He rose from his seat.
The scholars all looked up from their books.
"Did you hear that noise?" said he.
"Yes, sir."
"Do you know what it is?"
"No, sir."
"Very well; I only wished to call your attention to it. I may perhaps speak of it again by-and-by."
He then resumed his exercise as if nothing had happened. The guilty boy was agitated and confused, and was utterly at a loss to know what to do. What could the teacher mean? Had he discovered the trick? and, if so, what was he going to do?
He grew more and more uneasy, and resolved that, at all events, it was best for him to retreat. Accordingly, at the next recess, as the teacher had anticipated, he went slyly to the lath, cut the string, then returned to his seat, and drew the line in, rolled it up, and put it in his pocket. The teacher, who was secretly watching him, observed the whole manoeuvre.
At the close of the school, when the books were laid aside, and all was silence, he treated the affair thus: