My First Week In-doors 17 



desk, and sometimes on the tops of the 

 books. And when the Fessor sat 

 down he would take a little pile of 

 white paper, and a stick with a shining 

 thing at the end that I afterwards 

 learned was a pen, and he would dip it 

 into a bottle full of queer smelling 

 black water and then scratch the wet 

 pen back and forth over the paper, so 

 quickly that it used to make my little 

 head swim to watch him. And the 

 noise ! It was simply aggravating 

 beyond words that is, a tiny bird's 

 words. How I did hate that pen and 

 that scratching noise ! But I 'm not 

 going to tell you about that now. I 

 shall have a good deal to tell you about 

 that pen later on. 



Well, to go back to the room. By 

 the side of the desk, on the left, was a 



