“I’ve locked poor old Abbie in her bedroom,” announced Maude. “And now look at this!”
Maude hurled a large scarlet bundle at Mabel’s head. Fortunately, it was a soft bundle.
“Spread it out on the floor,” directed Maude. “It’s Miss Woodruff’s nightgown. Somebody told her that red flannel was a sure cure for rheumatism, so she wears that thing. It’s perfectly enormous—it would have to be or it wouldn’t fit. Now, let’s look in all the Lakeville girls’ sewing baskets for large white buttons and white tape—they won’t mind. We’ll just embellish that nightie with a few nice pictures and tack it up on Miss Woodruff’s door—the girls will love it. We’ll sew those buttons on tight, too.”
Against the brilliant background, the naughty pair outlined grinning faces with the white tape, making eyes and other features with the large white buttons. A blazing sun adorned each wide front and Maude accomplished a daring caricature of Miss Woodruff herself in the very center of the broad scarlet back. Ordinarily, both Maude and Mabel hated to sew on buttons; but now they fell upon the task with glee.
“I’ve thought of something else,” announced Maude, when this task was finished. “Miss Woodruff hates tobacco smoke. There are several packages of horrible cigarettes in Madame Bolande’s room. You get the tin pail that stands on the back porch. After awhile I’ll build a tiny fire in that and burn a bunch of those cigarettes just inside Miss Woodruff’s door.”
“Oh Maude—”
“We’ve been so bad now that we might as well keep on,” said Maude, recklessly. “There’s one thing sure; the next time they punish us they won’t leave us home—they won’t dare. We’ll have to keep Abbie locked in until the very last minute so she won’t undo any of our work. Now I’ll get a pitcher of water so we can keep the fire in our pail from doing any harm; and anyway a little dampness will make that tobacco smell worse.”
Maude and Mabel were in their beds and very sound asleep when the school returned. Miss Woodruff went to the library to find a book before ascending to her room; so most of the West Corridor girls had a fine chance to see the strange and ludicrous object nailed to the poor lady’s door. Such a shout of laughter went up that Mrs. Rhodes hurried to the corridor and Doctor Rhodes, startled at the unusual sound, followed after. Poor Miss Woodruff arrived a moment later to find even Doctor Rhodes convulsed with mirth.
In one of his brief speeches to the school, Doctor Rhodes had once said “Incapatiated” when he meant “Incapacitated.” Perhaps he was remembering the superior manner in which Miss Woodruff had corrected him. At any rate, he now seemed able to enjoy a joke on that rather severe lady.
Maude spent the next day in solitary confinement in the big lonely room at the end of the North Corridor, far away from all her friends. She was to stay there until she apologized. For some reason, Doctor Rhodes failed to connect Mabel with the wicked doings of the previous night; it is possible that Maude had shouldered all the blame; but when the second day dawned, with Maude still obdurate, Mabel, without consulting any of her friends, marched down to Doctor Rhodes’s office.