"Yes'm."

"And you were thinking about all those dreadful things so hard that you
forgot where you were?"

"I was thinking," he said simply, "how to save Uncle John."

And the end of it for this mighty boy was that the teacher kissed him!



CHAPTER XI FIDELITY OF A LITTLE DOG

The returning students, that afternoon, observed that Penrod's desk was
vacant--and nothing could have been more impressive than that sinister
mere emptiness. The accepted theory was that Penrod had been arrested.
How breathtaking, then, the sensation when, at the beginning of the
second hour, he strolled--in with inimitable carelessness and, rubbing
his eyes, somewhat noticeably in the manner of one who has snatched an
hour of much needed sleep, took his place as if nothing in particular
had happened. This, at first supposed to be a superhuman exhibition
of sheer audacity, became but the more dumfounding when Miss
Spence--looking up from her desk--greeted him with a pleasant little
nod. Even after school, Penrod gave numerous maddened investigators no
relief. All he would consent to say was:

"Oh, I just TALKED to her."

A mystification not entirely unconnected with the one thus produced was
manifested at his own family dinner-table the following evening. Aunt