"Is that your grasshopper, Twaddles?" she asked merrily. "What was it doing, then, in Meg's pocket?"
Miss Mason had at first refused to use any nicknames in her class and she had insisted on calling Bobby and Meg by their true names, "Robert" and "Margaret." As for Twaddles and Dot, the teacher had declared that never, never, could she consent to calling children by such "queer" names. But, after a while, she had grown used to the queer names and, like every one else in Oak Hill, forgot that the four little Blossoms had any others.
Dot sensibly thought that Twaddle should make his own explanation, and that small boy did, rather shamefacedly. Miss Mason gave him his grasshopper and advised him not to play tricks on his sister again.
"I won't," promised Twaddles earnestly, "at least, not pocket ones."
Down in the hall, on their way out, Twaddles and Dot met Mr. Carter, who also remembered them from their earlier visit. He shook hands with them and very naturally asked them what brought them to school.
"Meg and Bobby went home at least half an hour ago," he said kindly.
"We came for my grasshopper," explained Twaddles, and that brought out the whole story.
"Dot," remarked Twaddles thoughtfully when they were walking home, "it wouldn't be so bad being bad if you didn't have to tell about it, would it?"
Dot understood at once.
"N—o," she drawled slowly. "But we'd feel worse if we never did tell."