So we went out and we were pretty scared. We didn't say much. We just walked along for a while. Then Swatty said:
“Say! I know who wrote all those questions Herb asked us.”
“Who did?” I asked him.
“Fan did,” he said, “because I saw what Herb was reading from, and I saw the last page and it said, 'Yours humbly, Frances.'”
So that was how Herb knew so much about it, because I had told Fan and she had told Herb in the letter. At first I was pretty mad that she should be a tattle-tale but then I guessed that was how she was bestirring herself, because it didn't do any good to bestir with Tom Burton.
When I got home it was almost supper time but Fan came to the front porch when she heard me and asked me if I had seen Herb, and all about it, and I told her.
“Well, Georgie,” she said, “I'll stick by you through thick and thin,” and then she began to cry and ran into the house, and I went in and mother stopped me in the hall.
“George,” she said, “this is a terrible affair and I don't know what will be the end of it, but if I could give my life to keep you from harm I would gladly do so. And, whatever comes of it, you must be tender to Fan, because she quarreled with Herb because of you and now she has quarreled with Tom, and she loves you very much,” or something like that.
So I felt pretty mean, because a boy don't like that kind of talk, and when I went upstairs and Lucy was coming down I gave her a push. She said: “You stop that! Are you and Swatty going to reform school?”
“None of your business,” I told her.