But before their plan could be carried out the children were obliged to sit two whole hours on the school-benches.

It truly seemed to-day as if they would never end.
Lux, the sexton's boy, who preferred pulling the bell-rope and being violently drawn up by it to sitting in school, tapped his neighbor's sleeve.
"How late is it, Max ?" he asked.
"I don't know." "Max," Lux whispered again, "the second expedition will be more fun than the first.

I look forward to it more, don't you ?" "You can look forward to the shame-bench if you don't keep quiet," Max retorted, squinting with his eyes in the direction of the teacher.
The latter had actually directed his eyes to the side where the whisperers sat.

Lux, bending over his book, kept quiet at last.

Finally the longed-for hour came and in a few minutes the whole swarm was outside.