[Arry]

‘Told you off proper, didn’t she?’ Hanson smirked a bit at Woody, noting his brother had begun to turn beet red from the woman’s comment.

Woody could feel the heat rising in his face. This was just the sort of confrontation he liked to avoid. His hand snaked out and he grabbed his brother firmly by the collar. In the manner of older boys and their younger brothers he dragged Hanson from the schoolroom and back out to the yard.

‘Sit here,’ he hissed, seating himself beside Hanson on one of the benches in the shade. ‘And don’t move ‘til Miz Bella calls us in.’ He kept his hand near his brother in case he attempted to run again.

Woody was a shy lad. He hadn’t really wanted to come to school in the first place. He liked staying at home, helping out his Da when he could. Drawing pictures as he sat against his favorite sunny rock in the field near his burrow. But his mother had insisted, saying she wanted him to learn his letters and numbers. Behind her words, though, he knew her main reason was to keep Hanson in line.

Now Hanson wasn’t a bad brother. It’s just that he was only five years old, and had the attention span of a gnat. He liked to be doing things; but unfortunately those things involved a lot of moving about, not sitting still and acting properly as was required in school. And, he was a curious child; liked to poke his nose into others’ business.

Tomorrow, Woody thought, he’d beg off school. Let Uncle Gil keep his thumb on Hanson. There were some birds nesting in the beech tree near his drawing place. He wanted to draw a picture of them, maybe climb up if he could and see how the eggs were coming along.

He felt Hanson move, as if to get up. ‘Sit still, I told you!’

Hanson sat down with a sigh and glared at his brother.

‘Will this day never end?!’ grumbled Woody to himself.