noon
I feared them more than any suspected criminal of old did the Terrible Council of Ten ! All on earth they seemed to find to do was to giggle at me ! Of course , I was the object of their sport ; for they peeped at me over the tops of their books , from behind their pocket-handkerchiefs , through the interstices of their curls -- and made me hopelessly wretched by dubbing me `` Apron-string . '' The third day of my attendance at school was stormy , and my home being at some distance , I was obliged to remain , with most of the others , through the noon intermission . The little girls got to playing at pawns . I retreated to a corner near the door , and stood a silent and not unterrified spectator . By-and-by , a cherry-lipped little girl had to pay a forfeit , and one of her schoolmates pronounced the sentence , in a loud voice : `` Kiss Apron-string Sunderland ! ''