CHAPTER VIII

THE OLD WOMAN AGAIN

Several boys and girls seated near Bert had seen him snap the paper cracker. Of course they would never “tell on him,” but they gave him sidelong glances to see if he would accept the “invitation” of the teacher.

“I am waiting,” went on Miss Riker, in a quiet voice. “I want the boy—I don’t think it was one of the girls—I want that boy to come up to my desk.”

The room again became very still and quiet.

And then, slowly, like the little man he was, Bert arose in his seat. He was rather pale, for he realized that he had done a wrong thing. But he was not going to sneak out of it.

“I snapped the cracker, Miss Riker,” he said slowly.

“Oh, Bert! I’m so sorry!” was the teacher’s answer. “Come up here and sit in the front seat. The others go on studying.”

That was Miss Riker’s way. She never punished a pupil at once when rules were broken. She wanted to think over it quietly and have the pupil think of it, so she always asked the boy or girl who had been disobedient to come to the front seat.

Bert knew what this meant. He would be kept in after school, perhaps made to write “disorderly” five hundred times or do some other “punish lesson.” And he was trying so hard for a perfect mark this last month of school! Too bad!

Well, it was his own fault—he knew that.

Slowly he made his way to the front seat, the eyes of every other boy and girl in the room looking at him. Miss Riker did not look at him. That would come later.

“Five minutes more of study and then I’ll hear the geography class,” Miss Riker announced, and this set the laggard ones feverishly to studying, some murmuring over and over again the location of the Cape of Good Hope, which was the easiest thing to remember about Africa.

Bert was not allowed to recite with the others. He was kept in the front seat and began to feel very uncomfortable. He wished Miss Riker would tell him how she was going to punish him, and have it over with.

But when the time came to dismiss the pupils for the day, the teacher said:

“You may all go now except Bert Bobbsey.”

This was to be expected.

Slowly Nan, with a sad look on her face for her brother’s plight, marched out of the room with the others. Miss Riker busied herself with some papers at her desk. Bert sat in the front seat. Then the teacher, looking up, saw Danny Rugg in his seat. He had remained after the others.

“Why, Danny!” exclaimed Miss Riker in surprise, “I didn’t tell you to stay in. You didn’t snap a paper cracker, did you?”

“No’m,” murmured Danny rather bashfully. “But I—I doubled-dared Bert to snap his, and that’s why he did it. I—now—I wanted to tell you.”

“Oh!” was all Miss Riker said, but there was a strange look on her face.

“Yes’m,” murmured Danny, though, really, he did not know why he said it.

Again the room became very quiet, only the clock ticked loudly—oh, so loudly!

Then, with a smile, Miss Riker said:

“Well, Bert, I think you needn’t stay in any longer. I was going to give you a punish lesson, but as long as Danny has been brave enough to remain and confess his part of it—though really you shouldn’t do a thing just because you are dared to do it—I think, after all, that I will let you both go home. You won’t crack any more snappers—or snap any more crackers—in school hours, will you, Bert?”

“No’m! Never any more!” he said very earnestly.

“And you won’t dare him again, Danny?”

“No’m! I never will—in school!”

“Then you both may go.”

“Thank you,” mumbled the boys, as they found their caps and departed. Miss Riker smiled. She knew this had been the best “punish lesson” she could have set.

“Say, wasn’t she nice!” exclaimed Danny, when he and Bert were outside.

“Crickity grasshoppers, she sure was!” declared Bert. “I didn’t exactly mean to snap that cracker, anyhow.”

“I didn’t think you’d do it, even after I doubled-dared you,” remarked Danny.

“I was just going to make believe, but when my arm got going I couldn’t seem to stop it,” explained Bert. “Say, did it crack loud?”

“Loud? It was like a gun!” And both boys laughed.

Of course Bert had to tell his mother, for she asked why he was late coming from school. She warned him to be more careful and to pay better attention to his lessons, but she did not scold. She thought Miss Riker knew how to manage her pupils.

The next day was Friday, and when the hour for geography study came in Miss Riker’s room she rather surprised the pupils by saying:

“You need not take out your geographies this time.” Then, as she saw surprised looks cast at Bert she added: “It isn’t because of what happened yesterday. Bert isn’t going to crack any more snappers. But I’m going to teach you geography in a new way. We are all going out to Pine Hill and from there we can look down on Lake Metoka. We shall see little bays, capes, peninsulas, islands, and many other formations that you have been studying about in the geography class. Now we are really going to see them as they are in nature.”

