Watertown republican. [volume] (Watertown, Wis.) 1860-1906, 1878-01-23

After all, 1t IS not easy to be Sympa-
theticaily interested in a boy to whom
you have explained fifty times that two
and two can't make five, and then to
say for the ffty-frst time, that it does:
or, if 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, "Id'n know" Then, too,
when his clothes are SO dirty that per
sons with delicate stomachs turn away
from him with a shuddering sSUgh y
how can any one think of him, Tom
Dolan and his like, all over the world,
as any portion Of those the Master
meant when he said, Feed my lambs :"
Dear, no Itseems almost irreverent
to think of lambs in such q connection.
One might think of a 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 utterly beyond his comprehen-
sion, 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 use of
paper wads, he is much more likely to
neglect the studying, while he make the
boys IN front chop liyely''-an exhilarat-
ing process to him?
AS bad name sticks, when once it is
fastened on a boy or man, all the mis-
chief that could not be directly traced
to some other scholar, was laid to Toms
charge. So he was punished many a
stupidity drawing pictures on his desk
with a forefinger dampened with saliva.
One day James White scattered snuff
around so that the occupants of half
dozen benches were set to sneezing VIC
lently.
Nothing could exceed the falsely &C
cused, martyr-Gke expression of Jim's
face, when asked if he knew anything
about it. He never said Tom did it.
He was above telling tales of a school
mate. But he 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"
So Miss Wilton asked Joe Smith, who
didn't know nothin' about it; and Tim
Benton, Jim Whites crony, who didn't
know, but guessed Tom done it. She
went back to Tom. and finding a paper
Of snuff IN his desk. she whipped him
severely-frst for bringing the snuff to
school, and then for telling lie
After the punishment, vicariously yet
unWillingly borne, Tom rubbed into his
face still more dirt from his filthy Jacket
81 To yuli hn o1v 4
his tears.
Perhaps this made him look more ag-
gravating than usual when, school being
dismissed, he doomed his very dilapida-
ted straw hat. At any rate Joe Smith
thought it would be rare sport to set on
fire the loose straw sticking up from
Toms frowzy head-"so as to let some
light into his skull" he said.
When Tom found where the smell of
smoke came from, he snatched off his
hat with a wild scream of terror, and
ran into the woods, where flowed noisy
brook. The idea that the silly creature
could really mean to try and save the
wreck, which at first was scarcely more
than a head-band, so amused the boys
that their shouts offering and laughing
penetrated even his dull brain with
sense of being miserably wronged, and,
tossing the still smoking fragment of
hat into the brook, he watched it float
away, through fast falling tears.
There would only be more torture
from the boys, if he yentured out Of his
hiding place till they were all gone
home. Added to this reason for delay
was the moral certainty that his mother,
herself a Woodworking, often ill-used
woman. would beat him for coming
home hatless. So he staid, 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.
lie stayed his steps little as he drew
near home, meditating on how he might
reach il at the pantry window and help
himself to supper, if only be had u jack
knife TO cut away one of the laths that
were used to bar the open window in
hot weather.
He was walking slowly, when his bare
toe received a prick from something "
ing on the ground. His start of pain