CHAPTER VIII
MISS LEECE
Yes, there stood the hideous, grotesque effigy just where her abductorshad left her the night before, her green veil floating in the breezes.As a figure of fun and an object of ridicule, she might not have createdmore than a ripple with the faculty. But it was evident that MissLeece's function, even in effigy, was to make trouble.
And trouble was certainly brewing that memorable morning. The figureitself might never have been recognized, but a placard which had beenpinned on the front of the old ulster left no room for doubt. Across ithad been inscribed in large printed letters:
"THE MOST UNPOPULAR TEACHER IN SCHOOL."
No one dared take the effigy away for fear of being implicated.Everybody had seen it, both men and women professors and the boys andgirls of the two schools. But it was not until Miss Thompson, theprincipal of the Girls' High School, had arrived that the figure wasremoved.
"How could those boys have been so mean!" exclaimed Grace to her threefriends just before the gong sounded. "They might have known what wouldhappen."
There was an ominous quiet in the various class rooms all morning; butnothing was said or done to indicate just when the storm would burst.When the first class in algebra met, Anne trembled with fear, but MissLeece, in a robin's egg-blue dress, which offset the angry hue of hercomplexion, was apparently too angry to trust herself to look in thedirection of the young girl and the lesson progressed without incident.
However, she was only biding her time.
"Miss Pierson," she said, toward the end of the lesson, in a voice sorasping as to make the girls fairly shiver, "go to the blackboard anddemonstrate this problem."
Then she read aloud in the same disagreeable voice, the followingdifficult problem:
"'Train A starts from Chicago going thirty miles an hour. An hour laterTrain B starts from Chicago going thirty-five miles an hour. How farfrom Chicago will they be when Train B passes Train A?'"
The girls looked up surprised. The problem was well in advance of whatthey had been studying and Miss Leece was really asking Anne to recitesomething she had not yet learned.
Anne hardly knew how to reply to the terrible woman who stood gloweringat her as if she would like to crush her to bits.
"I'm sorry," said the girl. "I cannot."
"Miss Nesbit," said the teacher, "will you demonstrate this problem?"
Miriam rose with a little smile of triumph on her face and went to theblackboard, where she worked out the problem.
"Why, what on earth does the woman mean?" whispered Grace. "Are weexpected to learn lessons we have never been taught and has that horridMiriam been studying ahead?"
"I think I must be dreaming," replied Anne, looking sorrowfully at MissLeece.
"Miss Pierson," thundered the teacher, "you are aware, I believe, that Ipermit no conversation in this class. Stupidity and inattention are notto be supported in any student, and I must ask you to leave the room."
Anne rose in a dazed sort of way, looking very small and shabby as sheleft the room.
But Miss Leece was not to come off so easily in the fight, and Anne hada splendid champion in Grace Harlowe, who could not endure injustice andwas fearless where her rights or her friends' rights were concerned.
She rose quietly and faced the angry teacher, who already regrettedhaving gone so far.
"If Miss Pierson is to be ordered from the room, Miss Leece, I shallfollow her. I spoke to her first. I was naturally surprised that yougave out a problem so far in advance of our regular work. It is doubtfulif any girl in the class could do it except Miriam, and she must havebeen prepared."
"Miss Harlowe," said Miss Leece, stamping her foot, and again giving wayto rage, "I must ask you to take your seat at once and never interfereagain with the way I conduct this class."
"You conduct this class with injustice and violence, Miss Leece," saidGrace, turning very white, but holding herself in admirable controlconsidering the conduct of the older woman.
"I am in no humor to be answered back this morning, Miss Harlowe, and Iwould advise you to be careful," continued the enraged woman. "I havehad enough to try me since last night and this morning. Miss Piersonmust answer to the principal for those insults, and her insubordinationjust now has only made matters worse."
"Miss Pierson has nothing to answer for which I have not, and I shalljoin her," replied Grace, and she left the room.
Miss Leece was about to continue the lesson when Jessica, pale andtrembling, rose and followed her friend. Nora was next to go and inanother moment there was not a girl left in the algebra class exceptMiriam and her four particular friends. The gong sounded as the lastpupil closed the door behind her, but there was little doubt that thefirst class in algebra had gone on a strike.
The noon recess gong had sounded before the girls were able to meet andtalk about the incident, and, during the time that intervened, Anne hadreceived a summons in the form of a small note to meet the principal inher office at three that afternoon. She said nothing to her friends,however, and hid the envelope in her pocket.
The girls in IV. algebra gathered around their friends to hear thestory. They were indignant and expressed their readiness to join thestrike out of sympathy in case there was any more trouble.
"They have no right to put such a violent woman over us," said Grace, asshe nibbled at a pickle and a cracker in the locker room. "I wish theywould give me the opportunity. I should be more than willing to testifyto her behavior before the entire faculty and the school boardcombined."
Anne, herself, the center of the whole affair was very quiet. Thisremarkable young girl seemed to possess some secret force that she wasable to draw upon when she most needed it.
"Anne, you precious child," exclaimed the impetuous Nora, "you must notget scared. Whatever happens, the whole class means to stand by you.Don't we, girls?"
"Yes," came from all sides.
"I don't think anything in particular will happen," replied Anne. "Ibelieve Miss Leece really wants to prevent my winning the prize. That'sall."
"She has certainly adopted a pet," cried Marian Barber.
"What did Miriam Nesbit mean by studying ahead like that?" exclaimedanother. "It was disloyal to the whole class."
