"But there is no way to explain it because we didn't do it."

Shrimps! If they were afraid of making a clean breast of their own deed,
they should not have done it at all. They looked defiant, and appeared
to insist on their innocence as long as no evidence was brought up. I
myself did some mischief while in the middle school, but when the
culprit was sought after, I was never so cowardly, not even once, to
back out. What one has done, has been done; what he has not, has not
been,--that's the black and white of it. I, for one have been game and
square, no matter how much mischief I might have done. If I wished to
dodge the punishment, I would not start it. Mischief and punishment are
bound to go together. We can enjoy mischief-making with some show of
spirit because it is accompanied by certain consequences. Where does one
expect to see the dastardly spirit which hungers for mischief-making
without punishment, in vogue? The fellows who like to borrow money but
not pay it back, are surely such as these students here after they are
graduated. What did these fellows come to this middle school for,
anyway? They enter a school, tattle round lies, play silly jokes behind
some one by sneaking and cheating and get wrongly swell-headed when they
finish the school thinking they have received an education. A common lot
of jackasses they are.

My hatred of talking with these scamps became intense, so I dismissed
them by saying:

"If you fellows have nothing to say, let it go at that. You deserve
pity for not knowing the decent from the vulgar after coming to a
middle school."