"Ah'-bru-zhe-dae!" he asked; "do you ever wash your face?" And the make-believe class went into fits of laughter.
"Ten sleeps ago," angrily retorted the boy addressed, "you stole some honey, and the smirches of it are still on your face!"
The boys were convulsed at this reply, and so were the boys in the school-room; but the mock teacher took a different view of the matter, and sprang at his impudent pupil, boxing his ears, whereat the two fell on each other in a lively tussle. We stretched our necks to see the struggle, and Gray-beard also watched the scene.
All at once a Ponka boy shouted, "I've found something! Come, come!" and the crowd moved away, leaving the two to finish their wrestling.
Before long we heard a great clatter in the hall-way, and then the Ponka boys were seen marching out of the yard with our sleds. We heard them coasting down the hill, and this made us very restless, so that we could not pay any attention to our lessons. By and by the shouting on the hill-side ceased, and Warren leaned over to Brush and whispered, "They're going off with our sleds!"
Brush raised his right hand; Gray-beard saw him, and asked what he wanted.
"Those Indian boys are going away with our sleds, and we want to go after them."
Permission being given, in a twinkling there were twenty or thirty school-boys charging up the hill, all mad as hornets. We overtook the Ponkas midway between the school and the village. The little savages turned and came to meet us.
"What do you want?" said the big boy who had played teacher.
"We want our sleds," said Brush.