could not have brought it to school on a stick; and not having brought
it to school on a stick, he could not have chased the little girls
around the yard with it before the teacher came. And if he had not
been doing that, he would not have conceived the chivalrous notion
that he might gain the esteem of his Heart's Desire by frightening
her with a snake. And if Winfield Hancock Pennington had not made his
Heart's Desire angry--without giving her a chance to cool off--she
would not have invited Harold Jones to sit and sing with her during
the opening hour. But probably all that happened had to happen in the
course of things; so speculation is idle. But when it did happen, it
seemed to be a hopeless case. Young Mr. Pennington had lived through
the day, a week before, when the teacher changed his seat so that he
could not see his Heart's Desire smile; but he knew that she was sorry
with him, and that helped a little. But when he saw Harold Jones
singing from the same book with his Heart's Desire, he tried in vain
to catch the fragment of a smile from her. Instead of a smile, he
found her threatening to make a face if he persisted. Piggy seemed to
be buried in an avalanche of woe. Then it was that he saw what a small
thing had started the avalanche of calamity thundering down upon him,
and he smarted with remorse. In his anguish he tried to sing alto,
and made a peculiar rasping sound that tore a reproof for him off the
teacher's nerves.

[Illustration: _Chased the little girls around the yard with it_.]

[Illustration: _She would not have invited Harold Jones to sit and
sing with her during the opening hour_.]

From the hour of the Jones boy's triumph, he and Winfield Hancock
Pennington--familiarly known as "Piggy"--became boon companions. A