Anne herself felt a prick of conscience but it only served to increase her mental irritation , and the second reader class remember that lesson yet , as well as the unmerciful infliction of arithmetic that followed . Just as Anne was snapping the sums out St. Clair Donnell arrived breathlessly . `` You are half an hour late , St. Clair , '' Anne reminded him frigidly . `` Why is this ? '' `` Please , miss , I had to help ma make a pudding for dinner 'cause we 're expecting company and Clarice Almira 's sick , '' was St. Clair 's answer , given in a perfectly respectful voice but nevertheless provocative of great mirth among his mates . `` Take your seat and work out the six problems on page eighty-four of your arithmetic for punishment , '' said Anne . St. Clair looked rather amazed at her tone but he went meekly to his desk and took out his slate . Then he stealthily passed a small parcel to Joe Sloane across the aisle . Anne caught him in the act and jumped to a fatal conclusion about that parcel . Old Mrs. Hiram Sloane had lately taken to making and selling `` nut cakes '' by way of adding to her scanty income . The cakes were specially tempting to small boys and for several weeks Anne had had not a little trouble in regard to them . On their way to school the boys would invest their spare cash at Mrs. Hiram 's , bring the cakes along with them to school , and , if possible , eat them and treat their mates during school hours . Anne had warned them that if they brought any more cakes to school they would be confiscated ; and yet here was St. Clair Donnell coolly passing a parcel of them , wrapped up in the blue and white striped paper Mrs. Hiram used , under her very eyes . `` Joseph , '' said Anne quietly , `` bring that parcel here . '' Joe , startled and abashed , obeyed . He was a fat urchin who always blushed and stuttered when he was frightened . Never did anybody look more guilty than poor Joe at that moment . `` Throw it into the fire , '' said Anne . Joe looked very blank . `` P ... p ... p ... lease , m ... m ... miss , '' he began .
`` Do as I tell you , XXXXX , without any words about it . ''
'cause Donnell Joe Joseph Sloane fire hour hours second urchin