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“Never mind” She walked away

“I’ll be in class,” he said

And he was in class, and he was there after school every afternoon for the next teeks, never saying a word, quietly washing the boards and cleaning the erasers and rolling up the maps while she worked at her papers Between them there was that clock silence of four o’clock, the silence of the sun going down, the silence with the catlike sound of erasers patted together, the rustle and turn of papers and the scratch of a pen, and perhaps the buzz of a fly banging with a tiny high anger against the tallestin the rooo on this way until almost five, when Miss Taylor would find Bob Markha at her silently

“Well, it’s ti up

“Yes’m”

And he would run to fetch her hat and coat He would also lock the schoolroo in later Then they would walk out of the school and across the es

“And what are you going to be, Bob, when you grow up?”

“A writer,” he said

“Oh, that’s a big ambition It takes a lot of work”

“I know, but I’ to try,” he said “I’ve read a lot”

“Bob, haven’t you anything to do after school? Ithe boards”

“I like it,” he said “I never do what I don’t like”

“Nevertheless—”

“No I’ve got to do that,” he said He thought for a while and said, “Do me a favor, Miss Taylor?”

“It all depends”