Only an Irish Boy Part 22

"We shall none of us mourn for your absence. Take your seat."

This last remark of the teacher still further incensed G.o.dfrey, and led him temporarily to forget himself. Though he had been bidden to take his seat, he resolved to leave the schoolroom, and made a rush for the door. But Mr. Stone was there before him. He seized G.o.dfrey by the collar and dragged him, shaking him as he proceeded, to his seat, on which he placed him with some emphasis.

"That is the way I treat rebels," he said. "You forget yourself, Preston. The next time you make up your mind to resist my commands, count in advance on a much severer lesson."

G.o.dfrey was pale with pa.s.sion, and his hands twitched convulsively. He only wished he had Mr. Stone in his power for five minutes. He would treat him worse than he did Alfred Parker. But a boy in a pa.s.sion is not a very pleasant spectacle. It is enough to say that G.o.dfrey was compelled to stay in school for the remainder of the forenoon. As soon as he could get away, he ran home, determined to enlist his mother in his cause.

CHAPTER XIV MR. STONE IS CALLED TO ACCOUNT

At home G.o.dfrey gave a highly colored narrative of the outrageous manner in which he had been abused, for so he chose to represent it.

He gave this account to his mother, for his father was not at home.

Indeed, he was absent for a day or two in a distant city.

Mrs. Preston was indignant.

"It is an outrage, G.o.dfrey," she said, compressing her thin lips. "How did Mr. Stone dare to treat you in this way?"

"I was surprised, myself," said G.o.dfrey.

"Had he no more respect for your father's prominent position?"

"It looks as if he didn't."

"He is evidently unfit to keep the school. I shall try to persuade your father to have him turned away."

"I wish he might be," said G.o.dfrey. "It would teach him to treat me with proper respect. Anybody would think that Irish boy was the son of the most important man in town."

Both G.o.dfrey and his mother appeared to take it for granted that a teacher should treat his pupils according to their social position.

This is certainly very far from proper, as all my youthful readers will, I hope, agree.

"I don't want to go back to school this afternoon, mother," said G.o.dfrey.

"I don't wonder," said his mother. "I will tell you what I will do. I will send a letter to Mr. Stone by you, asking him to call here this evening. I will then take occasion to express my opinion of his conduct."

"That's good, mother," said G.o.dfrey, joyfully.

He knew that his mother had a sharp tongue, and he longed to hear his mother "give it" to the teacher whom he hated.

"Then, you think I had better go to school this afternoon?"

"Yes, with the note. If Mr. Stone does not apologize, you need not go to-morrow. I will go upstairs and write it at once."

The note was quickly written, and, putting it carefully in his inside pocket, G.o.dfrey went to school. As he entered the schoolroom he stepped up to the desk and handed the note to Mr. Stone.

"Here is a note from my mother," he said, superciliously.

"Very well," said the teacher, taking it gravely.

As it was not quite time to summon the pupils, he opened it at once.

This was what he read:

"MR. STONE: Sir--My son G.o.dfrey informs me that you have treated him in a very unjust manner, for which I find it impossible to account. I shall be glad if you can find time to call at my house this evening, in order that I may hear from your lips an explanation of the occurrence. Yours, in haste, "Lucinda Preston."

"Preston," said Mr. Stone, after reading this note, "you may say to your mother that I will call this evening."

He did not appear in the least disturbed by the contents of the note he had received from the richest and--in her own eyes--the most important lady in the village. In fact, he had a large share of self-respect and independence, and was not likely to submit to browbeating from anyone. He tried to be just in his treatment of the scholars under his charge, and if he ever failed, it was from misunderstanding or ignorance, not from design. In the present instance he felt that he had done right, and resolved to maintain the justice of his conduct.

Nothing of importance occurred in the afternoon. G.o.dfrey was very quiet and orderly. He felt that he could afford to wait. With malicious joy, he looked forward to the scolding Mr. Stone was to get from his mother.

"He won't dare to talk to her," he said to himself. "I hope she'll make him apologize to me. He ought to do it before the school."

Evidently G.o.dfrey had a very inadequate idea of the teacher's pluck, if he thought such a thing possible.

School was dismissed, and G.o.dfrey went home. He dropped a hint to Ben Travers, that his mother was going "to haul Mr. Stone over the coals,"

as he expressed it.

"Are you going to be there?" asked Ben, when G.o.dfrey had finished.

"Yes," said G.o.dfrey. "It'll be my turn then."

"Perhaps Mr. Stone will have something to say," said Ben, doubtfully.

"He won't dare to," said G.o.dfrey, confidently. "He knows my father could get him kicked out of school."

"He's rather s.p.u.n.ky, the master is," said Ben, who, toady as he was, understood the character of Mr. Stone considerably better than G.o.dfrey did.

"I'll tell you all about it to-morrow morning," said G.o.dfrey.

"All right."

"I expect he'll apologize to me for what he did."

"Maybe he will," answered Ben, but he thought it highly improbable.

"Did you give my note to Mr. Stone?" asked his mother.

"Yes."

"What did he say?"

"He said he'd come around."