"Please, may I take my boots off?"

"Take your boots off? Why?"

"They will rub together, and I can't stop them, because I don't know
when I do it, and it is hard for Mary--"

"Of course not! I never heard of such a thing! Next time you do it
you must stand on your chair."

Soon Jeremy is standing on his chair. Soon his poetry book drops
with a terrible crash to the ground, and five million pins stab Miss
Jones's heart. With white face and trembling hands, she says:

"Go and stand in the corner, Jeremy! I shall have to speak to your
mother!"

He goes, grinning at Mary, and stands there knowing that his victim
is watching the door in an agony lest Mrs. Cole should suddenly come
in and inquire what Jeremy had done, and that so the whole story of
his insubordination be revealed and Miss Jones lose her situation
for incapacity.

How did he discover this final weakness of Miss Jones? No one told
him; but he knew, and, as the days passed, rejoiced in his power and
his might and his glory.

Then came the climax. The children were not perfectly sure whether,
after all, Miss Jones might not tell their mother. They did not wish