"Now! What is your name? Again."
"Sam Pinkney."
"Sam-u-e-l?"
"Well—that's 'Sam,' ain't it?" drawled the boy, gaining courage.
But he never spoke so again when Miss Pepperill addressed him. That woman strode down the aisle to Sammy's seat, seized the cringing boy by the lobe of his right ear, and marched him up to her desk. There she sat him down "in the seat of penitence" beside her own chair, saying:
"I'll attend to your case later, young man. Evidently the long vacation has done you no good. You have forgotten how to speak to your teacher."
The girls were much disturbed by this manifestation of the new teacher's sternness. Sadie Goronofsky whispered to Tess:
"Oh! don't she get excited easy?"
The whites of Alfredia Blossom's eyes were fairly enlarged by her surprise and terror at this proceeding on the new teacher's part. After that, Alfredia jumped every time Miss Pepperill spoke.
Miss Pepperill noted none of this cringing terror on the part of her new pupils. Or else she was used to it. She marched up and down the aisles, seating and reseating the pupils until she had them arranged to her satisfaction, and suddenly she pounced on Tess.