“I have received a very indignant letter from Doctor Handley, at Hillsport School,” he said presently. “He tells me that some time during Saturday night the wall of his residence was defaced with black paint in--um--in ill-advised celebration of Alton’s football victory over Hillsport.”
Willard gasped. “We--I didn’t know it was his wall, sir!” he exclaimed.
“Is that true? You didn’t know that Doctor Handley’s residence stood at the corner, across from the school entrance?”
“No, sir,” answered the boy earnestly. “I’d never been there before, sir.”
“Yes,” replied the Doctor gently. “You said ‘we’ a moment ago.”
Willard reddened. “I--I corrected myself,” he answered.
Doctor McPherson smiled whimsically and shook his head. “I wouldn’t call it a correction, Harmon. You see, it’s extremely unlikely that you would have engaged in such a--such an amusement by yourself. Defacing property in that manner is ‘gang work’: I’ve never known it otherwise.”
Willard gulped. “Yes, sir. Well, none of us knew that wall was Doctor--Doctor--”
“Handley’s?” asked the Principal helpfully.
“Yes, sir. We wouldn’t have done it for anything if we had known. We--we just wanted to get even with those--fellows for what they did to us last year. They painted green signs all around town here, sir, and we thought it was perfectly fair to get back at them. That’s all there was to it.”
“A very silly proceeding, Harmon. Defacing the property of others is a particularly mean and contemptible form of mischief. And the fact that the Hillsport boys indulged in it was no excuse. Indeed, the appearance of your own town should have shown you how atrocious such vandalism is. I sympathize with the resentment that was felt here last fall when it was found that Hillsport had scrawled the score on our fences and walls, but I do not sympathize in the least with the motive that led you and your companions to commit the same indecency, Harmon. Another thing is that Hillsport was careful not to deface school property. Indeed, as I recall, she displayed some care in the selection of old fences and such places for her--um--decorations. In your case you seem to have tried to do as much damage as possible.”
“But we didn’t know, sir!” protested Willard again.