For a time they were interested in what they were doing, though their poor teacher's head ached with the noise which she was quite powerless to stop. But before very long Tommy snatched Dick's pencil from him and received a great thump on his back in return. A free fight ensued. Dick, the eldest of the three boys, punched the delinquent's head, when he immediately set up a howl, the rest of the children crying in chorus. Jemmy was pushed down on to the floor, and it was all that Miss Gregson could do to extricate him from the fighting boys.
But what alarmed her more than anything else were the bad words that flew from one little mouth to another. She rang the bell violently; and was thankful to see the panting Jane standing at the door. Jane saw in a moment how matters stood. The tumblers of water had been knocked off the table and broken to pieces. Two of the boys were rolling on the floor kicking and hitting one another, while the three little girls stood looking on, sobbing at the sight of the broken glasses and torn drawings. Miss Gregson had Jemmy on her lap, drying his tears with her pocket handkerchief.
Jane managed to separate the fighting, struggling boys, administering at the same time sundry slaps on the miscreants.
"Hadn't they better go out into the garden, M'am?" she asked.
"Yes I think so," was the answer.
But Miss Gregson knew that unless someone was with them to mount guard further mischief would be done. Jane, who was a good-natured girl, volunteered to take them down and to see after them, and Angel, quite unstrung, was only too thankful. She went to her room and lay down on the sofa, saying she would not be disturbed till Miss Dennison returned for tea.
A soft knock awakened her. Sheila opened the door. She looked at the prostrate figure on the sofa with remorse, saying—
"Jane tells me you are quite overcome with the naughtiness of the children. I ought never to have left you. And certainly I should not have been so long away. I am so sorry."
Miss Gregson smiled. Sheila looked so truly penitent that though her chaperon agreed with her remarks she had not the heart to tell her so.
"I have had a nice rest," she said, "but the children surpassed themselves. I wonder, my dear, if you could not get someone in from the village to look after them for the last week."