the girls and younger children sat stupefied in
the positions they had held when coming down the hill, from the throats
of the latter going up the lively wail referred to. Billy looked across
at Jack and grinned again, this time with great solemnity, and Jack
himself looked just a trifle grave.

"Bang! rat-tat-tat! whack!" sounded from the schoolhouse, and the faces
of the younger children paled. The noon hour had reached its end, and
the schoolmaster was sounding his usual call. No bells summoned the
pupils at this rural place of learning, but instead, at recess and at
noon time the pedagogue came to the door and hammered loudly with his
ruler upon the clapboards there beside him. Very grim was this same
schoolmaster, and unfortunate was the pupil who came into the room a
laggard after that harsh summons had rung out across the fields and
flats. There stood the schoolmaster--he could be seen from the Red
Revenger--and it was not difficult even at that distance to imagine the
ominous look upon his face. Again and again came forth the wooden call,
and then the schoolmaster stepped out into the roadway. He looked about
inquiringly. He came to the top of the hill, from whence, off in the
flats, the jumper and its load were plainly seen, and then he paused.
It was clear that he was puzzled and was meditating. He called out
hoarsely:

"What do you mean? What are you doing? Come in, and come now!"

There was no mistaking the quality of that sharp summons. It meant
business, and in all probability it meant trouble, too, for somebody;
trouble of strictly personal, as well as of a physical character. There
was no reply for a moment, and then Billy, the reprobate, grinning again
at Jack, and giving to his voice a tone intended to be a compound of
profound respect and something like unlimited despair, bawled out:

"We can't!"

The teacher descended the hill with all firmness and sedateness; he
looked like a ramrod, or a poker, or anything stiff and straight, and
suggestive of unpleasantness. He followed the roadway until just
opposite the jumper, and then surveying the scene with an angry eye,
commanded all to return to the schoolhouse on the moment. Here the
situation became acute. It was Jack's turn now to make things clear.
That villain rose to the occasion gallantly. He shouted out an
explanation of how the jumper had happened, by the merest accident in
the world, to leave the roadway, and had gone out so far upon the
I