“Please don’t, Miss Olaine. I’ll get them all shut up——”
Just then the two that she had managed to get into the closet again, ran out. The teacher was recovering from her fright; but her rage grew apace.
“You are guilty of this outrage, Miss Dale!” she accused. “You shall be punished for it—indeed yes!”
“You are mistaken, Miss Olaine,” said Dorothy, ceasing to chase the tiny porkers, and facing the teacher standing in the chair.
“You did! You did it!” ejaculated the panting teacher. “You know all about the beasts——”
Then she let out another yell. One of the little fellows stood on its hind legs against Miss Olaine’s chair and tried to sniff at that lady’s boots.
“Get them back into that closet!” commanded Miss Olaine, savagely, and glaring at Dorothy. “Then I’ll ’tend to you, Miss.”
The whole class was silent by this time—“all but the pigs,” as one of the girls whispered. They were astonished to hear Dorothy accused by the teacher—more astonished than they had been by the advent of the pigs in the classroom. As Ned Ebony pointed out afterward, pigs, or anything else, might come to recitation; but for Dorothy Dale to be accused of such a prank as this was quite too shocking!
Now, Dorothy was usually pretty sweet tempered; but the manner in which the new teacher spoke to her—and her unfair decision that she, Dorothy, was guilty of the prank—hurt and angered the girl.
She lifted her head grandly and looked Miss Olaine straight in the eye.