dance--rudely, too!"

"I don't think the little girls will mind that so much!" Miss Lowe said.
"If you'd come to the dancing class some Friday with Amy and me, you'd
understand why."

They moved away. Penrod heard his name again mentioned between them as
they went, and, though he did not catch the accompanying remark, he was
inclined to think it unfavourable. He remained where he was, brooding
morbidly.

He understood that the government was against him, nor was his judgment
at fault in this conclusion. He was affected, also, by the conduct of
Marjorie, who was now dancing gayly with Maurice Levy, a former rival
of Penrod's. The fact that Penrod had not gone near her did not make her
culpability seem the less; in his gloomy heart he resolved not to ask
her for one single dance. He would not go near her. He would not go near
ANY OF 'EM!

His eyes began to burn, and he swallowed heavily; but he was never one
to succumb piteously to such emotion, and it did not even enter his head
that he was at liberty to return to his own home. Neither he nor any
of his friends had ever left a party until it was officially concluded.
What his sufferings demanded of him now for their alleviation was not
departure but action!

Underneath the surface, nearly all children's parties contain a group
of outlaws who wait only for a leader to hoist the black flag. The group
consists mainly of boys too shy to be at ease with the girls, but
who wish to distinguish themselves in some way; and there are others,
ordinarily well behaved, whom the mere actuality of a party makes
drunken. The effect of music, too, upon children is incalculable,
especially when they do not hear it often--and both a snare-drum and a
bass drum were in the expensive orchestra at the Rennsdale party.

Nevertheless, the outlawry at any party may remain incipient unless a
chieftain appears; but in Penrod's corner were now gathering into one
anarchical mood all the necessary qualifications for leadership. Out
of that bitter corner there stepped, not a Penrod Schofield subdued
and hoping to win the lost favour of the Authorities, but a hot-hearted
rebel determined on an uprising.

Smiling a reckless and challenging smile, he returned to the cluster
of boys in the wide doorway and began to push one and another of them
about. They responded hopefully with counter-pushes, and presently there
was a tumultuous surging and eddying in that quarter, accompanied by
noises that be