[CHAPTER X]
MR. HANKS ACCEPTS ADVICE
There was a moment of silence, broken at length by Gil.
“Going to leave!” he exclaimed. “You’re not fooling, Hope?”
“No. I took his tray up and he was writing at his desk. I told him he just must eat some supper and he said we were very kind and he would drink some tea. And then—then he was afraid he’d been a great deal of trouble to us and that he wouldn’t be that much longer as he was going to leave the school. And I said, ‘Oh, Mr. Hanks!’—just like that—and he said he was sorry to leave and—and he thanked me for bringing the tray and—and I ran out of the room because—because—” Hope’s eyes were “because” enough. The boys looked away while she dashed a wisp of a handkerchief across them. Poke whistled between his teeth, much out of tune. “I—I think it’s just—just too horrid for anything!” ended Hope tremulously.
Jim stirred his feet uneasily and Gil cleared his throat as if to speak and then evidently thought better of it. Hope subsided on the arm of a porch rocker. It was Jeffrey who spoke first.
“I’m awfully sorry,” he said. “I suppose we’re all to blame to some extent.”
“If he had any grit—” began Poke.
“I’d like to punch that fellow’s head,” Jim growled.
“What fellow? Bull Gary?” asked Gil.
Jim nodded.