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 , Joseph , without any words about it . '' `` B ... b ... but m ... m ... miss ... th ... th ... they 're ... '' gasped Joe in desperation . `` Joseph , are you going to obey me or are you NOT ? '' said Anne . A bolder and more self-possessed lad than Joe Sloane would have been overawed by her tone and the dangerous flash of her eyes . This was a new Anne whom none of her pupils had ever seen before .
Joe , with an agonized glance XXXXX St. Clair , went to the stove , opened the big , square front door , and threw the blue and white parcel in , before St. Clair , who had sprung to his feet , could utter a word .
On about as at before by for in than without