-sounding whisper, "I GOT to!"

And, continuing to rub his nose with his right hand, Penrod began to
search his pockets with his left. The quest proving fruitless, he
rubbed his nose with his left hand and searched with his right. Then
he abandoned his nose and searched feverishly with both hands, going
through all of his pockets several times.

"What DO you want?" whispered his mother.

But Margaret had divined his need, and she passed him her own
handkerchief. This was both thoughtful and thoughtless--the latter
because Margaret was in the habit of thinking that she became faint in
crowds, especially at the theatre or in church, and she had just soaked
her handkerchief with spirits of ammonia from a small phial she carried
in her muff.

Penrod hastily applied the handkerchief to his nose and even more
hastily exploded. He sneezed stupendously; he choked, sneezed
again, wept, passed into a light convulsion of coughing and sneezing
together--a mergence of sound that attracted much attention--and, after
a few recurrent spasms, convalesced into a condition marked by silent
tears and only sporadic instances of sneezing.

By this time his family were unanimously scarlet--his father and mother
with mortification, and Margaret with the effort to control the almost
irresistible mirth that the struggles and vociferations of Penrod had
inspired within her. And yet her heart misgave her, for his bloodshot
and tearful eyes were fixed upon her from the first and remained upon
her, even when half-blinded with his agony; and their expression--as
terrible as that of the windowed Eye confronting her--was not for an
instant to be misunderstood. Absolutely, he believed that she had handed
him the ammonia-soaked handkerchief deliberately and with malice, and
well she knew that no power on earth could now or at any time henceforth
persuade him otherwise.

"Of course I didn't mean it, Penrod," she said, at the first opportunity
upon their homeward way. "I didn't notice--that is, I didn't think--"
Unfortunately for the effect of sincerity she hoped to produce, her
voice became tremulous and her shoulders moved suspiciously.

"Just you wait! You'll see!" he prophesied, in a voice now choking, not
with ammonia, but with emotion. "Poison a person, and then laugh in his
face!"

He spake no more until they had reached their own house, though she made
some further futile efforts at explanation and apology.

And after brooding abysmally