“Oh, Lem!” she said. “How could you!”
“Well, she was mean to me, so I was mean to her,” he said. “I got a right to get even with her, have n't I? I don't have to let her be mean to me an' not be mean to her, do I?”
“But to steal!” cried Henrietta.
“I didn't either steal!” declared Lem stubbornly. “I just took. I just took her old money an' put it where she would n't get it again, so she'd wish she had n't ever wanted to be mean to me.”
“Where did you put it?” asked Henrietta.
“I won't tell you!”
“You will tell me! You 'll tell me this instant!”
Henrietta had not been a school teacher fot years for nothing. Now, by an instantaneous change, she was all a school teacher—a school teacher able to command rebellious boys for their own good.
“I won't either tell you!” declared Lem.
“Very well!” said Henrietta, and she arose and began to draw on her stockings.