Rob is asked by the school to stay home temporarily

The school’s decision to send Rob home temporarily gives him a reprieve he welcomes for a reason the principal does not understand. Mr. Phelmer frames Rob’s persistent leg rash as a possible health risk to other students and proposes a few days at home while the medicine takes effect; Rob knows his legs will never clear up, and the supposed temporary absence becomes freedom from returning to school.

Causes and Background

At a meeting in Mr. Phelmer’s office, the principal begins with his familiar concern about Rob’s wellbeing at school. He worries that Rob does not interact or communicate with other students and is not doing well. But the immediate subject is Rob’s legs: Mr. Phelmer asks whether Rob has been applying the medicine prescribed by a doctor in Jacksonville.

The exchange makes the school’s decision a response not only to Rob’s rash but also to unease about it. Mr. Phelmer examines Rob’s legs, then explains that some parents fear the condition might be contagious. He defines the concern in practical terms: other students might catch it. The parents remain unnamed, and the passage does not establish that the rash is contagious; the school acts on the possibility raised by their worry.

The School’s Decision

Mr. Phelmer recommends that Rob stay home for a few days, allowing the old medicine more time to work, and says Rob can return once his legs have cleared up. The plan is presented as temporary and conditional on an improvement. Rob confirms that he has been using the medicine and agrees to the arrangement, answering slowly that it would be all right.

The principal’s manner underscores the gap between official reassurance and the decision’s effect on Rob. He repeatedly clears his throat, adjusts the piece of hair combed over his bald head, and hesitates as he explains the situation. After Rob agrees, Mr. Phelmer writes a note and hands it to him. The school’s action is thus formalized in a note, but the condition attached to it—Rob’s legs clearing up—will not be met.

Rob’s Knowledge and Reaction

During the meeting Rob looks down at his legs and feels the picture of the tiger in his pocket. As Mr. Phelmer outlines the plan, Rob concentrates on keeping his heart from singing aloud with joy. His outward agreement conceals an understanding that changes the meaning of the principal’s proposal: unlike Mr. Phelmer, he knows his legs will never clear up.

Once outside the office, Rob carefully folds the note and puts it in his back pocket with the tiger drawing. He then smiles because he knows something the principal does not. The note represents an authorized absence that the school expects to end; for Rob, the unchanging rash means the stated condition for returning will never arrive. His recognition is explicit: he is free.

Consequences and Significance

Rob floats through the rest of the morning, attending math, civics, and science with a light heart because he believes he will never have to come back. The decision therefore produces an immediate reversal: what the principal offers as a brief, cautious pause becomes, in Rob’s understanding, lasting release from school. His joy is private; Mr. Phelmer believes the medicine may work and expects Rob to return when his legs clear.

The scene also places Rob’s isolation beside his relief. Mr. Phelmer’s earlier worries concern Rob’s lack of interaction and communication, while the meeting’s practical outcome removes him from school rather than resolving those concerns. At lunch Rob sits on the benches in the breezeway instead of entering the lunchroom, where Norton Threemonger and Billy Threemonger are. He has also found little pleasure in food since his mother died, and considers the school food worse than what his father tries to cook. The reprieve thus arrives within a wider pattern of separation: Rob welcomes leaving school, but the scene does not present that departure as a cure for his loneliness or grief.