up near the ceiling. The
forsaken desks, with a forgotten book or slate left here and there upon
them, the pegs around the wall empty of hats and bonnets, the unoccupied
chair upon the platform--Emmy Lou gazed at these with a sinking
sensation of desolation, while tear followed tear down her chubby face.
And listening to the flies and the silence, Emmy Lou began to long for
even the Bombazine Presence, and dropping her quivering countenance upon
her arms folded upon the desk she sobbed aloud. But the time was long,
and the day was warm, and the sobs grew slower, and the breath began to
come in long-drawn, quivering sighs, and the next Emmy Lou knew she was
sitting upright, trembling in every limb, and some one coming up the
stairs--she could hear the slow, heavy footfalls, and a moment after
she saw the Man, the Recess Man, the low, black-bearded, black-browed,
scowling Man, with the broom across his shoulder, reach the hallway, and
make toward the open doorway of the First Reader room. Emmy Lou held her
breath, stiffened her little body, and--waited. But the Man pausing to
light his pipe, Emmy Lou, in the sudden respite thus afforded slid in
a trembling heap beneath the desk, and on hands and knees went crawling
across the floor. And as Uncle Michael came in, a moment after, broom,
pan, and feather-duster in hand, the last fluttering edge of a little
pink dress was disappearing into the depths of the big, empty coal-box,
and its sloping lid was lowering upon a flaxen head and cowering little
figure crouched within. Uncle Michael having put the room to rights,
sweeping and dusting, with many a rheumatic groan in accompaniment,
closed the windows, and going out, drew the door after him, and, as was
his custom, locked it.

Meanwhile, at Emmy Lou's home the elders wondered. But Emmy Lou did not
come. And by half-past two Aunt Louise, the youngest auntie, started out
to find her. But after searching the neighborhood in vain, returned home
in despair. Then Aunt Cordelia sent the house boy down-town for Uncle
Charlie. Just as Uncle Charlie arrived--and it was past five o'clock by
then--some of the children of the neighborhood, having found a small boy
living some squares off who confessed to being in the First Reader with
Emmy Lou, arrived also, with the small boy in tow.

"She didn't know 'dog' from 'frog' when she saw 'em," stated the small
boy, with derision of superior ability, "an' teacher, she told her to
stay after s