“I don’t know where he can be, unless he’s abed,” said Ronald.
“A-bed this time of day! How can that be?” exclaimed Marcus.
Ronald made no farther reply, and Marcus then questioned Kate, Jessie and Oscar, but none of them could say they had seen Otis, that morning. Meanwhile, Aunt Fanny was making quite as surprising a discovery at home, as Marcus made at school. She went up stairs, to take care of the boys’ room, and found Otis asleep, and the room as dark as at night.
“Why, Otis Sedgwick! are you asleep yet?” exclaimed Aunt Fanny, shaking the boy by the shoulder. “Come, wake up! It’s after nine o’clock.”
“Is it this morning, or last night?” inquired the drowsy and bewildered boy, rubbing his eyes, as if to let the day-light into them.
Aunt Fanny pulled open the shutters, and the sun, two hours and a half high, came streaming in upon the bed, to the astonishment of Otis.
“This is one of Ronald’s tricks, I suppose,” said Aunt Fanny. “But he has carried the joke altogether too far. You are too late to go to school this forenoon.”
“Well, this is a pretty piece of business, I do think,” said Otis, who now began to comprehend the joke that had been played upon him.
Aunt Fanny withdrew, telling Otis she would go and prepare his breakfast. After waiting some time, as the boy did not appear, she again went to his room, to call him. She found him partly dressed, and crying with vexation because he could not find the rest of his apparel. With her aid, the missing articles were soon found, and Otis sat down to his breakfast, in not a very pleasant mood, about half-past nine o’clock.
Otis went to school in the afternoon. He at once informed Marcus of the cause of his absence, but he kept out of the way of Ronald, with whom he felt offended. At recess, Ronald determined to speak to Otis, and he did.