it was quite warm in the schoolroom one day, and the teacher of the animal children, who was a nice young lady robin, had all the windows open. but even then it was still warm, and the pupils, including bully and bawly no-tail, the frog boys, and lulu and alice and jimmie wibblewobble, the ducks, weren’t doing much studying.
every now and then they would look out of the window toward the green fields, and the cool, pleasant woods, where the yellow and purple violets were growing, and they wished they were out there instead of in school.
“my, it’s hot!” whispered bully to bawly, and of course it was wrong to whisper in school, but perhaps he didn’t think.
“yes, i wish we could go swimming,” answered bawly, and the teacher heard the frog brothers talking together.
“oh, bully and bawly,” she said, as she turned around from the blackboard, where she was drawing a picture of a house, so the children could better learn how to spell it, “i am sorry to hear you whispering. you will both have to stay in after school.”
well, of course bully and bawly didn’t like that, but when you do wrong you have to suffer for it, and when the other animal boys and girls ran out after school, to play marbles and baseball, and skip rope, and jump hop-scotch and other games, the frog boys had to stay in.
they sat in the quiet schoolroom, and the robin teacher did some writing in her books. and bawly looked out of the window over at the baseball game. and bully looked out of the window over toward the swimming pond. and the teacher looked out of the window at the cool woods, where those queer flowered jack-in-the-pulpits grew, and she too, wished she was out there instead of in the schoolroom.
“well, if you two boys are sorry you whispered, and promise that you won’t do it again, you may go,” said the teacher after a while, when she had looked out of the window once more. “you know it isn’t really wicked to whisper in school, only it makes you forget to study, and sometimes it makes other children forget to study, and that’s where the wrong part comes in.”
“i’m sorry, teacher,” said bully.
“you may go,” said the young robin lady with a smile. “how about you, bawly?”
“i’m not!” he exclaimed, real cross-like, “and i’ll whisper again,” for all the while bawly had been thinking how mean the teacher was to keep him in when he wanted to go out and play ball.
the robin lady teacher looked very much surprised at the frog boy, but she only said, “very well, bawly. then you can’t go.”
so bully hurried out, and bawly and the teacher stayed there.
bawly kept feeling worse and worse, and he began to wish that he had said he was sorry. he looked at the teacher, and he saw that she was gazing out of the window again, toward the woods, where there were little white flowers, like stars, growing by the cool, green ferns. and bawly noticed how tired the teacher looked, and as he watched he was sure he saw a tear in each of her bright eyes. and finally she turned to him and said:
“it is so nice out of doors, bawly, that i can’t keep you here any longer, no matter whether you are sorry or not. but i hope you’ll be sorry to-morrow, and won’t whisper again. for it helps me when boys and girls don’t whisper. run out now, and have a good time. i wish i could go, but i have some work to do,” and then with her wing she patted bawly on his little green head, and opened the door for him.
bawly felt rather queer as he hopped out, and he didn’t feel like playing ball, after all. instead he hopped off to the woods, and sat down under a big jack-in-the-pulpit to think. and he thought of how his teacher couldn’t live in the nice green country as he did, for she had to stay in a boarding-house in the city, to be near her school, and she couldn’t see the flowers growing in the woods as often as could bawly, for she nearly always had to stay in after school to write in the report-books.
“i—i wish i hadn’t whispered,” bawly said to himself. “i—i’m going to help teacher after this. i’ll tell her i’m sorry, and—and i guess i’ll bring her some flowers for her desk.”
every one wondered what made bawly so quiet that evening at home. he studied his lessons, and he didn’t want to go out and play ball with bully.
“i hope he isn’t going to be sick,” said his mamma, anxious-like.
“oh! i guess maybe he’s got a touch of water-lily fever,” said grandpa croaker. “a few days of swimming will make him all right again.”
bawly got up very early the next morning, and without telling any one where he was going he hopped over to the woods, and gathered a lot of flowers.
oh, such a quantity as he picked! there were purple violets, and yellow ones, and white ones, and some wild, purple asters, and some blue fringed gentian, and some lovely light-purple wild geraniums, and several jacks-in-the-pulpit, and many other kinds of flowers. and he made them into a nice bouquet with some ferns on the outside.
then, just as he was hopping to school, what should happen but that a great big alligator jumped out of the bushes at him.
“ha! what are you doing in my woods,” asked the alligator, crossly.
“if—if you please, i’m getting some flowers for my teacher, because i whispered,” said bawly.
“oh, in that case it’s all right,” said the alligator, smacking his jaws. “i like school teachers. give her my regards,” and would you believe it? the savage creature crawled off, taking his double-jointed tail with him, and didn’t hurt bawly a bit. the flowers made the alligator feel kind and happy.
well, bawly got to school all right, before any of the other children did, and he put the flowers on teacher’s desk, and he wrote a little note, saying:
“dear teacher, i’m sorry i whispered, but i’m going to help you to-day, and not talk.”
and bawly didn’t. it was quite hard in school that day, but at last it was over. and, just when the children were going home, the robin lady teacher said:
“boys and girls, you have all helped me very much to-day by being good, and i thank you. and something else helped me. it was these flowers that bawly brought me, for they remind me of the woods where i used to play when i was a little girl,” and then she smelled of the flowers, and bawly saw something like two drops of water fall from the teacher’s eyes right into one of the jacks-in-the-pulpit. i wonder if it was water?
and then school was over and all the children ran out to play and bawly thought he never had had so much fun in all his life as when he and bully and some of the others had a ball game, and bawly knocked a fine home run.
now, in case the cuckoo clock doesn’t fall down off the wall and spatter the rice pudding all over the parlor carpet, i’ll tell you in the story after this one about bully and sammie littletail.
