Ronald said nothing, but, availing himself of Jessie’s mistake, hurried away without calling Otis, congratulating himself that his plot had worked so admirably. After doing his errand, he had time and opportunity to fool several of his school-mates, which he diligently improved. He made one simple boy believe that his back was covered with chalk, and thank him for drubbing it off in vigorous style, when there was not a particle of chalk upon the poor fellow’s jacket. He exhibited to a group of boys what he called a “railroad whistle.” It looked like an ordinary whistle, with a number of holes on the top, but he represented it as having remarkable power, if a boy only had wind enough to sound it. One of the boys, more curious than wise, gave it a vigorous blast, and blew into his face a cloud of flour, with which the whistle had been filled, to the great amusement of all who witnessed the experiment.
Ronald was born and lived for eight years among a people of French extraction, in Canada. He still remembered some of the habits and customs of his native village, among which was the observance of Easter. Easter is a festival in commemoration of the resurrection of Christ, and is quite generally observed in European countries. It occurs about the first of April. In some countries, it is customary to give eggs to the children, on this occasion, which are ornamented in various ways. In Ronald’s native town, the children used to boil their Easter eggs in water containing a dye of some color, by which the shells became red, blue, purple, or of any other hue that was desired. If they wished to inscribe a name or ornament on an egg, they first plunged it into hot water, and then wrote the name or drew the design on the shell with tallow. The egg was then boiled in the colored water, but the dye would not penetrate any part of the shell which had been covered with grease, and consequently the ornament or inscription would appear white.
Ronald had been indulged in his Easter eggs every year since he was adopted into Mrs. Page’s family. He called them Easter eggs, but they might more appropriately have been termed “April-Fool” eggs, for, regardless of the ecclesiastical calendar, the first day of the fourth month was always Easter to him. He carried several of these stained eggs to school, on the morning whose history I am recounting; and after the “railroad whistle” experiment, he exhibited them to some of the girls. They were blue, with white fillets around them, and looked quite pretty. Somebody inquiring about their strength, Ronald said they were boiled very hard, and would stand a pretty smart blow. He said he boiled them as soon as they were laid, which was the way to do, if you wanted a real hard egg. He invited two of the girls to make a trial of their hardness, by each taking an egg in her hand, and striking them together, promising that the egg which stood the test should be the property of the one who held it. They did so, and at the first trial, neither egg was damaged, the blow being too light. The next time, however, one of the eggs was crushed, but the other was uninjured.
The girl who won the blue egg, refused to hazard it again in a trial with an uncolored boiled egg, which Ronald wished her to submit it to. So Ronald drew from his pocket a second white egg, and persuaded Kate Sedgwick and another girl to a trial of strength, similar to the first. Each held the egg firmly in her palm, and measured the distance carefully with her eye, and then, after a moment’s pause, came the shock, the crash, and the smash. And a smash it was indeed; for the egg Kate held was just as raw and tender as when biddy laid it, and in the rude encounter, its liquid contents spirted out in an astonishing manner upon both the contestants, but especially upon Kate. The fragments that remained in her hand she hurled at Ronald’s head, but the rogue was too spry for her, and they fell short of the mark.
It would have been strange if a boy who was so active as Ronald in playing off his pranks upon others, had himself wholly escaped from similar practical jokes. But he did not. One trick was played upon him, which annoyed him very much. Some one, he could not ascertain who, spread upon his seat a quantity of soft pitch, upon which he unsuspiciously sat. The sticky gum adhered so pertinaciously to his clothing, that he could not remove it, but through the day, whenever he attempted to make the slightest movement upon his seat, he found himself held fast by an invisible power.
When the morning session of the academy opened, Marcus was not a little surprised to discover that Otis was missing. He went to Ronald’s seat and asked where he was.
“I don’t know,” replied Ronald.
“Didn’t he go with you to Mr. Bright’s, this morning?” inquired Marcus.
“No, sir, I haven’t seen him since I got up,” replied Ronald.
“But haven’t you any idea where he is?” continued Marcus.