“Peter Rose, have you anything to say?”
“Just the same as Will Riley said.”
“And you, Benjamin?”
“Oh, I don’t care much,” said Ben Berry. “Jack was fox, and I ran after him, and if he hadn’t run all over creation and part of Columbia, I shouldn’t have been late. It isn’t any fault of mine. I think Jack ought to do the staying in.”
“You are about as old a boy as Jack,” said the master. “I suppose Jack might say that if you and the others hadn’t chased him, he wouldn’t have run ‘all over creation,’ as you put it. You and the rest were all guilty of a piece of gross thoughtlessness. All excepting you three have apologized in the most manly way. I therefore remove the punishment from all the others entirely hereafter, deeming that the loss of this morning’s recess is punishment enough for boys who can be so manly in their acknowledgments. Peter Rose, William Riley, and Benjamin Berry will remain in school at both recesses and for a half-hour after school every day for three days—not only for having forgotten their duty, but for having refused to make acknowledgment or apology.”
Going home that evening, half an hour after all the others had been dismissed, the triplets put all their griefs together, and resolved to be avenged on Mr. Williams at the first convenient opportunity.