he thought we
were even crazier than we felt, and he said, "Prove you didn't do
_what_?"

"That we didn't put the board across the--OUCH!" Dragonfly started to
talk, but stopped his sentence with an OUCH when I quick kicked him on
the shin.

Mr. Black's eyes opened wide. Then for the first time he seemed to
notice that the fire was going again and that the stove wasn't smoking
so he scratched his head above his left ear, hurried over to the stove
with the camera in his hand, set his camera on his big desk, opened
the stove's door and shut it again, and just stood there, looking
first at the stove and then at us, and I wished I knew what he was
thinking; then I noticed that his eyes glanced off in the direction of
the blackboard and to the beech switches which were lying on a ledge
at the top. I could just see myself and all of us getting a licking in
about seven jiffies. I started to edge toward the door, but he must
have guessed what I was thinking, 'cause he barked a command to me
which was "William Collins! Stop where you are!"

I stopped stock still, trembling inside of me, wondering what the word
"drastic" was going to mean.

Then Mr. Black barked to me, "Go to the blackboard and get me those
beech switches!" There was a tone of voice in his words which made me
start toward the blackboard instead of toward the only door the
schoolhouse had. I had to pass Dragonfly's open window which was still
open, on account of there was still some smoke in the room. It would
have been easy for me to make a dive out of that window but I didn't
want to leave the gang alone there with an angry teacher. I also had
to pass close to the unabridged dictionary, and I all of a quick
sudden decided if I knew what the word "_drastic_" meant, it might
give me an idea what to do next, so I stopped, and quick turned the
pages to the letter "D" and was trying to find _drastic_, when Mr.
Black barked a question at me, and it was, "Young MAN! _What_ are you
_doing_?"

I jumped like I had been shot, but made myself say as calmly as I
could, over my shoulder, "I just wanted to look up an important word
first. I'll get the switches in just a minute."

"If the word is _punishment_," Mr. Black said to me angrily, "it's a
_noun_, and it means _beech switches_.... You bring them to me!" And I
knew I had to do it. I stopped looking in the dictionary, and feeling
simply terrible inside of me, on account of not having done anything
wrong on purp