“Quiet! That will do!” the principal called, raising his hand for silence. “We will not go further into the matter here. Bert, come to my office after school, and you also, Sam. We will talk about the broken window then. The classes will now go to their own rooms.”
The teacher at the piano began to play a lively march, but there was not much spring in the steps of Bert and Nan Bobbsey as they filed back to Miss Skell’s room. Bert was hurt and indignant that Sam should accuse him of breaking the window. Nan, too, felt sure that her brother had not done it.
“Don’t let him scare you, Bert!” whispered Charlie Mason, one of Bert’s best chums, to the Bobbsey lad in the corridor. “We know you didn’t do it.”
Of course it was against the rule for Charlie to whisper thus in the hall, but he was not caught at it. Bert was glad his chum had spoken to him.
“Now, children,” said Miss Skell, when her pupils were again in their seats, “we are going to forget all about the broken church window. Mr. Tarton will attend to that. And please forget that Bert has been mentioned as doing it.
“I, for one,” and Miss Skell smiled down at the blushing Bobbsey boy, “don’t believe Bert would do such a thing. I think Sammie must be mistaken. Now we shall go on with our lessons.”
Neither Danny nor Sam were in the room with Bert and Nan, and for this the two Bobbseys were glad. Sam and his crony were in the same grade with Bert and Nan, but, because of its size, the class recited in two different rooms under separate teachers.
It took a little time for the class to quiet down after the unusual excitement, but at length the recitations were proceeded with.
It was when Bert and Nan were hurrying home at the noon recess with Flossie and Freddie that Nan said to her brother:
“Who broke that window, Bert? If you know you ought to tell, especially since they say you did it.”