But although Tom's ear tingled, his heart was jubilant.
As the school quieted down Tom made an honest effort to study, but the turmoil within him was too great.
In turn he took his place in the reading class and made a botch of it; then in the geography class and turned lakes into mountains, mountains into rivers, and rivers into continents, till chaos was come again; then in the spelling class, and got "turned down," by a succession of mere baby words, till he brought up at the foot and yielded up the pewter medal which he had worn with ostentation for months.
CHAPTER VII
THE harder Tom tried to fasten his mind on his book, the more his ideas wandered.
So at last, with a sigh and a yawn, he gave it up.
It seemed to him that the noon recess would never come.
The air was utterly dead.
There was not a breath stirring.
It was the sleepiest of sleepy days.