Once upon a time there was a boy who didn't like to go to school. Every chance he had he stayed at home instead of going to his classes to learn his lessons. Sometimes he would get up in the morning and say:
"Mother, I think I'm going to have the toothache. I guess I better not go to school to-day."
But his mother would laugh and say:
"Oh, run along! If you get the toothache in school the teacher will let you come home."
Then the boy would go to school, though he didn't want to, and he would be thinking up some new excuse for staying home, so really he did not recite his lessons as well as he might.
One day this boy came running in the house, all excited, and called out:
"Oh, Mother! I just know I can't go to school to-morrow!"
"Why not?" asked Mother.
"'Cause I've been playing with the boy across the street, an' he's got the measles, an' I'll catch 'em an' I can't go to school. You ought t' see! He's all covered with red spots!" The boy who didn't like school was much excited. "He's all red spots!" he exclaimed.
"Is he?" asked Mother. "Well, the measles aren't painful, though they are 'catching,' as you children say. However, you [Pg 123] can't catch them quite as soon as one day. So you may go to school until you break out with red spots. Then it will be time enough to stay at home."
"Can't I stay home to-morrow?" begged the boy.
"Oh, of course not!" laughed Mother. "I want you to go to school and become a smart man! Time enough to stay home when you get the measles!"
Now, of course, this did not suit that boy at all. When he went to bed he was thinking and thinking of some plan by which he could stay home from school. For there was to be a hard lesson next day, and, though I am sorry to say it, that boy was too lazy to study as he ought.
"If I could only break out with the measles I could stay home," he kept saying over and over again as he lay in bed. Every now and then he would get up, turn on the electric light in his room and look at himself in the glass to see if any red spots were coming. But he could see none.
"What's the matter, Boysie?" his mother called to him from her room. "Why are you so restless?"
"Maybe I'm getting the measles," he hopefully answered.
"Nonsense! Go to sleep!" laughed Daddy.
Finally the boy did go to sleep, but either he dreamed it, or the idea came to him in the night, for, early in the morning, he awakened and, slipping on his bath robe, went into his sister's room.
"Hey, Sis!" he whispered. "Where's your box of paints?"
"What you want 'em for?" asked Sister.
"Oh, I—I'm going to paint something," mumbled the boy. Sister was too sleepy—for it was only early morning as yet—to [Pg 124] wonder much about it, so she told her brother where to find the paints, and then she turned over and went to sleep again.
Now what do you suppose that boy did?
Why, he went back to his room, and with his sister's brush and color box he painted red spots on his face, just as he had seen them on the face of the real Measles Boy across the street. Then this boy put the paints away and waited.
After a while Mother called:
"Come, Boysie! Time to get up and go to school!"
"I—I don't guess I'd better go to school this morning," said the boy, trying to make his voice sound weak and ill and faint-like.
"Not go to school! Why not?" cried Mother in surprise.
"I—I'm all red spots," the boy answered. And when his mother went in his room, and saw that he really was spotted, she exclaimed:
"Why, you have the measles! I didn't think they'd break out so soon! Well, you must stay in the dark on account of your eyes. I'll bring you in some breakfast, and of course you can't go to school!"
Then that boy had to put the bedquilt over his mouth so he wouldn't laugh. If his room had been light his mother, of course, would have seen that the spots were only red paint. But in the dimness of early morning she didn't see.
"Isn't Brother going to school?" asked Sister as she ate her breakfast.
"He has the measles," said Mother. "I expect you'll come down with them next, and break out in a day or so. But wait until you do."
[Pg 125] And if Sister thought anything about her red paint she said nothing. I don't believe she ever imagined her brother would play such a trick.
At first, after his sister had gone to school, and he had been given his breakfast in bed, the boy thought it was going to be lots of fun to pretend to have the measles and stay home from school. But after a while this began to grow tiresome.
It was a beautiful, warm sunshiny day outside, and staying in a dark room wasn't as much fun as that boy had thought. He could hear the bees humming outside his open window, and the birds were singing.
His mother opened the door and spoke to him.
"I'm j............