"A water-pistol, if you please, sir," said the rabbit boy, very politely.
"Humph!" exclaimed Mr. Rat. "A school is no place for water-pistols. You may bring it here, Sammie, and then you had better study your lessons."
So Sammie had to bring his water-pistol up to the teacher's desk, and Toodle and Noodle Flat-tail, and all the other animal boys and girls, looked on. And Sammie got all red around his ears, he was so ashamed like.
"Oh, dear!" thought Toodle Flat-tail the beaver boy, as Sammie gave up the toy, "a real water-pistol. It's too bad teacher has it, for he won't know how to have fun with it. I wish Sammie hadn't taken it out; and maybe he'd have let me play with it after school. But now it's gone and the teacher won't give it back until vacation. Oh, dear!"
Sammie, himself, felt badly about his water-pistol, too. But then he knew he should not have taken it out in school. And so the lessons went on.
"Where did you get the water-pistol, Sammie?" asked Toodle Flat-tail of the boy rabbit, at recess.
"Uncle Wiggily Longears gave it to me," said Sammie. "It was a fine one, too. There was a rubber ball on it, and when you squeezed the ball and put the small end of the pistol in the water it sucked up a lot of it. Then, when you squeezed the rubber ball again, the water would shoot out like anything. But now it can't, 'cause Professor Rat has my water-pistol."
"Yes, it's surely too bad!" said Toodle. "I've been saving up for one a long time, but I haven't got my water-pistol yet."
All the animal boys talked about how unlucky it was for Sammie's pistol to be taken away from him, and they all said they thought maybe if Sammie asked Mr. Rat, the teacher, he would give it back.
So Sammie did, after school, and Mr. Rat, being a very kind animal gentleman, said: