“Then why don’t you help me in trying to keep them quiet? You do know so much better.”
The girl looked up at her with one eye, and a general aspect as if some progenitor had been a magpie.
“I mean it, Ophelia. You are a quick, clever girl, and know so much better. It grieves me when you will play tricks, and make my work so hard.”
“Please, teacher, may I go now? Mother wants me.”
“You shall go directly, Ophelia; but I want you to promise me that you will be a better girl.”
“Please, teacher, mother leathers the boys if they don’t get home in time for dinner, and dinner must be ready now.”
“You shall go directly, my child; but will you promise me?”
“If I don’t get home to dinner, teacher, I shan’t be ’lowed to come ’safternoon.”
“Then you will not promise me, Ophelia?”
The girl gave a half-sulky, half-cunning look at the speaker, and then, taking a weary nod of the head to mean permission, she darted away, and the schoolroom door closed after her with a loud bang.