That face was sweet and grave as she leaned toward him, and said, "Thank you, Thomas.

That was well done." And Thomas, still looking at her, flushed to his hair roots and down the back of his neck, while the scowl on his forehead faded into a frown, and then into smoothness.
"And if you always try your best like that, Thomas, you will be a great and good man some day." Her voice was low and soft, as if intended for him alone, but in the sudden silence that followed the laughter it thrilled to every heart in the room, and Thomas was surprised to find himself trying to swallow a lump in his throat, and to keep his eyes from blinking; and in his face, stolid and heavy, a new expression was struggling for utterance.

"Here, take me," it said; "all that I have is thine," and later days brought the opportunity to prove it.
The rest of the reading lesson passed without incident.

Indeed, there pervaded the whole school that feeling of reaction which always succeeds an emotional climax.

The master decided to omit the geography and grammar classes, which should have immediately followed, and have dinner at once, and so allow both children and visitors time to recover tone for the spelling and arithmetic of the afternoon.
The dinner was an elaborate and appalling variety of pies and cakes, served by the big girls and their sisters, who had recently left school, and who consequently bore themselves with all proper dignity and importance.