It
was a boiled lobster of anomalous proportions. The pocket had given way
at last under its overpowering burden, and now appeared ignominiously
upborne on the claws of its former prisoner. The Modoc seized the
crustacean with glittering defiance in her eyes, and at recess, I saw
that turbaned Amazon devouring it, with a group of wistful and admiring
faces gathered round. The boys were out in the bay "setting pots" and
"trolling for bait." Soon, not a child at Wallencamp was lobsterless. I
discovered two under the infant Sophronia's desk one morning, and
afterwards kept a sharp eye in that direction. Sophronia's conduct
throughout the session was in an unusual degree exemplary. I detected no
guilty blush on her countenance, I heard not the crackling of a claw,
but when she went out, I observed that she took no lobsters with her.
Investigating the place where she had been sitting, I found a wild
confusion of claws and shells, as carefully denuded of meat as though
they had been turned inside out for that purpose.
What was my surprise and mortification to find a like collection at
nearly every seat in the school-room, and all the while my flock had
seemed unusually silent and attentive; such proficiency had those
children acquired in the art of dissecting lobsters.
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