om to the chimney
at one side, and it did seem as though none of those boys could move
without kicking their boots against this stove.

These uncouth noises interfered with the opening address of the teacher
and punctuated the "roll call" by the secretary, who was a small, almost
dwarf-like young man, out of whose mouth rolled the names of the members
in a voice that fairly shook the casements. Such a thunderous tone from
so puny a source was in itself amazing, and convulsed 'Phemie.

"Ain't he got a great voice?" asked Lucas, in a whisper. "He sings bass in
the church choir and sometimes, begum! ye can't hear nawthin' but Elbert
Hooker holler."

"Is _that_ his name?" gasped 'Phemie.

"Yep. Elbert Hooker. 'Yell-bert' the boys call him. He kin sure holler
like a bull!"

And at that very moment, as the bombastic Elbert was subsiding and the
window panes ceased from rattling with the reverberations of his voice,
one of the boys in the corner fell more heavily than before against the
stove--or, it might have been Elbert Hooker's tones had shaken loose the
joints of stovepipe that crossed the schoolroom; however, there was a
yell from those down front, the girls scrambled out of the way, the smoke
began to spurt from between the joints, and it was seen that only the
wires fastened to the ceiling kept the soot-laden lengths of pipe from
falling to the floor.

CHAPTER XII

THE GREEN-EYED MONSTER

The soot began sifting down in little clouds; but the sections of pipe had
come apart so gently that no great damage was done immediately. The girls
sitting under the pipe, however, were thrown into a panic, and fairly
climbed over the desks and seats to get out of the way.

Besides, considerable smoke began to issue from the stove. One of the
young scamps to whose mischievousness was due this incident, had thrown
into the fire, just as the pipe broke loose, some woolen garment, or the
like, and it now began to smoulder with a stench and an amount of smoke
that frightened some of the audience.

"Don't you be skeert none," exclaimed Lucas, to 'Phemie and her sister,
and jumping up from his seat himself. "'Taint nothin' but them Buckley
boys and Ike Hewlett. Little scamps----"

"But we don't want to get soot all over us, Lucas!" cried his sister.

"Or be choked by smoke," coughed 'Phemie.

There was indeed a great hullabaloo for a time; but the windows were
opened, the teacher rescued the burning woolen rag from