"Now," said the teacher, after a few moments of mock arithmetic, "now I've looked at my watch, and find it's seven o'clock. How conscionable late! And that Drop of Honey hasn't come to school yet! Joggo, you and Young Beauty go and bring her!"
Prudy, who was sitting at a little distance, under a swing-table, eating ginger snaps, was suddenly seized upon by the two little Indian constables.
"Why, what an idea!" said Prudy, with her mouth full; "I didn't know that was the way to play it."
"Yes," said Susy, "truants must come to school. If they don't come they must be arrested."
"Why, I've been a-resting all the time," said Prudy, laughing.
"Well, that doesn't make any difference, Miss Honey Drop," said Johnny, taking her by the shoulders, while Dotty dragged her feet. There was great laughing and scrambling, during which Prudy swallowed a crumb the wrong way, and was finally carried into school on a litter.
"Now, I should judge," said the heartless teacher, looking sternly at the crimson-faced victim, "I should judge that this wicked creature ought to have a terrific whipping!"
"That's so!" shouted Johnny; "we found Honey Drop top of a house, firing mud into a man's eyes."
"Yes, so we did," said Dotty, fully restored to good humor, "black mud; Honey's a bad Nindian. If you can't whip her hard enough, Joggie will help."
"There, now!" said the teacher, after dealing several "love-pats" with great pretended force; "now I should think 'twas time for school to be out. As you go by me, each of you, I must strike you just as many times as you were minutes late. Now go home, and eat rice for your dinners."