Part 17 (2/2)

It was too late to haul cottonseed that day I felt I had let the fah no fault of my own Or maybe it was my fault Maybe I should have explained to the teacher, but I didn't Nor did I explain further to Papa He didn't seem to be in the mood for further talk fromht have done the trick They knew I had never lied to them On the other hand, if I had explained to the teacher, and if she had not kept ht have wound up being hated by my classmates I found myself in an aard situation where I didn't knohat to do nor what to say So I kept quiet and foundpunished by the ones who meant the ainst them because they told me they were ashamed of me? Certainly not I understood how it looked to them They didn't ask any further questions, and I offered no further explanation They still trusted me and I trusted thees at hohout my school years, the first day of April was a special day for school kids The afternoon of April Fools' Day was a period for students to have a good time If the teachers would not allow a fun-party that afternoon, some of the pupils, if not all of them, would run away from school This was custoenerally understood that there would be little or no punishment

I was only about nine years old the first time I ran away from school on April Fools' Day Three of us boys slipped away at noon and soon after one-o'clockthat ere alone We also knee couldn't return to school because ould be punished for being late for our one-o'clock class

We realized ere in trouble and would have to try to think of a way out But first of all, we had to get farther away from the schoolhouse so the teacher wouldn't be able to find us with a search party In fact, we ran so far away and spent such a oing home from school We had planned to join them and all arrive home at the same time And after that-well, that was as far as a nine-year-old could plan After that I had no idea how any good thing could happen to ht in our own trap Since it was April Fools' afternoon, the teachers turned out school early The other kids got hoot hoet a whipping Of course I got a good talking-to, but no whipping That little experience taughtmutiny in any form

I believe the next time I ran away from school on April Fools' Day hen I was a Fresho I knoill not get every little detail exactly right, but for all practical purposes and intent, it happened about like this We ell organized, to say the least

It was April Fool's Day, one o'clock in the afternoon We students were all seated in the study hall, each at his regularly assigned desk In the parking lot out front were two trucks and a number of automobiles, all parked orderly and aimed in the direction of the Double Mountain River

The entire student body had been warned that the school board would not tolerate running away on the first of April Those who did would have all their grades lowered by ten points

When the one o'clock bell rang, the study hall teacher said, ”Rise and pass to your classes”

We stood up and passed all right, but not to our classroo a select group of teachers with us By the ti, ere all loaded into our vehicles and heading for a sandy playground in the channel of the river The kidnapped teachers gave us very little trouble They liked it

We were told later that three girls showed up for class in one roo here?”

They told her they didn't want their grades to be lowered ten points

And the teacher told therades Get on out froanized in ed for a little bit of entertainment by surprise Three of us boys had made a man-size straw dum in the sand down in the river, we boys secretly took our due of that cliff, in plain view of the spectators below, Virgil Davis and I got into an arguht

Before we took the straw dued for one boy to reht up on the cliff We boxed and pushed and shoved and rolled and tumbled Then we rolled behind some bushes to where we had the du the due of the cliff, we struggled to our feet and I knocked hie and he fell to the river below

This was no big deal but it was different, and it brought a few screaallery below

By the first day of April the following year, the school board had decided that this April Fool thing had gone too far, and they convinced us kids that they meant business We knew there was no e could pull another stunt like we pulled the year before and get aith it We accepted the new ruling and had no intention of causing any trouble

However, just before the lunch hour that day I was talking with soly said, ”We'd better not run away but when they tell us to pass to classes, we could just remain seated” I hadn't really meant it and we didn't plan action If I had ested that we remain seated only a minute or less, just to demonstrate student solidarity, and that not in defiance, but rather in fun

But I underestiestion and the solidarity of the student body When one o'clock came and the teacher said, ”Rise and pass to your classes,” not one student got up I was surprised Soestion I had ether, whispered a feords in their huddle and one of theain, but still no one made a move Then Mr Hinton cao to our classes This tiot up and went to class, perhaps the same three who showed up for class the year before

By this tiuilty and uneasy I didn't knoho had planned all this nor whether it was the result of estion, but I knew I could be held responsible because of what I had said The thing had gotten out of hand and soet hurt I knew that soht, but I didn't want to be the one to spoil so someone else had planned, if indeed so with the scheme

Next, Mr Greene called a student into his office I don't remember who the student was, but he soon caain, another teacher asked us to respond, but we didn't

Then Mr Greene sent for uess I felt smaller than I had ever felt in h the knothole in our back porch, through which I put so ht to uilty, I'll be kicked out of school, and I have no idea how severely Papa will punish me this tiht away that Mr Greene and the teachers were not looking for someone to bla for a leader-a Moses, mind you, to lead these students out of the study hall and into the classroo us all out of serious trouble

I went back and took ain one of the teachers said, ”Rise and pass to your classes”