The Vancouver independent. (Vancouver, W.T. [Wash.]) 1875-1910, 1878-05-16
Despised and Rejected of Men.
BY MARY A. PARSONS,

After all, it is not easy to be sympa-
<hetically interested in a boy t. whom
you have explained fifty times that two
and two cant make five, ana then to have
dirl say, for the tifty-tirst time, that it
does; or, ii he catches the warning shake
OF your aching head, as he is droning out
FL to have him droop, in his dull
way, and say: Il DIN know" Then,
300, when his clothes are so dirty that
persons with delicate stomachs turn away
from him with 4 shuddering Ugh" how
can one think of him, Tom Dolan and
his like, all over the world, as any por-
zion of those the Master meant when he
said Feed my lambsl'
Dear, no! 1t seems almost irreverent
10 think OF lambs in such connection.
One might think of cur, or whelp, or
brute; but never lamb.
So it's not to be wondered at that Miss
Wilton the teacher, did not love Tom /;
especially as, studying being thing ut
terly peyond his comprehension, and
playing something he did measurably
understand, he was a troublesome boy.
Don't you see that when boy has no
idea what you mean when you say
study" and yet has a very definite idea
of the manufacture and the use of paper
wadS, he is much more likely to neglect
the studying while he makes the boys in
from; mop lively"-an eXhilarating pro-
cess TO him:
As bad name sticks, when once it is
fastened on bog or man, ali the mischief
that could not be directly traced to some
other scholar was laid to Toms charge.
So he vas punished many a time when he
had only been asleep, or stupidity draw
ing pictures on his desk with 4 foretinger
iampeued with saliva.
one day jim White scattered snuff
around, So that the occupants of half
dozen benches were set to snecZing vio-
,ently.
Nothing could exceed the falsely sac
cusCd, marty-.ike expression Of Jim 5
.acc, whcu asked if he knew anything
about il. He never said Tom did it. He was
above telling tales of a schoolmate. But
lie glanced at Tom, who sat near by, as
much as to say: Poor Tom. He don t
know any better than to do such things"
- Mss Wilton asked Joe Smith, who
didH; know nothin about it; and Tim
Bea,on, Jim Whites crony, who didn't
know. but guessed Tom done it."
She went back to Tom, and, finding a
paper If snuff in his desk, she whipped
him se7erely-tr,t for bringing snuff to
,ch.o', and then telling lie.
After this punishment, vicariously yet
unwi.lngiy borne, Tom rubbed into his
face sill. more dirt from his filthy jacket
sleeve u which ne always transferred his
tears.
Perhaps this made him look more az
grayA:ing than usual when. school being
dismissed, he donned his very diapidated
straw hat. AZ any rate, Joe Smith
thought II would be rare sport 10 set on
fire the loose straw sticking up from Tom :
frowsy head-so las TO let some light into
his skull, he said.
When Tom found where the smell of
smoke came from, he snatched off hi,
hat, with wild scream OF terror, aud ran
back into the woods, where flowed u
noisy brook. The idea that the silly
creature could really mean to try to save
the wreck, which at first was scarcely
more thac head band so amused the
boys tlat their shouts of jeering laugh
ter penetrated even his dull brain with a
sense of being miserab!y wronged. and,
tossing the still smoking fragment of u
hat into the brook, he watched il float
away, through fast falling tears.
There would only be more torture from
the boys, if he ventured out from his
hiding-place till they were all gone home
Added to this reason, for delay was the
moral certainty that his mother, herself a
hard working, often ill-used woman,
would beat him for coming home hatless.
SO be stayed, watching the merry water
dance over the stones, soothed by it,
though he didn't know why, till hunger
forced him to brave the whipping and all
the rest.
He stayed his steps little as he drew
near home, meditating on how he might
reach in at the pantry window aad help
himself to supper, if only he had jack
knife TO cut away one of the lsths that
were used to bar the open window in hot
weather.
He Nas walking slowly, when his bare
toe received prick from something lying
on the ground. His start of pain kicked
the cause directly into sight. That
breas;-pin with the golden beetle on it,
surely never belonged 10 any but the
teacher. tor had be not gazed at II, won
dering, all the time she was explaining
his geography lesson to him that very
m0rninxt
He had a vague sense Of queerness