ing astonishing himself, so as to be
the centre of all human interest and awe, it was natural that Penrod
should discover in fancy the delightful secret of self-levitation.
He found, in this curious series of imaginings, during the lesson in
arithmetic, that the atmosphere may be navigated as by a swimmer under
water, but with infinitely greater ease and with perfect comfort in
breathing. In his mind he extended his arms gracefully, at a level with
his shoulders, and delicately paddled the air with his hands, which at
once caused him to be drawn up out of his seat and elevated gently to a
position about midway between the floor and the ceiling, where he
came to an equilibrium and floated; a sensation not the less exquisite
because of the screams of his fellow pupils, appalled by the miracle.
Miss Spence herself was amazed and frightened, but he only smiled down
carelessly upon her when she commanded him to return to earth; and
then, when she climbed upon a desk to pull him down, he quietly paddled
himself a little higher, leaving his toes just out of her reach. Next,
he swam through a few slow somersaults to show his mastery of the new
art, and, with the shouting of the dumfounded scholars ringing in
his ears, turned on his side and floated swiftly out of the window,
immediately rising above the housetops, while people in the street below
him shrieked, and a trolley car stopped dead in wonder.

With almost no exertion he paddled himself, many yards at a stroke, to
the girls' private school where Marjorie Jones was a pupil--Marjorie
Jones of the amber curls and the golden voice! Long before the "Pageant
of the Table Round," she had offered Penrod a hundred proofs that
she considered him wholly undesirable and ineligible. At the Friday
Afternoon Dancing Class she consistently incited and led the laughter at
him whenever Professor Bartet singled him out for admonition in matters
of feet and decorum. And but yesterday she had chid him for his
slavish lack of memory in daring to offer her a greeting on the way to
Sunday-school. "Well! I expect you must forgot I told you never to speak
to me again! If I was a boy, I'd be too proud to come hanging around
people that don't speak to me, even if I WAS the Worst Boy in Town!"
So she flouted him. But now, as he floated in through the window of her
classroom and swam gently along the ceiling like an escaped toy balloon,
she fell upon her knees beside her little desk, and, lifting up