Sam and Herman and Verman stood in
attitudes of rigid attention, shoulder to shoulder, while Penrod
Schofield, facing them, was apparently delivering some sort of
exhortation, which he read from a scribbled sheet of foolscap.
Concluding this, he lifted from the ground a long and somewhat
warped clothes-prop, from one end of which hung a whitish flag,
or pennon, bearing an inscription. Sam and Herman and Verman
lifted their right hands, while Penrod placed the other end of
the clothes-prop in a hole in the ground, with the pennon
fluttering high above the shack. He then raised his own right
hand, and the four boys repeated something in concert. It was
inaudible to Mrs. Williams; but she was able to make out the
inscription upon the pennon. It consisted of the peculiar phrase
"In-Or-In" done in black paint upon a muslin ground, and
consequently seeming to be in need of a blotter.
It recurred to her mind, later that evening, when she happened to
find herself alone with Sam in the library, and, in merest idle
curiosity, she asked: "Sam, what does 'In-Or-In' mean?"
Sam, bending over an arithmetic, uncreased his brow till it
became of a blank and marble smoothness.
Pages:
59
60
61
62
63
64
65
66
67
68
69
70
71
72
73
74
75
76
77
78
79
80
81
82
83