"3. No member shall be greedy or really thievish, nor shall he nibble or take away anything that is needed for the next meal, if he knows it; this being not nice, besides making trouble all round.
"4. Any member who does a rioting act of great daring right under the eye of the enemy shall be allowed to wear a red button to school.
"5. Any member who is caught in the act of rioting and reprimanded, and so forth, shall wear a blue button to school and describe all the circumstances, however painful, at a meeting of the club, where he will receive comfort and sympathy.
"6. Any little titbit subtracted from the pantry may be shared with another member, thus removing any suspicion of evil from rioting; the idea being to show that a person could take a tart, doughnut, frosted cake, or spoonful of preserves at any time if only he was not so good and honest."
Oh, how delicious were the last school days of the June term when The Pantry Rioters first came into being! Who could forget the morning when Romeo Smith arrived at school flushed and panting and took his place in the line within one minute of being tardy? And there, in the button-hole of his coat lapel, gleamed the red badge of courage, the button covered by the girls with scarlet ribbon, but never worn before!
At ten o'clock Miss Dearborn remarked: "Romeo Smith is well prepared with his lessons and is behaving himself with perfect propriety, except for a perpetual grin, for which I can see no reason. However, as many of the scholars cannot help staring at him, I would ask him please to remove the red button he is wearing and place it in his vest pocket."
In the reading lesson when Sam Simpson came to the phrase, "The spy gave a paltry excuse," he read it, "pantry excuse," and there was such a flood of laughter let loose in the schoolroom that Miss Dearborn was obliged to say: "Did no one ever mistake a word before? It is not polite to make fun of another scholar. You may be the next one yourself."
And then, after school, to hear from Romeo's lips that his mother, in passing out of the pantry with a colander full of fresh doughnuts under her left arm, had paused to lean from the window and speak to her husband; whereupon Romeo, with magnificent audacity—grandmother in adjacent kitchen, mother holding pan, and father outside window—had seized a hot doughnut and, mindful of the red button, had further tempted fate by taking the knife from the cheese plate and carving off a piece two inches wide! With this rich booty, avoiding the safe side door, he went through the living-room, passing a visiting aunt and two younger brothers of highly suspicious disposition, and sped to school in time to avoid the tardy mark.
"How perfectly elegant!" ejaculated Emma Jane Perkins.
"Where is the doughnut?" asked Rebecca, mindful of the sixth by-law.