Rupert's curls had descended on his eyebrows in heavy discontent. "It's
mighty rough, jest ez a feller reckons he's got quit of her and her
jackass bo', to hev her prancin' back inter school agin, and rigged out
like ez if she'd been to a fire in a milliner's shop."

"You shouldn't allow your personal dislikes, Rupert, to provoke you to
speak of a fellow-scholar in that way--and a young lady, too," corrected
the master dryly.

"The woods is full o' sich feller-scholars and sich young ladies, if
yer keer to go a gunning for 'em," said Rupert with dark and slangy
significance. "Ef I'd known she was comin' back I'd"--he stopped and
brought his sunburnt fist against the seam of his trousers with a boyish
gesture, "I'd hev jist"--

"What?" said the master sharply.

"I'd hev played hookey till she left school agin! It moutn't hev bin so
long, neither," he added with a mysterious chuckle.

"That will do," said the master peremptorily. "For the present you'll
attend to your duty and try to make Uncle Ben see you're something more
than a foolish, prejudiced school-boy, or," he added significantly, "he
and I may both repent our agreement. Let me have a good account of you
both when I return."

He took his hat from its peg on the wall, and in obedience to a suddenly
formed resolution left the school-room to call upon the parents of
Cressy McKinstry. He was not quite certain what he should say, but,