Cedar Falls gazette. [volume] (Cedar Falls, Iowa) 1860-1895, 1871-08-18
A Tale Told Out Of School.

First person love, second person
thou lowest, third person heloves,"
drawled the head boy In the class.
The next, little girl, took itup
promptly. ''Plural-first person we
love, second person you love, third
person they love-" a' a..aus.
"And we all lover -u.
The interruption came In a whisper
loud enough to be heard all over the
room, causing the older boys and
girls to smile and giggle; and the
teacher, Miss Olive Burnett, looked
up quickly, glancing along the row
of large scholars on the back seat
young men and women-for this was
q country school, and in the winter.
She bad come to look for trouble i'm
that quarter. Every day some fresh
aggravation, some new infringement
of the rules and offense against the
discipline made it hard work for her,
q girl of eighteen, to maintain her
authority over forty tarbulent spirits,
constantly excited to oinsubordination
by the example or their acknowl.
leader, Scott Goldrick. ...,,r.
He sat there, at the furtherend of
the bench, quite in the corner, a
good-looking young man of twenty,
with curly chestnut hair, and mutin-
GUS curve of the lip, with head bent
low over his slate, and fingers busy
in figuring out some difficult problem
in arithmetic. But Miss Burnett
was not deceived by the apparently
studious air. And there was an un-
dertone of resolute determination In
her voice as she said. looking quietly
over the forty faces before her:
These Interruptions must come to
and end at once. There il point
where forbearance ceases to be a vir-
tue, and think IL has passed. From
this point I shall enforce every rule
of the school. The penalty for the
next interruption of this kind will
be twelve strokes of the ruler" care-
lessly balancing the slip of cherry.
wood in her hand.
IL The clear bright face in the corner
was lifted for o moment, the dark
hazle eyes looked steadily into Mis-
Burnett's blue eyes i only for mo-
ment, the space of breath; then
the hand went on again steadily with
that endless maze of figures, and
Miss Burnett went on with her work.
Hard work 1t was, especially hard
work to-day. All day long the vivid
scarlet had burned in her cheeks,
making her passing lovely, while her
temples throbbed with pain, and one
Of the children, feeling her. feyerish
torch, wondered "what made Miss
hand SO hot" She must
not give up though. There was too
much depending on her for that. A
helpless mother and two little sisters,
barely more than bahies yst an de.
pendent for the bred they eat upon
the ovekvorksd young eacher.
nNiys allure there wouId be disas-
ter. IA
But she must not fail. Would
those interminable lessons never be
She wanted to 90 home
and rest. sA
Two hours Of tolerabIes qniet and
order, and the days work was nearly
ended, when In the midst of the last
recitation came that iriterrupting
whisper, plainly heard all over the
room. 1ftEJ
For an instant Olive Burnett's
heart fafle1sher. Could she muster
enough to ferule Scott Gold
rich, the oldest and largest boy in the
school--a man grown z, The thought
came at once that 1t was unmanly ftr
him to try her so. But right or
her word was passed and
must be kept her authority was as
sailef AID must be pzaintained now
pr bst altoaetheE 70 f1lters how
wassto 81 ke Up all s. ealing ~ all
her herve, though hef head throbbed
dizzily, she closed the book quietly,
dismissed the class. and faced the
school rs she said: .
"The scholar who whispered that
last time, will please step forward"
There was q dead silence for Ap In
slant. then Scott Goldrick left his
,sat and walked up to: where the
young teacher stood. . No boyish |
mischief was In his manner now, no
Difference, no shade of de-
9sacA sus ask tint la4nli.
ness that was harder to meet than
any bravado would have been.
"You can understand, Mr.. Gold
rick that this is not pleasant duty |
70 me-" her voice steady, but lower
Than usual, 80 low that some who
were listening did not catch til
words ct ALL. "Yop can understan
hat is not pleasant for me to d |
Ibis. but my rules niust be respsct
IA ~ y s 4 s..s ss ~. 5,1
For an answer be bowed and bs16 |
out his hand, They were counted
but fAithfally--twslve strokes--no
more, no less. Did he know how
svery one hurt her? Perhaps he did