“Give up this practical joking. Stop making trouble for the teachers——”
“I have! Gee Gee hasn’t had a chance to criticize me all this week. And sometimes I feel as though I should burst,” cried the spirited girl.
“But I did tell the principal that you never did anything mean—and see what you have done to Hester!”
“And see what she has done to me,” snapped Bobby.
“Perhaps she thought she saw you throw something into that basket.”
“No, she didn’t. She and I sassed each other,” declared Bobby, who was plain if not elegant of speech at all times, “right there in the principal’s office when Miss Gee Gee sailed out into the music room. Hessie was the last girl to leave me—true enough. But she did not see me near that basket, for I started for the corridor when she was going out of the room.”
“But she might have been mistaken——”
“You don’t more than half believe me yourself, Laura Belding!” accused Bobby.
“I do. I believe just what you say about it.”
“Then you can take it from me,” said the emphatic Bobby, “that Hester Grimes told that story to Miss Carrington for the sake of getting me into trouble—and for no other reason.”