"See that you do not. I will excuse you this time, but only because
you were at the fishing." Then he added more kindly, "I have myself
lost count of time in the same way. And now let me hear your Latin
lesson."

Fortunately I went through the lesson without mistake, and was
rewarded by being told to go above Tom Kinlay. As I took my place,
however, the next boy to me, Robbie Rosson, gave a great shout of
pain, as though a pin had been stuck into him.

"Hello, hello! What's wrong now?" exclaimed the schoolmaster.

"It's nothing, sir," said Robbie, looking extremely uncomfortable.

"Nothing! What for did you cry out like that, then?"

"'Twas one of my fishhooks stuck in his leg, sir," I explained,
extracting the offending hook from Rosson's trousers, and putting
it back with others into my pocket.

"Give me the hooks!" demanded Mr. Drever, holding out his hand to
receive them. "I don't know what can possess you, bringing such
things to school."

Then before putting the hooks away in his desk, he examined them
with a knowing eye, and I heard him murmur, "Dear me, dear me! You
lads beat everything. I cannot think where ye get such good hooks
from."

The lesson was now changed. We all took our seats at the desks for