say I must?"

"I tell you what I should do," said Kinch, "if it was me. I should act so
bad that the people would be glad to get rid of me. They hired me out to
live once, and I led the people they put me with such a dance, that they
was glad enough to send me home again."

This observation brought them to the school-house, which was but a trifling
distance from the residence of Mrs. Ellis.

They entered the school at the last moment of grace, and Mr. Dicker looked
at them severely as they took their seats. "Just saved ourselves,"
whispered Kinch; "a minute later and we would have been done for;" and with
this closing remark he applied himself to his grammar, a very judicious
move on his part, for he had not looked at his lesson, and there were but
ten minutes to elapse before the class would be called.

The lessons were droned through as lessons usually are at school. There was
the average amount of flogging performed; cakes, nuts, and candy,
confiscated; little boys on the back seats punched one another as little
boys on the back seats always will do, and were flogged in consequence.
Then the boy who never knew his lessons was graced with the fool's cap, and
was pointed and stared at until the arrival of the play-hour relieved him
from his disagreeable situation.

"What kind of folks are these Thomases?" asked Kinch, as he sat beside
Charlie in the playground munching the last of the apple-tart; "what kind
of folks are they? Tell me that, and I can give you some good advice,
may-be."