Demaso, trying hard to scrub a wall behind one of the toilets, started complaining how dirty the walls in the entire bathroom were. Tripp also chimed in that they were polishing a turd and that what the bathroom needed was a fresh coat of paint.

Ben had smarted off to the principal and Lester had backed him up. Nobody smarted off to Mr. Clontz and got away with it.

He heard his mother bugling and clarioning outside, and he tried to tell the nurse not to let her in, but no words would come out, no matter how hard he tried.

It was in these confused circumstances, when the issue between the provincial government in Tsinan and the revolutionaries scattered through the province must still have seemed in doubt, that the uprising in Chu-ch’eng took place.