`` Mary Alice , do hurry up . Here , you twin nuisances , get off to school . If you do n't you 'll be late and then the master will give you a whipping . '' `` He wo n't , '' answered the irrepressible Teddy . `` He never whips us , he does n't . He stands us on the floor sometimes , though , '' he added , remembering the many times his own chubby legs had been seen to better advantage on the school platform . `` That man , '' said Mrs. Grant , alluding to the teacher , `` makes me nervous . He is the most abstracted creature I ever saw in my life . It is a wonder to me he does n't walk straight into the river some day . You 'll meet him meandering along the street , gazing into vacancy , and he 'll never see you nor hear a word you say half the time . '' `` Yesterday , '' said Gordon , chuckling over the remembrance , `` he came in with a big piece of paper he 'd picked up on the entry floor in one hand and his hat in the other -- and he stuffed his hat into the coal-scuttle and hung up the paper on a nail as grave as you please . Never knew the difference till Ned Slocum went and told him . He 's always doing things like that . '' Keith had collected his books and now marched his brothers and sisters off to school . Left alone with the baby , Mrs. Grant betook herself to her work with a heavy heart . But a second interruption broke the progress of her dish-washing . `` I declare , '' she said , with a surprised glance through the window , `` if there is n't that absent-minded schoolteacher coming through the yard ! What can he want ? Dear me , I do hope Teddy has n't been cutting capers in school again . '' For the teacher 's last call had been in October and had been occasioned by the fact that the irrepressible Teddy would persist in going to school with his pockets filled with live crickets and in driving them harnessed to strings up and down the aisle when the teacher 's back was turned .
All mild methods of punishment having failed , the teacher had called XXXXX talk it over with Mrs. Grant , with the happy result that Teddy 's behaviour had improved -- in the matter of crickets at least .
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