His futile threats made little impression upon the girls and boys. They were--for the time--exhausted. Ruth went home in tears--although she had not drawn one word or look of critical comment from the sharp-spoken director. Tess was very solemn, and continued to repeat her part of Swiftwing over and over to herself--although she knew it perfectly.
Dot danced along, saying: "Well! I don't care! _I buzzed_ all right--I know I did! Buzz! buzz! buzz-z-z-z!"
"Goodness gracious!" ejaculated the nervous Agnes, who felt for them all, though not having a thing to do with the play---- "Goodness gracious! you were wishing for a 'buzzer,' Dot Kenway. I don't think you need one. Nature must have made a mistake and meant you for a bee, anyway. I don't see how you ever came to be born into the Kenway family, instead of a bee-hive!"
Dot pouted at that, but quickly changed her expression when she saw Sammy Pinkney careering along the street like a young whirlwind. Sammy, for his sins, had been forbidden to participate in _The Carnation Countess_--not that it seemed to trouble him a bit! Anything that occurred in the schoolhouse was trial and tribulation to Master Pinkney. They could not fool him into believing differently, just by calling it a "play!"
"Oh, bully! bully! bully!" he sang, coming along the street in a "hop, skip and a jump pace," the better to show his joy. "Oh, Dot! oh, Tess! you never can guess what's happened."
"Something _awful_, I just know," said Tess, "or you wouldn't be so glad."
"Huh!" grunted Sammy, stopping in the middle of his fantastic dance, and glaring at the next to the youngest Corner House girl, "You wait, Tess Kenway! You're 'teacher's pet'; but nobody else likes old Pepperpot. I guess it will be in the paper to-night, and everybody will be glad of it."
"What has happened to Miss Pepperill?" demanded Ruth, seeing into the mystery of the boy's speech--at least, for a little way.
"And we're not likely to, if you don't hurry up and say something," snapped Agnes.
"Well!" growled Sammy. "She's hurt-ed. She was run down by an automobile on High Street. They wanted to take her to the hospital--the one for girls and babies, you know----"
"Oh! Mrs. Eland's hospital!" gasped Tess.