None of the boys, however, dared raise a finger against him, and he ruled his little kingdom as an absolute monarch.

At last, however, towards the close of the term, some one dared to defy him--and it was not one of the big boys, but our youthful neighbor Catherine Edwards.
That afternoon Czar Brench had put a prop in Rufus Darnley, Jr.'s mouth.
Rufus was only twelve years old and by no means one of the bright boys of the school.

He stuttered in speech, and, being dull, had to study very hard to get his lessons.

Every day or two he forgot his lips and "buzzed." I think he had stood on the master's desk four or five times that term.
It was a high desk; and that afternoon Rufus, trying to study up there, with his mouth propped open, lost his balance and fell to the floor in front of the desk.

In falling, the prop was knocked out of his mouth.
At the crash Czar Brench, who had been hearing the grammar class with his back to Rufus, turned.