Yes I do, indeed I do. Please let me.
You ll tell.
No I won t deed and deed and double deed won t.
You won t tell anybody at all? Ever, as long as you live?
No, I won t ever tell _any_body. Now let me.
Oh, _you_ don t want to see!
Now that you treat me so, I _will_ see. And she put her small hand
upon his and a little scuffle ensued, Tom pretending to resist in
earnest but letting his hand slip by degrees till these words were
revealed: _I love you_.
Oh, you bad thing! And she hit his hand a smart rap, but reddened and
looked pleased, nevertheless.
Just at this juncture the boy felt a slow, fateful grip closing on his
ear, and a steady lifting impulse. In that wise he was borne across the
house and deposited in his own seat, under a peppering fire of giggles
from the whole school. Then the master stood over him during a few awful
moments, and finally moved away to his throne without saying a word. But
although Tom s ear tingled, his heart was jubilant.
As the school quieted down Tom made an honest effort to study, but
the turmoil within him was too great. In turn he took his place in the
reading class and made a botch of it; then in the geography class and
turned lakes into mountains, mountains into rivers, and rivers into
continents, till chaos was come again; then in the spelling class, and
got turned down, by a succession of mere baby words, till he brought
up at the foot and yielded up the pewter medal which he had worn with
ostentation for months.
CHAPTER VII
58