The High School Pitcher | Page 5

"I trust not many
will bring coins of such low denomination."
A look of bland innocence rested on Laura's face.
"Why, sir," she remarked, "you asked us, Friday, to bring pennies.
"Did I?" demanded the principal, a look of astonishment on his face.
"Why, yes, sir," Belle Meade rattled on. "Don't you remember? You

laughed, Mr. Cantwell, and asked each one of us to bring fifteen
pennies to-day."
"I had forgotten that, Miss Meade," returned the principal. Then, as the
sophomore young ladies turned away, a look of suspicion began to
settle on the principal's face. Nor did that look lessen any when the next
six students to come in each carried pennies to the desk.
Twenty more brought pennies. By this time there was a stern look on
the principal's white face.
During the next few minutes after that only two or three came in, for
Dick had thought of a new aspect to the joke. He had sent messengers
scurrying out through the street approaches with this message:
"We're not required to be in the assembly room until eight o'clock. Let's
all wait until two minutes of eight---then go in a throng."
So the principal had a chance to catch up with his counting as the
minutes passed. So busy was he, however, that it didn't quite occur to
him to wonder why so few of the student 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 floor. He leaped up, flushed and angry.
"Will the young---gentlemen---aid me in recovering the coins that went
on the floor?" he asked.
There was promptly a great scurrying and searching. The principal
surely felt harassed that morning. It was ten minutes of nine when the
last student had paid and had had his name checked off. Mr. Cantwell
was at the boiling point of wrath.

Just as the principal was putting the last of the coins into his satchel Mr.
Drake leaned over to whisper:
"May I make a suggestion, sir?"
"Certainly," replied the principal coldly. "Yet I trust, Mr. Drake, that it
won't be a suggestion for an easy way of accumulating more pennies
than I already have."
"I think, if I were you, sir, I should pay no heed