ll you, Joseph, without any words about it."

"B . . . b . . . but m . . . m . . . miss . . . th . . . th . . .
they're . . ." gasped Joe in desperation.

"Joseph, are you going to obey me or are you NOT?" said Anne.

A bolder and more self-possessed lad than Joe Sloane would have been
overawed by her tone and the dangerous flash of her eyes. This was a new
Anne whom none of her pupils had ever seen before. Joe, with an agonized
glance at St. Clair, went to the stove, opened the big, square front
door, and threw the blue and white parcel in, before St. Clair, who
had sprung to his feet, could utter a word. Then he dodged back just in
time.

For a few moments the terrified occupants of Avonlea school did not know
whether it was an earthquake or a volcanic explosion that had occurred.
The innocent looking parcel which Anne had rashly supposed to contain
Mrs. Hiram's nut cakes really held an assortment of firecrackers
and pinwheels for which Warren Sloane had sent to town by St.
Clair Donnell's father the day before, intending to have a birthday
celebration that evening. The crackers went off in a thunderclap of
noise and the pinwheels bursting out of the door spun madly around the
room, hissing and spluttering. Anne dropped into her chair white with
dismay and all the girls climbed shrieking upon their desks. Joe Sloane
stood as one transfixed in the midst of the commotion and St. Clair,
helpless with laughter, rocked to and fro in the aisle. Prillie Rogerson
fainted and Annetta Bell went into hysterics.

It seemed a long time, although it was really only a few minutes, before
the last pinwheel subsided. Anne, recovering herself, sprang to open
doors and windows and let out the gas and smoke which filled the room.
Then she helped the girls carry the unconscious Prillie into the porch,
where Barbara Shaw, in an agony of desire to be useful, poured a pailful
of half frozen water over Prillie's face and shoulders before anyone
could stop her.

It was a full hour before quiet was restored . . . but it was a quiet
that might be felt. Everybody realized that even the explosion had not
cleared the teacher's mental atmosphere. Nobody, except Anthony Pye,
dared whisper a word. Ned Clay accidentally squeaked his pencil while
working a sum, caught Anne's eye and wished the floor would open and
swallow him up. The geography class were whisked through a continent
with a speed that made them dizzy. The grammar class were parsed