Dunn began to blubber. In a thrice a crowd gathered, and Dunn, seeing that he was being teased, got ugly. Turning to Ned, who was about to back off with Tommy, he cried out: "Yes, you belong to the crowd that smashed up things! Father Boone will fix you!"
The threat didn't mean much to Tommy and Ned and they walked away.
Harry Dunn, however, had heard just enough from his father about the Club damage to think he could best get even by telling his teacher about it. So, when the boys got into their school rooms again, he tried to tell the Sister that two fellows had thrown him down in the yard. She paid no attention to him. After class, he went to her again, and said that the boys who broke things at the Club were trying to pick on him. "Mind your own business, Harry," she said, "and nobody will pick on you, you little tattletale." As the boys say, he got "his."
That afternoon Father Boone, passing through the school after class, stopped to talk to the Sister in the vestibule. Just then along came young Dunn.
"Here's a young gentleman who is talking about a row at the Club," she said to the priest, as she held the lad by her eye. She thought the boy had made a mountain out of a mole hill, and that the director's shrug or laugh would show the youngster where he stood. Instead, Father Boone grew instantly serious. The Sister saw she had made a mistake, but before she could change the subject, he said, disregarding the boy:
"It was bad business, Sister. I feel ashamed and hurt about it. I did not think my boys would act so."
Then he continued, "But how did you know about it, Sister?"
"O, a little bird told me."
"Indeed, and may I ask what the little bird told you?"
"Really, Father, it's not worth while referring to. I shouldn't have recalled it but for that young lad who passed us this moment. You know him, don't you?"