the night thinking
about it, and, at last, when he had cooled off, he came to the
conclusion that, as the boys had been the first offenders, they should
take the first step toward a reconciliation. But whether he could
persuade the angry boys to see it in that light, he did not know.

When morning came, he wrote a very short paper, somewhat in this
fashion:

Mr. Williams:

Dear Sir: We are very sorry for what we did yesterday, and for
the trouble we have given you. We are willing to take the
punishment, for we think we deserve it; but we hope you will not
think that we did it on purpose, for we did not, and we don't like
to have you think so.

Respectfully submitted.

Jack carried this in the first place to his faithful friend, Bob
Holliday, who read it.

"Oh, you've come down, have you?" said Bob.

"I thought we ought to," said Jack. "We _did_ give him a great deal of
trouble, and if it had been Mr. Ball, he would have whipped us half to
death."

"We shouldn't have forgot and gone away at that time if Old Ball had
been the master," said Bob.

"That's just it," said Jack; "that's the very reason why we ought to
apologize."

"All right," said Bob, "I'll sign her," and he wrote "Robert M.
Holliday" in big letters at the top of the column intended for the
names. Jack put his name under Bob's.

But when they got to the school-house it was not so easy to persuade the
rest. At length, however, Johnny Meline signed it, and then Harry
Weathervane, and then the rest, one after another, with some grumbling,
wrote their names. All subscribed to it excepting Pewee and Ben Berry
and Riley. They declared they never would sign it. They didn't want to
be kept in at recess and after school like convicts. They didn't deserve
it.

"Jack is a soft-headed fool," Riley said, "to draw up such a thing as
that. I'm not afraid of the master. I'm not going to knuckle down to
him, either."

Of course, Pewee, as a faithful echo, said just what Riley said, and Ben
Berry said what Riley and Pewee said; so that the three were quite
unanimous.

"Well," said Jack, "then we'll have to hand in our petition without the
signatures of the triplets."

"Don't you call me a triplet," said Pewee; "I've got as much sense as
any of you. You're a soft-headed triplet yourself!"

Even Riley had to join in the laugh that followed this blundering sally
of Pewee.

When the master came in, he seemed very much t