"Why? Do the students _want_ to annoy me?" demanded Mr. Cantwell,
in another angry undertone.

"I wouldn't say that," replied Mr. Drake. "But, if the young
men discover that you are easily teased, they are sufficiently
mischief-loving to try other jokes on you."

"Then a good friend of theirs would advise them not to do so,"
replied Mr. Cantwell, with a snap of his jaws.

That closed the matter for the time being. The first recitation
period of the morning had been lost, but now the students, most
of them finding difficulty in suppressing their chuckles, were
sent to the various class rooms.

Before recess came, the principal having a period free from class
work, silently escaped from the building, carrying the thirty-six
hundred pennies to the bank. As that number of pennies weighs
something more than twenty-three pounds, the load was not a light
one.

"I have a big lot of pennies here that I want to deposit," he
explained to the receiving teller.

"How many?" asked the teller.

"Thirty-six hundred," replied Mr. Cantwell.

"Are they counted and done up into rolls of fifty, with your name