body had as yet
come in.

Then, at 7.58, a resounding tread was heard on the stairs leading
up from the basement locker rooms. Some two hundred boys and
girls were coming up in two separate throngs. They were still
coming when the assembly bell rang. As fast as any entered they
made their way, with solemn faces, to the desk on the platform.

As Mr. Cantwell had feared, the pennies still continued to pour
in upon him. Suddenly the principal struck his desk sharply with
a ruler, then leaped to his feet. His face was whiter than ever.
It was plain that the man was struggling to control himself against
an outburst of wrath. He even forced a smile to his face a sort
of smile that had no mirth in it.

"Young ladies and young gentlemen," Mr. Cantwell rasped out, sharply,
"some of you have seen fit to plan a joke against me, and to carry
it out most audaciously. It's a good joke, and I admit that it's
on me. But it has been carried far enough. If you please---_no
more pennies_!"

"But pennies are all I happen to have, sir," protested Dave Darrin,
stepping forward. "Don't you want me to pay you for the music,
sir?"

"Oh, well," replied the principal, with a sigh, "I'll take 'em,
then."

As Dick & Co. had disposed of every one of their little rolls
of fifteen, few of the students were unprovided with pennies.
So the copper stream continued to pour in. Mr. Cantwell could
have called any or all of his submasters and teachers to his aid.
He thought of it presently, as his fingers ached from handling
all the pennies.

"Mr. Drake, will you come to the desk?" he called.

So Submaster Drake came to the platform, drawing a chair up beside
the principal's. But Mr. Cantwell still felt obliged to do the
counting, as he was responsible for the correctness of the sums.
So all Mr. Drake could do was check off the names as the principal
called them.

Faster and faster poured the copper stream now. Mr. Cantwell,
the cords sticking out on his forehead, and a clammy dew bespangling
his white face, counted on in consuming anger. Every now and
then he turned to dump two or three handfuls of counted pennies
into his open satchel.

Gathered all around the desk was a throng of students, waiting
to pay. Beyond this throng, safely out of range of vision, other
students gathered in groups and chuckled almost silently.

Clatter! By an unintentional move of one arm Mr. Cantwell swept
fully a hundred pennies off on to the fl