You can imagine what delightful excitement there was then! To study outside the classroom! What a change! Miss Riker led forth the boys and girls, and, as they left the school yard, marching two by two as they did at fire drill, the teacher further surprised her pupils by saying:

“You may talk all you wish, but I’d rather you would talk about something connected with geography. If any of you see a brook that looks like a little river, tell the rest of us.”

More wonders! To be allowed to go out of the classroom in school hours and then to talk! The children could hardly believe it. Miss Riker heard Nan Bobbsey and Nellie Parks timidly whispering.

“You may talk out loud,” she said, smiling.

Was it possible? It was, as the boys and girls soon found out. And then, how they talked!

“I see a brook!” cried Nan, presently.

“Yes, and I see a pond that might almost be a lake,” added one of the other girls.

“Yes, and there’s an island in the lake,” put in Bert, quickly, and he pointed to a small heap of dirt in the center of the pond. This remark made everybody laugh.

“I see a cliff,” said another boy, and pointed to the edge of a steep hill.

From Pine Hill they could look down on the lake and could see many natural formations that, in miniature, resembled the larger ones told about in the geography. Miss Riker had the boys and girls name the different formations of land and water.

“It was the nicest lesson we ever had!” said Nan Bobbsey, at home that night.

“Dandy!” declared Bert. “I wish she’d take us fishing some time!”

“Maybe she will!” chuckled Mr. Bobbsey.

“Hush! Not so loud!” cautioned Mrs. Bobbsey, coming from a bedroom. “I’ve just gotten Baby May to sleep!”

The next day was Saturday, and of course there was no school.

“Though if it was all like the geography lesson yesterday I wouldn’t mind going to school on Saturdays,” said Bert, as he looked for his cap to go out to play.

“Neither would I,” agreed Nan. “Mother, may I take Baby May out in the baby carriage?” she asked.

“In a little while you and Flossie may wheel her,” said Mrs. Bobbsey. “I don’t like Flossie to take her alone, as she’s been teasing to do.”

“Well, I’m going over and play ball with the other boys,” announced Bert.

Just then the telephone rang.

“It’s your father,” announced Mrs. Bobbsey, after listening a moment. “He says,” she went on, “that he has to go to Menton on some business in the auto, and he wants to know if you two would like to ride with him,” and she looked at Bert and Nan. Flossie and Freddie were out in the yard playing.

“Oh, would we!” cried Nan, clasping her hands in joyful anticipation. “When is he coming?”

“I’d rather ride with dad than play ball,” declared Bert.

“You’re to go down to the lumberyard and he’ll wait for you there,” said Mrs. Bobbsey. “Don’t say anything about it to Flossie or Freddie, else they’ll tease to go, and I can’t let them.”

So Bert and Nan departed quietly by the side gate and were soon hurrying to their father’s office on the lumber dock that extended out a long way into Lake Metoka.

“What to you suppose daddy’s going over to Menton for?” asked Nan.

“Oh, he buys lumber there,” replied Bert, who had been to this neighboring city once or twice before with his father. “I guess that’s what he’s going to do this time.”

And this, the children learned when they reached the office, was exactly Mr. Bobbsey’s errand to Menton. This city was about fifteen miles from Lakeport.

“Well, children, I hope I didn’t take you away from your studies or your home work,” said Mr. Bobbsey, with a smile, as Nan and Bert walked up to where he waited in the car.

“Oh, Daddy! As if we’d study on _Saturday_!” cried Nan.

“Not me!” declared Bert.

“Then we’ll declare a holiday!” laughed their father. “All aboard!”

It was a pleasant day, the roads were good, and they had a delightful trip to Menton. Bert and Nan were treated to ice-cream soda in a drug store while their father did what business he had to look after. Then they started back.

As they drove past the Menton railroad station Nan suddenly caught hold of her father’s arm and exclaimed:

“Look! There she is again!”

“Who?” asked Mr. Bobbsey.

“That old lady—the one with the faded shawl and the green umbrella—the old woman who left Baby May on our doorstep!” gasped Nan excitedly.

“Where is she?” her father cried.

“Look! She’s just getting on the train,” said Nan, for a train was about to leave the station.

“Oh, I see her!” cried Bert. “It’s the same old woman!”

“I must stop her! I must speak to her!” cried Mr. Bobbsey. “It’s lucky you saw her! I say there! Hi, madam! I want to talk to you! Wait a minute!” he called loudly, as he drove the automobile as close to the track as he dared go.