Some of those present were kicking at the mice and trying to hit them with rulers and sticks. One boy aimed an ink-well at two in a corner, but his aim was wild and the ink merely splashed over one of the visitors' faces.
"Joe Smith, I'll—I'll wring your neck for that!"
"I—I didn't mean to do it, Mrs. Radley, indeed I didn't!" howled the boy, as he felt himself caught up by the ear.
"Order! order!" cried Montgomery Jadell. "Order! I will have order!"
"Better come to order yourself!" growled Ebenezer Boles. "Flinging around mice ain't very orderly!"
It was a good ten minutes before the mice were disposed of and the school could be quieted down. Montgomery Jadell was boiling with wrath.
"I want to know who placed those mice in my desk," he said, gazing fixedly at the boys.
Of course there was a dead silence.
"Better ask the mice themselves," murmured Ebenezer Boles. "The boys ain't goin' to tell." And now that the excitement was over he smiled to himself over the joke.
"Mr. Boles, do you uphold this sort of thing?" demanded the school principal.