"Answer me this moment. Have you any excuse?"
With a quick, decided movement, Bert lifted his head, and looking straight into Mr. Garrison's face with his big brown eyes, said, clearly:
"No, sir. I meeched."
Quite taken aback by this frank confession, Mr. Garrison paused a moment, and then, turning to Frank, asked:
"And how about you, sir?"
Without lifting his head, Frank muttered, "I meeched, too," in tones audible only to his questioner.
So pleased was Mr. Garrison with Bert's honesty, that he would have been glad to let him off with a reprimand; but the interests of good discipline demanded sterner measures. Accordingly, he called to one of his monitors:
"Munro, will you please go over to the Acadian School and get the strap?"
For be it known that Mr. Garrison shared the ownership of a strap with his brother, who taught a school in an adjoining block, and had to send for it when a boy was to be punished.
While Munro was gone, Bert and Frank stood before the desk, both feeling deeply their position, and dreading what was yet to come. When Munro returned, bearing the strap—a business-like looking affair, about two feet in length—Mr. Garrison laid it on the desk, and seemed very reluctant to put it in use. At length, overcoming his disinclination, he rose to his feet, and, taking it up, said: