"You would think they were getting settled for life," whispered Nate to Jimmy.
The "little two" chose a place near the west window and began at once to write on their slates.
"I'm scared of Miss Dunlee," wrote Aunt Lucy.
"Stop making me laugh," replied the niece.
When at last everybody was "settled for life," Kyzie did not know what to do next. "What would Miss Prince do? Why she would read in the Bible. I forgot that."
The new teacher took her stand on the platform behind the desk, opened her Bible, and read aloud the twenty-third Psalm. Her voice shook, partly from fright, partly from trying so hard not to laugh. But she did not even smile—far from it. Nate and Jimmy who were watching her could have told you that. If she had been at a funeral she could hardly have looked more solemn.
Jimmy touched Nate's foot under the bench; Nate gave Jimmy a shove; Bab gazed hard at Lucy's flaxen cue; Lucy gazed straight at her thumb.
After the reading "Miss Dunlee" walked about with her blank-book in one hand and her pen in the other to take down the children's names.
"I'm Joseph Rolfe; don't you remember me?" said the boy with red hair. "And this boy next seat is Chicken Little."
"No, I ain't either, I'm Henry Small," corrected the little fellow, ready to cry.