"Robert F. Young - Little Red Schoolhouse" - читать интересную книгу автора (Young Robert F)

RONNIE’S eyes got big. “Oh, but I didn’t want to leave the valley, sir,” he
said. “Nora and Jim waited until I went to sleep one night, and then they put
me on the stork train, and when I woke up I was already on my way to the city.
I want to go back to the valley, sir. I—I ran away from home.”
“I understand,” the truant officer said, “and I’m going to take you back to
the valley—back to the little red schoolhouse.” He reached down and took
Ronnie’s hand.
“Oh, will you, sir?” Ronnie could hardly contain the sudden happiness that
coursed through him. “I want to go back in the worst way!”
“Of course I will. It’s my job.” The truant officer started walking toward
the big building and Ronnie hurried along beside him. “But first I’ve got to
take you to the principal.”
Ronnie drew back. He became aware then of what a tight grip the truant
officer had on his weak-feeling hand.
“Come on,” the truant officer said, making the grip even tighter. “The
principal won’t hurt you.”
“I—I never knew there was a principal,” Ronnie said, hanging back. “Miss
Smith never said anything about him.”
“Naturally there’s a principal; there has to be. And he wants to talk to
you before you go back. Come on now, like a good boy, and don’t make it
necessary for me to turn in a bad report about you. Miss Smith wouldn’t like
that at all, would she?”
“No, I guess she wouldn’t,” Ronnie said, suddenly contrite. “All right,
sir, I’ll go.”
Ronnie had learned about principals in school, but he had never seen one.
He had always assumed that the little red schoolhouse was too small to need
one and he still couldn’t understand why it should. Miss Smith was perfectly
capable of conducting the school all by herself. But most of all, he couldn’t
understand why the principal should live in a place like the terminal—if it
was a terminal—and not in the valley.
 However, he accompanied the truant officer dutifully, telling himself that
he had a great deal to learn about the world and that an interview with a
principal was bound to teach him a lot.

THEY entered the building through an entrance to the left of the archway and
walked down a long bright corridor lined with tall green cabinets to a frosted
glass door at the farther end. The lettering on the glass said: EDUCATIONAL
CENTER 16, H. D. CURTIN, PRINCIPAL.
The door opened at the truant officer’s touch and they stepped into a small
white-walled room even more brightly illumined than the corridor. Opposite the
door was a desk with a girl sitting behind it, and behind the girl was another
frosted glass door. The lettering said: PRIVATE.
The girl looked up as the truant officer and Ronnie entered. She was young
and pretty—almost as pretty as Miss Smith.
“Tell the old man the Meadows kid finally showed up,” the truant officer
said.
The girl’s eyes touched Ronnie’s, then dropped quickly to a little box on
her desk. Ronnie felt funny. There had been a strange look in the girl’s
eyes—a sort of sadness. It was as though she was sorry that the truant officer
had found him.