Mabel C. Hawley

“ The noise in the school yard ceased with a suddenness that was surprising. The gong rang again and a trampling and scuffling through the halls announced that the boys and girls were marching up to their classrooms. Miss Mason took her place at the door, and as a long line marched into her room she directed them where to sit. Meg wondered what she was to do with her hat.
“Beginning with the first aisle, the girls may go to the cloak room and hang up their hats,” announced Miss Mason, just as if Meg had spoken aloud. “Then after all the girls have returned, the boys may go, aisle by aisle. ”

“ They had reached the house by this time, and the little Blossoms dashed up the stairs to find their mother and tell her all the news. The twins listened eagerly, for the slightest word about school never failed to enthrall them.
“So I think Tim Roon is hateful,” concluded Bobby, when he had finished telling Mother Blossom about the unfortunate snake. “And Charlie Black is just like him.”
“Now, children,” said Mother Blossom firmly, “you needn’t tell me any child is hateful, I don’t care who he is or what he does. ”

“ Mother Blossom and Miss Florence laughed.
“I begin to think the other children are the attraction, not school,” said Mother Blossom. “However, Meg must run along if she is to be back by lunch time. I’ll give you and Bobby each fifty cents, dear. And suppose Dot and Twaddles have a quarter each to spend? Going to school without a shiny new pencil box isn’t to be thought of, I’m sure.”
Meg and Dot ran downstairs and found Twaddles and Bobby had tired of teaching Philip to jump through a hoop, and were busily cracking stones in the driveway. ”

“ Meg cried in quick alarm. “He told us he had them and Bobby and I wouldn’t let him drown them. Then he said they were your kittens and you wanted them drowned. And of course you can do anything you want to with your kittens, but I thought you wouldn’t mind if we kept them.”
Mr. Fritz nodded his head several times.
“I see,” he said at each nod. “I see––you want to save the kittens and let them grow up and howl on the back fences. Well, I think there are enough cats in this world already. But as long as I don’t have to take care of the kittens, it makes no difference to me what becomes of them. ”

“ Bertrand stood up, his sleepy eyes fixed earnestly on his teacher.
“The percale and the braid came to sixty-two cents altogether,” he announced, “so if you gave Mr. Dryburg a dollar, you would have thirty-eight cents in change.”
Bertrand sat down.
“Right,” said Miss Mason. “I’m glad I have one pupil who knows how to use his brain. Some of those who might have had eight on their cards this month needn’t be surprised to find a six. Robert, how much is seven times six?”
“I don’t know,” muttered Bobby ungraciously. ”

“ Meg blushed brightly and bent over her copy book. She had made only seven letters, but then she had been anxious lest Bobby get one of his “stubborn fits,” as Norah called them, when no one but Father Blossom could persuade him to change his mind.
“I think Miss Mason is as mean as can be!” thought Meg to herself, carefully tracing the outline of a graceful “S.” “She says cross things all the time. I wonder is she old?”
Old people had a right to be cross, Meg considered. Miss Mason didn’t look old––she had hair as yellow as Meg’s own, and big brown eyes. ”

“ Reaching down into a kind of cabinet that formed the lower part of Miss Mason’s desk, Tim brought up a tall bottle of 74 ink from which the desk inkwells were filled. He took the stopper out and opened the book.
“What you doing?” asked a voice at his elbow.
Tim’s conscience was guilty enough, dear knows, so it was no wonder that he jumped. A thick stream of ink spurted out and ran down the crevice of the binding of the book. Tim closed it quickly.
“Gee, Charlie Black! you scared me,” Tim said, relieved to find that the voice belonged to his chum. “What am I doing? You just watch me!” ”

“ Philip marched up to the platform and put down the doll. Then he sat down, panting, his tail wagging furiously.
“We––we want to go to school, too,” explained Dot, speaking to Miss Mason, “so we came.”
“I see,” admitted the teacher. “You’re not old enough to come to school yet. Whose children are you?”
“Please, Miss Mason,” Meg stood up bravely, “they’re my brother and sister, Twaddles and Dot.” ”

“ Then Twaddles showed that he had spent much time and thought on his plan.
“We’ll only carry one––for a sample!” he told her triumphantly. “A cat is a cat, isn’t it? And we’ll explain they have different colors but look just alike except for that. We’ll go to different houses, the way Mr. Hambert does, and let folks order a kitten. Then we can take it to them.”
“Mr. Hambert has samples!” cried Dot, beginning to understand. “Easter he has a nest and Christmas he has spun sugar Santa Clauses––and he only takes one. We can do it, can’t we, Twaddles?” ”

