"'These little boys must spend this recess in the school-room.' I leave it to you, Miss Simms, if that wasn't mean."
"Was it the rule that you must lose your recess, if you spoke?"
"Yes, if we spoke without permission."
"And you knew all about it?"
"Oh! yes!"
"Well, I don't see how Miss Clark could help herself or you, if you disobeyed. You were both bound by the rule, you see, Johnnie."
"That's only one thing. I forget to hang up my hat on the nail, and I bring mud in on my boots, and I lose my speller, and I lose my temper too, and I'm just tired of trying any more."
Johnnie stood like a little "knight of the rueful countenance," hat in hand.
Miss Simms measured two breadths of silk; "snip, snip," went her shining [pg 63] scissors, and she threaded her needle. "Dear me, what a hard needle to thread; my eyes are beginning to fail me," she said.