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Old Mrs Hira "nut cakes"
by way of adding to her scanty inco 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 Hira with them to school, and, if possible, eat the school hours Anne had warned theht 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 uilty than poor Joe at that moment
"Throw it into the fire," said Anne
Joe looked very blank
"Ppplease, an
"Do as I tell you, Joseph, without any words about it"
"Bbbut masped 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 whoonized glance at 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 Then he dodged back just in time
For a few moments the terrified occupants of Avonlea school did not knohether it was an earthquake or a volcanic explosion that had occurred
The innocent looking parcel which Anne had rashly supposed to contain Mrs Hiram's nut cakes really held an assortment of firecrackers and pinwheels for which Warren Sloane had sent to town by St
Clair Donnell's father the day before, intending to have a birthday celebration that evening The crackers went off in a thunderclap of noise and the pinwheels bursting out of the door spunAnne dropped into her chair white with dis upon their desks Joe Sloane stood as one transfixed in the hter, rocked to and fro in the aisle Prillie Rogerson fainted and Annetta Bell went into hysterics