Three Stories [antikvár]

A STORY ABOUT THREE BOYS I. Three Boys Are Absent from School 1. The schoolmaster at Hemlock Hill1 was not happy that rnornirig. Three of his boys were absent. There were only twenty children in the school, and these three boys were his best pupils. Where were they? They did not live near each other and they were not great friends.2 Why were they absent? The schoolmaster missed the bright eyes of Jackson Tribbs,3 who sat on the third bench, and the red hair and brown eyes of Providence Smith 4 in the corner. And there was no one in the middle 5 of the first bench where Julián Fleming,6 a tall young man of seventeen,7 always sat. But he said nothing. The other boys and girls were quite happy without the three boys. The next morning came and again the three boys were not in their places. This time the master asked the schoolchildren about them.