esk in the front row.

"What is this, Inger Johanne?" asked Mr. Gorrisen severely.

"It was so tedious to stand there, Mr. Gorrisen," I said.

"Yes, that was exactly why you were put there."

"And so I crept over here when you didn't see me."

Without another word, down across the floor he came. I turned my right
ear towards him, for the left ear burned horribly even yet from the
other time. But he evidently thought that an ear-pinch was too gentle a
punishment for creeping through the whole class-room. I was taken by the
arm and led along out of the door. Outside in the hall he shook me by
the arm. Oh, well! it was just a little shake anyway,--but then I had to
hang around in that hall until the lesson was all over.

I can't understand now how I ever dared to creep that way in Mr.
Gorrisen's class. O dear! I have been awfully foolish many
times--unbelievably foolish!

Then there was that day Mr. Gorrisen fell off his chair. I was put out
in the hall that day, too. But all the others ought to have been sent
out as well, for we all laughed together. It was just because I couldn't
stop laughing that I had to go. I surely have spasms in my cheeks, for
long after all the others have stopped I keep on--I can't help it.

We were having our geography lesson. Mr. Gorrisen sat in an armchair by
the table and stared at us, for he was not the kind of teacher that
sharpens pencils or polishes his finger nails or does anything like
that. He just sits and sways back and forth in his chair and stares
incessantly. Well, never mind that. The lesson was on the peninsula of
Korea. I remember distinctly.

"Now, Minka, Korea lies----" He swayed and swayed in his chair.

"Korea lies--ahem! Ko-re-a lies----"

Minka glanced anxiously around to see whether any one would whisper to
her--"Korea lies between----"

There came a frightful explosive bang; the chair had gone over backward,
making a horrible noise, and Mr. Gorrisen's small legs were up in the
air above the corner of the table.

Oh, what shrieks of laughter pealed out through the class-room! But
quick as a flash Mr. Gorrisen was up again. He sat himself in the
armchair as if nothing had happened, only his face was flaming red up to
his hair. It was exactly as if there had been no interruption whatever,
to say nothing of such a noisy comical topsy-turvy.

"Korea lies where, Minka?"

But that was more than I could bear. I burst out laughing again--he, he!
ha, ha!--and al