you give piece of and a fish hook less see em tom exhibited they were satisfactory and the property changed hands then tom a couple of white for three red tickets and some small trifle or other for a couple of blue ones he other boys as they came and went on buying tickets of various colors ten or fifteen minutes longer he entered the church now with a swarm of clean and noisy boys and girls proceeded to his seat and started a quarrel with the first boy that came handy the teacher a grave elderly man interfered then turned his back a moment and tom pulled a boy s hair in the next bench and was absorbed in his book when the boy turned around stuck a pin in another boy presently in order to hear him say and got a new from his teacher tom s whole class were of a pattern � restless noisy and troublesome when they came to their lessons not one of them knew his verses perfectly but had to be prompted all along however they worried through and each got his reward � in small blue tickets each with a passage of scripture on it each blue ticket was pay for two verses of the ten blue tickets equalled a red one and could be exchanged for it ten red tickets equalled a yellow one for ten yellow tickets the gave a very plainly bound bible worth forty cents in those easy times to the pupil how many of my readers would have the industry and application to two thousand verses even for a bible and yet mary had acquired two in this way � it was the patient work of two years � and a boy of german had won four or five he once three thousand verses without stopping but the strain upon his mental faculties was too great and he was little better than an idiot from that day forth � a grievous misfortune for the school for on great occasions before company the as tom expressed it had always made this boy come out and spread himself only the older pupils managed to keep their tickets and stick to their tedious work long enough to get a bible and so the delivery of one of these was a rare and circumstance the successful pupil was so great and conspicuous for that day that on the spot every scholar s heart was fired with a fresh ambition that often lasted a couple of weeks it is possible that tom s mental stomach had never really for one of those but unquestionably his entire being had for many a day longed for the glory and the that came with it in due course the stood up in front of the pulpit with a closed hymn book in his hand and his forefinger inserted between its leaves and commanded attention when a sunday school makes his customary little speech a hymn book in the hand is as necessary as is the inevitable sheet of music in the hand of a singer who stands forward on the platform and sings a at a concert � though why is a mystery for neither the hymn book nor the sheet of music is ever referred to by the sufferer this was a slim creature of thirty five with a sandy and short sandy hair he wore a stiff standing collar whose upper edge almost reached his ears and whose sharp points curved forward abreast the corners of his mouth � a fence that compelled a straight ahead and a turning of the whole body when a side view was required his chin was propped on a spreading which was as broad and as long as a bank note and had fringed ends his boot toes were turned sharply up in the fashion of the day like � an effect patiently and laboriously produced by the young men by sitting with their toes pressed against a wall for hours together mr was very earnest of mien and very sincere and honest at heart and he held sacred things and places in such reverence and so separated them from worldly matters that unconsciously to himself his sunday school voice had acquired a peculiar which was wholly absent on week days he began after this fashion now children i want you all to sit up just as straight and pretty as you can and give me all your attention for a minute or two there � that is it that is the way good little boys and girls should do i see one little girl who is looking out of the window � i am afraid she thinks i am out there somewhere � perhaps up in one of the trees making a speech to the birds i want to tell you how good it makes me feel to see so many bright clean little faces assembled in a place like this learning to do right and be good and so forth and so on it is not necessary to set down the rest of the it was of a pattern which does not vary and so it is familiar to us all i the latter third of the speech was by the of fights and other among certain of the bad boys and by and that extended far and wide washing even to the of isolated and rocks like and mary but now every sound ceased suddenly with the of mr voice and the conclusion of the speech was received with a burst of silent gratitude a good part of the whispering had been occasioned by an event which was more or less rare � the entrance of visitors lawyer accompanied by a very feeble and aged man a fine middle aged gentleman with iron gray hair and a dignified lady who was doubtless the latter s wife the lady was leading a child tom had 