nio
laughed--aloud!

Then he was so scared, and so afraid he would laugh again if the lizard
kept on tickling, that he put his hand in his pocket and took it out.
Kneeling in front of Tonio was a boy named Pablo, and the bare soles of
his feet were turned up in such a way that Tonio just couldn't help
dropping the lizard on to them.

The lizard ran right up Pablo's leg, inside his cotton trousers, and
Pablo let out a yell like a wild Indian on the warpath, and began to act
as if he had gone crazy.

He jumped up and danced about clutching his clothes, and screaming! The
Senor Maestro and the children were perfectly amazed. They couldn't
think what ailed Pablo until, all of a sudden, the green lizard dropped
on the floor out of his sleeve and scuttled as fast as it could toward
the girls' side of the room. Then the girls screamed and stood on their
seats until the lizard got out of sight.

[Illustration]

Nobody knew where it had gone, until the Senor Maestro suddenly fished
it out of a chink in the adobe wall and held it up by the tail.

"Who brought this lizard into the schoolroom?" he asked.

Tonio didn't have to say a word. I don't know how they could be so sure
of it, but all the children pointed their fingers at Tonio and said, "He
did."

The Maestro said very sternly to Tonio, "Go out to the willow tree and
bring me a strong switch," Tonio went.

He went very slowly and came back with the willow switch more slowly
still.

I think you can guess what happened next--I hope you can, for I really
cannot bear to tell you about it. When it was over Tonio was sent home,
while all the other children sat straight up in their seats, looking so
hard at their books that they were almost cross-eyed, and studying their
lessons at the top of their lungs.

If you had asked them then, they would every one have told you that they
considered it very wrong to bring lizards to school, and that under no
circumstances would they ever think of doing such a thing.

[Illustration]

III

Tonio walked slowly down the road toward his home. He didn't cry, but he
looked as if he wished he could just come across somebody else who was
doing something wrong! He'd like to teach him better.

When Jose saw him, he called out to him, "Is school out?"

"No," said Tonio. "I am," and he never said another word to Jose.

He had the willow switch in his hand. The Maestro had given it to him,
"to remember him by," he said. Tonio felt