scholar’s reappearance, and went forth in haste to search the ground beneath the window—a disappointing quest, for nowhere in the yard was there anything but withered grass, and the rubbish of other frost-bitten vegetation. His mother, however, discovered something else, and, opening the kitchen window, she asked, with surprise:
“Why, Hedrick, what on earth are you doing here?”
“Me?” inquired Hedrick.
“What are you doing here?”
“Here?” Evidently she puzzled him.
She became emphatic. “I want to know what you are doing.”
“Just standing here,” he explained in a meek, grieved way.
“But why aren’t you at school?”
This recalled what he had forgotten, and he realized the insecurity of his position. “Oh, yes,” he said—“school. Did you ask me——”