e's too sissy to be a preacher!" cried Maurice. "Listen at his squeaky
voice!"

"I'm going to be a better minister," shouted Georgie, "than all three of
you put together. I could do it with my left hand!"

The three laughed bitingly in chorus. They jeered, derided, scoffed,
and raised an uproar which would have had its effect upon much stronger
nerves than Georgie's. For a time he contained his rising choler and
chanted monotonously, over and over: "I COULD! I COULD, TOO! I COULD!
I COULD, TOO!" But their tumult wore upon him, and he decided to avail
himself of the recent decision whereby a big H was rendered innocuous
and unprofane. Having used the expression once, he found it comforting,
and substituted it for: "I could! I could, too!"

But it relieved him only temporarily. His tormentors were unaffected
by it and increased their howlings, until at last Georgie lost his head
altogether. Badgered beyond bearing, his eyes shining with a wild light,
he broke through the besieging trio, hurling little Maurice from his
path with a frantic hand.

"I'll show you!" he cried, in this sudden frenzy. "You give me a chance,
and I'll prove it right NOW!"

"That's talkin' business!" shouted Penrod. "Everybody keep still a
minute. Everybody!"

He took command of the situation at once, displaying a fine capacity for
organization and system. It needed only a few minutes to set order in
the place of confusion and to determine, with the full concurrence of
all parties, the conditions under which Georgie Bassett was to defend
his claim by undergoing what may be perhaps intelligibly defined as the
Herman test. Georgie declared he could do it easily. He was in a state
of great excitement and in no condition to think calmly or, probably, he
would not have made the attempt at all. Certainly he was overconfident.

CHAPTER XXVII CONCLUSION OF THE QUIET AFTERNOON

It was during the discussion of the details of this enterprise that
Georgie's mother, a short distance down the street, received a few
female callers, who came by appointment to drink a glass of iced tea
with her, and to meet the Rev. Mr. Kinosling. Mr. Kinosling was proving
almost formidably interesting to the women and girls of his own
and other flocks. What favour of his fellow clergymen a slight
precociousness of manner and pronunciation cost him was more than
balanced by the visible ecstasies of ladies. They blossomed at his
touch.

He had just entered Mrs. Bassett