"Charles." Shirley Jackson.

One-minute review: “Charles” is a bad, bad little boy in kindergarten. Laurie tells his mother each day of Charles’s escapades and Laurie’s mother wonders at how bad a child can be. It takes quite a time for Laurie’s mother to learn from the teacher that “Charles” is really Laurie.

75 Short Masterpieces: Stories from the World’s Literature. Ed. Roger B. Goodman. New York: Bantam Books. 1961. These summaries do not do justice to the vividness of the stories. RayS.