Five Little Peppers at School Part 4

But David, with clasped hands and white face, had no thought of deserting Joel.

The person in the window, having the good sense to utter no exclamation, waited till Joel was up far enough for her to grasp his arm. Then she couldn't help it as she saw his face.

"_Joel Pepper!_"

"Yes'm," said Joel, turning his chubby face toward her. "I knew I could get up here; it's just as easy as anything."

Mrs. Fox set her other hand to the task of helping him into the dimly lighted hall, much to Joel's disgust, as he would much have preferred to enter una.s.sisted. Then she turned her cap-frills full on him, and said in a tone of great displeasure, "What _is_ the meaning of all this?"

"Why, I had to go out, Mrs. Fox."

"Why?"

"Oh--I--I--had to."

She didn't ask him again, for the matron was a woman of action, and in all her dealings with boys had certain methods by which she brought them to time. So she only set her sharp eyes, that Dr. Marks' pupils always called "gimlets," full upon him. "Go to your room," was all she said.

"Oh Mrs. Fox," cried Joel, trying dreadfully to control himself, and twisting his brown hands in the effort, "I--I--had to go. Really I did."

"So you said before. _Go to your room._" Then a second thought struck her. "Was any other boy with you?" she demanded suddenly.

Joel gave a sharp cry of distress as he started down the hall, revolving in his mind how he would steal down and unlock the door as soon as the matron had taken herself off.

"Here, stop--come back here! Now answer me--yes or no--was any other boy with you?" as Joel stood before her again.

Joel's stubby black curls dropped so that she couldn't see his face. As there was no reply forthcoming, Mrs. Fox took him by the arm. "You needn't go to your room, Joel," she said sharply. "You may go to Coventry."

"Oh Mrs. Fox," Joel burst out, "don't--don't send me there."

"A boy who cannot answer me, is fit only for Coventry," said Mrs. Fox with great dignity, despite the nightcap. "Wait here, Joel. I will get my candle, and light you down." She stepped off to a corner of the hall, where she had set the candlestick on a table, when startled by the noise outside. "Now we will go."

It was impossible that all this confusion should not awake some of the boys in the hall; and by this time there was much turning on pillows, and leaning on elbows, and many scuttlings out of bed to listen at doors opened a crack, so that nearly every one of the occupants, on that particular hall soon knew that "old Fox" had Joel Pepper in her clutches, and that he was being led off somewhere.

And at last Joel let it out himself. "Oh Mrs. Fox--dear Mrs. Fox, _don't_ make me go to Coventry," he roared. He clutched her wrapper, a big, flowered affair that she wore on such nocturnal rambles, and held it fast. "I'll be just as good," he implored.

"Coventry is the place for you, Joel Pepper," said Mrs. Fox grimly; "so we will start."

Meanwhile David, holding his breath till he saw, in the dim light that always streamed out from the dormitory hall where the gas was left turned down at night, that Joel was safely drawn in to shelter, frantically rushed around to the big door, in the wild hope that somehow admittance would be gained. "Joe will come by and by," he said to himself, sinking down on the steps.

"We're done for," said Tom's voice off in the distance.

"Oh Tom, are you there?" cried Davie, straining his eyes to catch a glimpse.

"Hush!" Tom poked his head out from a clump of shrubbery. "Don't you dare to breathe. I tell you, Dave, our only hope is in staying here till morning."

"Oh dear me!" exclaimed David in dismay.

"Oh dear me!" echoed Tom in derision. It was impossible for him to stop talking, he was so keyed up. "It's paradise, I'm sure, compared to being in old Fox's grip."

This brought David back to Joel's plight, and he sighed dismally, and leant his head on his hands. How long he sat there he couldn't have told. The first thing he did know, a big hand was laid on his shoulder, and a bright glare of light fell full on his face.

"Oh my soul and body!" cried John, the watchman, bending over him, "if here ain't one of th' boys dead asleep on the doorsteps!"

"Little goose, to sit there!" groaned Tom, huddling back into his bushes. "Now it's all up with him. Well, I'll save my skin, for I don't believe those boys will tell on me."

"Coventry" was a small square room in the extension, containing a bed, a table, and a chair, where the boys who were refractory were sent. It was considered a great disgrace to be its inmate. They were not locked in; but no boy once put there was ever known to come out unless bidden by the authorities. And no one, of course, could speak to them when they emerged from it to go to recitations, for their lessons must be learned in the silence of this room. Then back from the cla.s.s-room the culprit must go to this hated place, to stay as long as his misdemeanor might seem to deserve.

It was so much worse punishment than a flogging could possibly be, that all Dr. Marks' boys heard "Coventry" with a chill that stopped many a prank in mid-air.

But Joel didn't get into "Coventry" after all, for at the foot of the stairs, another candle-beam was advancing; and back of it was the thin, sharp face of Mr. Harrow, one of the under-teachers.

"Oh Mr. Harrow," screamed Joel, breaking away from the matron, to plunge up to him, "she's going to put me into Coventry. Oh, don't make me go there; it will kill my Mamsie, and Polly."

"Hey?" Mr. Harrow came to a sudden stop, and whirled the candlestick around to get a better view of things. "What's this, Mrs. Fox? And _Joel Pepper_, of all boys!"

"I know it," said Mrs. Fox, her candlestick shaking in an unsteady hand.

"Well, you see, sir, I was going upstairs to see if little Fosd.i.c.k had blankets enough; it's turned cold, and you know he's had a sore throat, and----"

"Well, come to the point, Mrs. Fox," said the teacher, bringing her up quickly. Joel clung desperately to his hand, shaking violently in every limb.

"Oh, yes, sir--well, and I heard a noise outside, so I bethought me to look, and there was this boy climbing up the lightning conductor."

"Up the lightning conductor?" echoed Mr. Harrow.

"Yes, sir,"--Mrs. Fox's cap-frills trembled violently as she nodded,--"Joel Pepper was climbing up the lightning conductor, sir. And I thought I should have dropped to see him, sir."

The under-teacher turned and surveyed Joel. "Well, I think, Mrs. Fox,"

he said slowly, "if he's been over that lightning conductor to-night, we won't put him in Coventry."

"He wouldn't answer when I asked him if any other boys were there," said the matron, a dull red spot coming on either cheek.

"That's bad--very bad," said Mr. Harrow. "Well, I'll take Joel under my care. Do you go to bed, Mrs. Fox."

It was all done in a minute. Somehow Mrs. Fox never quite realized how she was left standing alone. And as there really wasn't anything else for her to do, she concluded to take the under-teacher's advice.

"Now, Joel,"--Mr. Harrow looked down at his charge,--"you seem to be left for me to take care of. Well, suppose you come into my room, and tell me something about this affair."

Joel, with his heart full of distress about David and Tom, now that the immediate cause of alarm over his being put into "Coventry" was gone, could scarcely conceal his dismay, as he followed Mr. Harrow to his room. He soon found himself on a chair; and the under-teacher, setting his candlestick down, took an opposite one.

"Do you mind telling me all about this little affair of yours, Joe?"

said Mr. Harrow, leading off easily. His manner, once away from the presence of the matron, was as different as possible; and Joel, who had never met him in just this way, stared in amazement.

"You see, Joe," the under-teacher went on, and he began to play with some pencils on the table, "it isn't so very long ago, it seems to me, since I was a boy. And I climbed lightning conductors too. I really did, Joel."

Joel's black eyes gathered a bright gleam in their midst.

"Yes, and at night, too," said the under-teacher softly, "though I shouldn't want you to mention it to the boys. So now, if you wouldn't mind, Joel, I should really like to hear all about this business of yours."