What a wonderful place to swing! thought Abe. He leaped up and caught
hold of the prongs. He began swinging back and forth.
CRASH! One prong came off in his hand, and he fell to the floor. He
hurried to his seat, hoping that the master would not notice.
But Master Crawford was proud of those antlers. When he saw what had
happened, he picked up the switch on his desk. It made a swishing sound
as he swung it back and forth.
"Who broke my deer antlers?" he shouted.
No one answered. Abe hunched down as far as he could on the bench. He
seemed to be trying to hide inside his buckskin shirt.
Master Crawford repeated his question. "Who broke my deer antlers? I
aim to find out, if I have to thrash every scholar in this school."
All of the children looked scared, Abe most of all. But he stood up. He
marched up to Master Crawford's desk and held out the broken prong that
he had been hiding in his hand.
"I did it, sir," he said. "I didn't mean to do it, but I hung on the
antlers and they broke. I wouldn't have done it, if I had thought they'd
a broke."
The other scholars thought that Abe would get a licking.
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