“ Tim fled up the street and Bobby ran down, each as fast as he could go.
“My stars and stripes!” ejaculated Sam Layton, meeting Bobby as the boy came running in the driveway, “is that what they do to you at school? Learning must be rather hard work.” ”

“ Mother Blossom and Aunt Polly were busy in the house, and when Twaddles and Dot came in to get their hats and coats and explained they thought they could find a home for a kitten, no one objected to their going out. They could go anywhere in Oak Hill with perfect safety and they knew just about every one in the town.
“We won’t say anything about finding homes for all of the kittens,” said Twaddles as he stuffed the “sample” inside his coat, “because if we can’t get folks to take them, Bobby and Meg will laugh. ”

“ But Meg thought they were lovely and she was anxious to take them out to the garage and give them some warm milk. The garage was always chosen as a good place to feed stray animals, for the cement floor could be more 150 easily washed than the linoleum that was the pride of Norah’s heart in the kitchen.
“Meg, darling, we simply cannot keep all those kittens,” Mother Blossom declared regretfully. “Seven kittens are a great many and I don’t believe Annabel Lee will welcome so much company.” ”

“ Bobby was angry, too, and his small face was as red as the old turkey’s that lived at Brookside Farm.
“If you want to kill a snake, you don’t have to mash it and hurt it,” he told Tim heatedly. “You like to kill things. Water snakes are harmless––Sam Layton says so. You cut up that other snake ’fore you killed it; and you let me find you doing that to a live snake, or anything else that can feel, and I’ll, I’ll–––”
The bell rang then and Bobby didn’t have time to say what he would do. ”

“ I like to use my pupils’ full names. I’m sorry your sister can’t sit with you, Robert, but I can’t mix the grades. You may have any seat on this aisle, Margaret.”
Poor Meg found it most confusing to be called Margaret, and was almost startled to hear Bobby addressed as “Robert.” Father Blossom occasionally called him that, but only when he meant to scold him. But Meg sensibly supposed that when one went to school there were a number of new things to get used to, and it seemed that names were to be among them. ”

“ Any boy that will stand aside and let another be unjustly accused deserves whatever he gets.”
Mother Blossom’s cheeks were quite pink and her blue eyes had little sparks in them, just as Bobby’s did sometimes when he was angry.
“Mother is right,” declared Father Blossom, who had come home early and had heard the story from Aunt Polly, Meg, the twins, and Norah before he had taken off his overcoat. “Don’t fret about Tim and Charlie––those young scamps need a couple of interviews with Mr. Carter if they are not to grow up utterly reckless.” ”

“ Bobby forgot to be afraid. As he told about the arithmetic lesson, where he had been a “poor loser,” and about the beautiful book that had been destroyed, and explained why he went back to the room at recess time, he forgot that he was speaking to the principal. He stood up straight beside the desk and talked to Mr. Carter as he would to Daddy Blossom. 96 And the principal’s kind, earnest eyes, his ready smile, and deep, pleasant voice, all told Bobby that he was speaking to a friend. ”

“ Miss Mason did not feel as sure as she had at first that it was Bobby who had spoiled her book. Mr. Carter’s championship of Bobby was not without results. Still, she did not wholly absolve him, and while she was fair enough not to mention the subject again, Bobby knew that she had not forgotten. He was surprised when his name was read aloud as one to have part in the exercises.
“There’s six of us boys,” announced Bobby to Mother Blossom. “We all come out at once and take turns saying a verse. Tim Roon and Charlie Black aren’t in it. ”

“ Mother Blossom reminded him. “You know Daddy and I have talked to you about this before, Bobby. You are not a very good loser, and the boy who can’t lose and keep 91 his temper will never be a good sportsman. Suppose Daddy got mad and ‘talked back’ whenever things didn’t go to suit him at the foundry!”
Mother Blossom put an arm around Bobby and drew him closer to her.
“And if you had spoken to Daddy or to me as you did to Miss Mason,” she went on, smoothing back his hair, “I think you know what you would be asked to do––what you would want to do, in fact. Don’t you?” ”

