r. Elvin. You've certainly done a wonderful
job of inspiring that class to do serious reading. Why, do you know
Mabel Travis has been in here three times today? She took out seven
books as soon as the library opened, and she had them back by
nine-thirty. Said she'd read them all, too."

"Seven books in less than two hours?" Elvin laughed.

"I suppose she thought she had. Poor little Mabel! She hasn't much to
work with, you know. But it was her new attitude I liked--so intense, so
serious. And she was doing such heavy reading, too."

Elvin walked back to the Schermerhorn ranch, enjoying the noon-day
warmth. San Benedicto was crowded with Saturday shoppers. He met his
students everywhere, and always they commented on the practical joke he
had played on them. By the time he was back in his room, the fiction of
the joke was thoroughly established in his own mind. He almost believed
it himself.

He glanced again at the transparent cylinder of spheres. A chemist might
be able to analyze the contents and say where the jar had originated.
Perhaps Miss Gerkin could do it. She had taught science for more than
twenty years at San Benedicto High. Yet Elvin knew he couldn't ask her
for help. If the colored balls turned out to be nothing more than hard
candy, then by inescapable logic he would have to accept the fact that
he was suffering from a major hallucination. It was more comfortable not
to know the truth.

The idea of candy, however, brought up another association. Mrs.
Schermerhorn had said that earlier in the evening Bill Blake had won a
jar of candy as a prize. Bill Blake was the prize joker of the tenth
grade. Elvin had what seemed to be an intuitive flash of understanding.
The rocket had been a joke, all right, but it had been aimed at Elvin.
The kids had rigged it up before he came home from the show. During the
night they had come back and taken the stage setting away.

* * * * *

Elvin spent the rest of the weekend planning his revenge. He didn't
think of it as that, but rather disciplinary action. Yet he knew the
class would get the point and possibly even heed the implied warning. In
five years Elvin had reduced the complex process of teaching to one
workable rule: break the class, or the kids will break you.

Now he chose the classical cat-whip of a surprise test to crack them
back into line. He spent Sunday planning it and duplicating the pages.
He was scrupulously careful to