Sure enough Miss Hester was coming, walking with all the majesty of a teacher, and carrying demoralization to our garrison by her very presence. As she came up we could hear a chorus of shrill voices crying:
“Lor! Miss Hester, what do you think? the boys have locked us and you out, and say they won’t let us in till you promise to give ’em holiday.”
She did not reply, but we heard her come up the steps, and shake the door two or three times. Finding it barred, there was an ominous silence of a minute or two, then another more violent shake. The more timorous of our number now wished to open the door, and surrender unconditionally; but Frank and I, by dint of hard persuasion, and by representing to them that this course would not palliate their sin, induced them to hold out. She left the house, and went off, walking rapidly. The advocates of surrender now gained strength, but we argued and plead them into a little more obduracy. Before our council of war had ended Miss Hester returned with a carpenter, and we felt that the battle was hers. We got our books, took our seats, and watched, with anxious eyes, the door, as it creaked and strained with every blow. A moment more and it flew open, scattering our barricade in every direction, and Miss Hester marched in victorious. Having dismissed the carpenter, and put things to rights, she turned her attention to the perpetrators of the deed. We saw, from the miniature thunder cloud that had gathered between her brows, that there was no hope for mercy, so we prepared to meet our fate resignedly. Calling us all up in a row, she began at the top of the roll:
“Eliza Atly, were you inside or outside?”
Miss Eliza Atly, the freckled girl, with corner-drawn eyes, is delighted to testify that she was outside.
Abram Barn, the small, fat boy, with puffy cheeks and dry tow hair, bubbles out his answer as if it were liquid:
“Edward! I am surprised at that. Did you bar the door against me?”
Miss Hester’s face flushed, as she said, sternly:
“Those who conceal are as guilty as those who commit.”
She proceeded down the roll, receiving confessions from some, and denials from others, till she came to Frank’s name.
“Frank Paning,” she said, with her darkest frown, “did you bar my door?”