The Manchester journal. [volume] (Manchester, Vt.) 1861-current, 1867-07-02


/ the roll. and found half his nuusoer ab-
sent This was an unexpected porplex.
ity, and one not SO easy to account for
I Evidence Of fs,ieafioaai absence was nm.
mistakable, and there must be a cause
for it. Eearly in the morning ther,
was very perceptible uneasinesi
among the scholars, which increased al
the hours went or. Each one seemed
to have his stent Of annoying to do, anc
went at it with yigor, which if applioC
I to his book might have. given rise to
new idea. As a wholethey were harel
ly up to the par Of mental capacity. anC
as is most often the case, cunning az
foxes in all sorts of meanness What
could have instilled so much of the Evil
One through Johnny Welch's heavy
plated skull was mystery to him who
witnessed his performances. He had
spit in a little girls ear just in front
besides making many futile attempts
to repeat it, had run a pin into Jack
as he said, clean through the skin antI
feather too, had decoyed the little In
dian to open his mouth, then filed il
with mangled flies, had whitfield big
hole through the top of his own broth
ers cap, had got an old string, and held
it up till most Of the girls believed it a
part of their equipage, and felt very
much annoyed, had by some means
slipped red eyet into the water pail,
had chewed gum till he had unjointed
several boys jaws beside him, had be-
mussed himself in fine to the extent Of
his means, before his teacher saw fit to
address him a word In the latter part
of the afternoon, as he had his head un-
der the bench, tugging at his boot
straps to turn himself wrong side out,
hand fell heavily on his head OF rock
and fastened itself among the knotty
tangles of his bushy hair. He forgot
himself for moment about this time !;
but when his thoughts returned, he
found that having taken a short cut
path across the school room, he was
sitting side by side with Polly Harring-
ton. This was the worst of all, for it
was every where known that Polly was
the unhappy victim of the nine years
itch. She hsd passed eight. years Of
busy scratching, and her time was near
ly out; but Aunt Hilena, the great doc
tress and prophecies of all the region
said it was "ketchen as much at the
last end as the first, and poor Polly
had no near friends. Johnny was high
ly enraged; the veins in his neck were
swollen with anger; but he didn't pro-
pose to give any further provocation,
that might lead to second trip, and
leave him perhaps in still worse stu
alton. Sam Hunt, Bill Jones and young
Gowdy, with several others of the six
foot bullies, that before had shown q
strong inclination to carry things their
own way, were completely overawed by
this display of their masters strength.
:" Silence reigned" in Julien's school
room the remainder of the day, and
when night came, though nothing had
been said in relation to noise while
leaving the room, all went out orderly
and quiet Most of those late in the
crawled in during the day and
before closing Julien reminded them i'll
a half censuring manner Of their tardl-
ness, though he said nothing of the pre-
meditation be SO strongly suspected AS
a squad Of twenty-five boys and girls
the steep hill just below tho
school house, one might have Learned |
from their conversation, that there wa
in their teacher they coul d
not decipner Julien went back to te /,
in the same thoughtful mood as on Il le
night before. The arrangement Of / is
classes was much improved, but still re-
citations had to be hurried all thror Ugh
the day-no time for explanation no
time for even thorough recital He was
doing as wei as teachers all about aim,
and would give perfect satisfac ton
should he ramble along the old rut and
bring his scholars out at the end + the
winter green as the spring. But such
was not the character of Julien Al mold.
To see teachers everywhere shan lming
along, deciving hundreds Of p arents
who threw their children into Tia mer-
ciless jaws Of their instruction, as heath
en- mothers their babes to the M onsters
of the Ganges, gave bitter { iayor TO
his thoughts. He had witnes sed with
the incapacity Of the l lzy igno-
ramuses upon ehom people delighted
TO bestow the appellation Of edagogue.
At the end Of two days expo cienee he
saw more clearly than ever the prime
source Of school follies ard failures,