CHAPTER VI

EXAMINATION DAY

It was plain that Fred and Charley had spread the news of their descent into the Pit, and of their battle with the Simpson clan and the Fishes. He heard the nine-o'clock bell with feelings of relief, and passed into the school, a mark for admiring glances from all the boys. The girls, too, looked at him in a timid and fearful way--as they might have looked at Daniel when he came out of the lions' den, Joe thought, or at David after his battle with Goliath. It made him uncomfortable and painfully self-conscious, this hero-worshiping, and he wished heartily that they would look in some other direction for a change.

Soon they did look in another direction. While big sheets of foolscap were being distributed to every desk, Miss Wilson, the teacher (an austere-looking young woman who went through the world as though it were a refrigerator, and who, even on the warmest days in the classroom, was to be found with a shawl or cape about her shoulders), arose, and on the blackboard where all could see wrote the Roman numeral "I." Every eye, and there were fifty pairs of them, hung with expectancy upon her hand, and in the pause that followed the room was quiet as the grave.

Underneath the Roman numeral "I" she wrote: "_(a) What were the laws of Draco? (b) Why did an Athenian orator say that they were written 'not in ink, but in blood'?_"

Forty-nine heads bent down and forty-nine pens scratched lustily across as many sheets of foolscap. Joe's head alone remained up, and he regarded the blackboard with so blank a stare that Miss Wilson, glancing over her shoulder after having written "II," stopped to look at him. Then she wrote:

Answer this series of questions:

1. Who had spread the news?
2. What was the teacher's name?
3. What were her salient qualities?
4. and?
5. Did she dress in a summery fashion?
6. What biblical story is referenced?
7. and?
8. What characterized the glances from the boys?
9. How many eyes were looking at the teacher's hand?
10. was the classroom hushed?
11. Who does she quote concerning Draconian laws?
12. Did all the children know the answer to her question?
1. Fred and Charley
2. Miss Wilson
3. austere-looking
4. went through the world as though it were a refrigerator
5. No
6. David vs Goliath
7. the Simpson clan and the Fishes
8. the nine-o'clock bell
9. fifty pairs
10. Yes
11. What were the laws of Draco?
12. Yes