"It looks very much as if they had fixed it up between them," continuedGrace. "I'm sorry about the effigy, but I won't stand that kind offavoritism. It's mean and underhanded."
After school Anne lingered in the corridor until the other girls hadgone. Then she made her way slowly to the office of the principal. "Comein," came the answer to her timid knock.
Miss Thompson, the principal, was a fine woman, much beloved by thepeople of Oakdale where she had served as principal of the Girls' HighSchool for many years. She had adjusted numerous difficulties in hertime, but never such a knotty problem as the present one. It wasincredible that Anne Pierson, who stood so well in her classes that shehad already been mentioned by the faculty, should have engaged in suchan escapade as Miss Leece had accused her of.
"Sit down," she said kindly to the young girl, whose small, tired faceappealed to her sympathies. "What is this trouble between you and MissLeece, Miss Pierson?" she continued, plunging into the subject.
"I do not know myself, Miss Thompson," answered Anne quietly.
"But she accuses you of rather terrible things, Miss Pierson," went onthe principal, picking up a slip of paper and reading aloud,"'inattention, insubordination, impertinence and a tendency to maketrouble.' Have you any answer to make to these charges?"
"No," replied Anne.
"Have you nothing to say?"
"Only that they are untrue."
"Miss Pierson," continued the principal, opening a closet door, "do yourecognize this figure."
"Miss Pierson, Do You Recognize This Figure?"]
There, hanging by its neck on a coat hook and still wearing itsfantastic bonnet and green veil, was the famous effigy.
Anne looked at the absurd thing for a moment in silence.
Then her eyesmet Miss Thompson's, and both teacher and pupil burst out laughing.
The young girl never knew how far that laugh went to soften her presentpredicament. As a matter of fact, Miss Thompson had never liked theteacher in mathematics, while the small, shabby pupil appealed stronglyto her sympathy.
"Were you not the originator of this outrageous plot, Miss Pierson?"
Anne was silent. She could hardly say she was the originator and stillshe had participated.
"I will put the question in another form," said the principal. "If youwere not the originator, who was?"
Still Anne made no reply.
"Miss Leece," continued the principal, "alleges that she distinctly sawyou standing by the figure. She did not recognize the other faces. Doyou think, Miss Pierson, that such an escapade as you engaged in lastnight was entirely respectful or worthy of a pupil of Oakdale HighSchool?"
"No," replied Anne at last.
"Do you know that suspension or expulsion are the punishments for suchbehavior?"
Anne clasped her hands nervously. She saw the freshman prize floatingaway, and her eyes filled with tears, but she said nothing.
Instead of being angry, however, Miss Thompson was pleased with thegirl's pluck and loyalty. But she was puzzled to know how to proceed.Her judgment and her sympathies revolted against punishing this prizepupil, and still it looked as if Miss Leece had everything on her side.A tap at the door interrupted her reflections, and Anne opened it,admitting Mrs. Gray escorted by David and Grace.
"My dear Miss Thompson," said the old lady, "I know you will consider mean interfering old woman, but when I heard that my particular child,Anne Pierson, was in trouble, I came straight to you. I want to talk thewhole matter over comfortably; since it's my own freshman class that'son the rampage, I feel as if I had a right to put in a word."
"You are most welcome, Mrs. Gray," replied Miss Thompson, cordially.
She was exceedingly fond of the lonely old lady who had been abenefactor to the school in so many ways. "But what's this you say aboutthe freshman class? I have heard nothing about it."
"Grace," said Mrs. Gray, "suppose you tell Miss Thompson what you havejust finished telling me."
Then Grace related the incident in the algebra class and the longsuccession of insults Anne had endured from the terrible Miss Leece.
"Dear, dear," murmured Miss Thompson, "this looks like persecution andvery strong favoritism on the part of Miss Leece. A thing we wish tokeep out of the school as much as possible. But what about this!" andshe opened the door of the closet where the pumpkin face of the effigygrinned at them grotesquely from the shadows.
"I have something to say about that, Miss Thompson," declared David. "Iam the author of this 'crime' and I intend to take the blame for it.Miss Pierson had so little to do with it that we had fairly to drag herout of her own house to make her join the crowd."
"I think, Miss Thompson," put in Mrs. Gray, "that a teacher must havebeen exceedingly sharp and disagreeable to have inspired such nicechildren to this," and she pointed to the figure.
"I believe you are right," admitted the principal after a moment'sthought, "and I trust, under the circumstances, that the whole affaircan be settled without the interference of the School Board. Suppose youleave Miss Leece to me. And young people," she added, "if you willpromise to say nothing more about the subject, I think Miss Leece may bepersuaded to let the matter drop."
And so ended the Hallowe'en escapade. Miss Thompson paid a visit to MissLeece that evening, at the teacher's rooms in Oakdale, and was closetedwith her for more than an hour. No one ever knew what happened. MissThompson was a woman to keep her own counsel; but the affair never cameup before the School Board and Miss Leece, after that, though somewhatstiff in her manner, had no more outbursts of rage for some time.Undoubtedly her display of favoritism in the algebra class had lost herthe day.
Miss Thompson was a woman of fine judgment and broad and just views. Shewas proud of the Oakdale High Schools and the splendid classes theyturned out year after year. She realized perfectly what a disturbance awoman like Miss Leece could cause and she determined to check her atevery point, especially when the most prominent and finest pupils of thetwo schools were implicated.
Therefore the offenders went scot-free and Anne was once more safe topursue the freshman prize.
Miss Leece, however, was only biding her time. While Anne had won thisbattle she might lose the next.