“Say, wasn’t she nice!” exclaimed Danny, when he and Bert were outside.
“Crickity grasshoppers, she sure was!” declared Bert. “I didn’t exactly mean to snap that cracker, anyhow.”
“I didn’t think you’d do it, even after I doubled-dared you,” remarked Danny.
“I was just going to make believe, but when my arm got going I couldn’t seem to stop it,” explained Bert. “Say, did it crack loud?”
“Loud? It was like a gun!” And both boys laughed.
Of course Bert had to tell his mother, for she asked why he was late coming from school. She warned him to be more careful and to pay better attention to his lessons, but she did not scold. She thought Miss Riker knew how to manage her pupils.
The next day was Friday, and when the hour for geography study came in Miss Riker’s room she rather surprised the pupils by saying:
“You need not take out your geographies this time.” Then, as she saw surprised looks cast at Bert she added: “It isn’t because of what happened yesterday. Bert isn’t going to crack any more snappers. But I’m going to teach you geography in a new way. We are all going out to Pine Hill and from there we can look down on Lake Metoka. We shall see little bays, capes, peninsulas, islands, and many other formations that you have been studying about in the geography class. Now we are really going to see them as they are in nature.”
You can imagine what delightful excitement there was then! To study outside the classroom! What a change! Miss Riker led forth the boys and girls, and, as they left the school yard, marching two by two as they did at fire drill, the teacher further surprised her pupils by saying:
“You may talk all you wish, but I’d rather you would talk about something connected with geography. If any of you see a brook that looks like a little river, tell the rest of us.”