Dot and Twaddles were cheered by this thought, and they were able to
see Meg and Bobby and the lunch-boxes go up the school walk without
another protest.

"You go and ask her now," suggested Meg, as she and Bobby went into the
hall. "Go on, Bobby. Ask her if we can have a fight right after
school."

Bobby stood a little in awe of Miss Wright, the vice-principal, but the
vision of snow forts, and perhaps himself as one of the captains,
decided him.

"All right, I will," he said recklessly. "You wait for me, Meg. It's
only quarter of."

Bobby hurried down the hall to the door marked "Office" and opened it.
Miss Wright was nowhere in sight. There was no one in the office, and
the clock ticked very loudly indeed.

"I'll wait a little," thought Bobby. "She has to come back to ring the
assembly bells."

He studied the complicated system of bells that sounded the signals in
each classroom for a minute, and suddenly the telephone rang shrilly.
It startled him, and he jumped. He looked about uneasily. The bell
kept ringing.

"I s'pose I'd better answer it," he said aloud, doubtfully.

"Hello!" he called, taking down the receiver.