“ The children who were so busily employed in the pleasant living-room this rainy September afternoon were known to all their friends as “the four little Blossoms.” 10
There was a Father Blossom and a Mother Blossom, of course, and when you were introduced to the children separately––though the four were usually to be found, as Norah, the good-natured maid, said, “right in a bunch”––you met Robert Hayward Blossom, always known as Bobby, seven years old and as devoted a brother to six-year-old Margaret Alice as you would ever find. Margaret was much better known as Meg. ”

“ Palmer, who was a leader among the younger boys, succeeded in rounding up more of their class to complete his team, among them Tim Roon and his inseparable friend, Charlie Black.
“Come on over in this corner,” said Palmer, beckoning them to follow him. “Old Hornbeck’s down to watch the high-school squad, and 100 like as not he’ll order us off if he sees us. Those high-school boys think they own the earth.”
There was a ruling, as Palmer knew, that the smaller boys should keep off the field while the others were playing football. ”

“ Mr. Morris was the owner of the store and he had a desk in a small private office far back from the counters. Twaddles marched down the aisle and Dot after him. They found Mr. Morris reading a newspaper and looking as though he might not be very busy. He smiled when he saw them.
“Hello!” he said, “what brings you calling?”
“Don’t you want a nice kitten, Mr. Morris?” asked Twaddles persuasively. “It will grow 158 up and catch mice and rats, and it won’t need much to eat. If Minnie is dead, you really need a cat, don’t you?” ”

“ But we have to have people. People always live in houses. Don’t you want to put Geraldine and what’s-her-name in ’fore I put the chimney on?”
Dot, who was the doll Geraldine’s mother, clutched her closely, while Meg quickly picked up her doll from the couch where she had laid her.
“There won’t anything hurt ’em,” protested Bobby earnestly. “Go on, put ’em in––please, Meg.”
Meg seldom could resist anything Bobby asked of her, and Dot was always ready to follow her older sister’s lead. ”

“ The twins were four years old, dark-haired and dark-eyed, while Bobby and Meg had blue eyes and yellow hair.
The Blossoms lived in the pretty town of Oak Hill, and they knew nearly every one. Indeed the children had never been away from Oak Hill till the visit they had made to their Aunt Polly, about which you may have read in the book called “Four Little Blossoms at Brookside Farm.” They had spent the summer with Aunt 11 Polly, and had made many new friends and learned a great deal about animals. Meg, especially, loved all dumb creatures. ”

“ Most of the girls fled screaming, and some of the boys followed them. Miss Mason stood up, undecided what to do. 125
“Get a pole and kill him!” shouted Tim Roon, from a safe position behind the bookcase. “Mash him ’fore he has a chance to fight.”
“Don’t be silly,” snapped Bobby. “A monkey can’t hurt you. Let’s catch it.”
Now, no one had any experience, in catching a monkey, and they were willing to let Bobby go about it as he saw fit.
“One of you hold open the door,” he decided after a minute’s thought. “Meg, you stand there and hold out your dress. I’ll go in and chase him out to you. ”

“ Some of the school committee said it was nonsense to close the school for a circus, but Mr. Carter said he wasn’t going to give us a chance to play hooky. Everybody’s going, Daddy.”
“Dot and Twaddles want to meet the children up town to see the parade. So you think that is safe, Ralph?” asked Mother Blossom, coming into the room to tell them that supper was ready. “There will be such a crowd.”
“They mustn’t go alone,” said Father Blossom quickly. “Let Sam take them. They can all sit in Steve Broadwell’s window. ”

“ On their way to school the children found that the news of the overturned monkey cage was known to the whole town. Not a boy who didn’t hope to be able to catch a monkey or two.
“There’s a reward offered––five dollars for each monkey,” Palmer Davis reported when he met Meg and Bobby at the school door. “Yep––my cousin told me; and he’s in the Oak Hill Daily Advertiser office, and I guess he ought to know.”
The majority of the children in Miss Mason’s room stayed downstairs till the “warning bell” rang and then hurried to their room to put away their coats and hats in the cloak room. ”

“ You’ll find Miss Mason fair-minded and ready to own a mistake has been made when once she is convinced. As long as you know you didn’t do it you have absolutely nothing to worry about.”
The principal put on his glasses and stood up.
“Next time you come to see me, let’s hope we have something pleasanter to discuss,” he said smilingly, holding out his hand to Bobby. “By 97 the way, didn’t I see a little sister of yours yesterday and two other young people rather anxious to go to school?”
“That was Meg,” Bobby informed him. “She had to take the twins home. They’re crazy to come to school.” ”