Litchfield enquirer., 1879-05-08
From Harper's Magazine. MISS MAY.

It was an afternoon in late February, and Tom Kingsley was loungng in the bay-wn- dow of the little sitting room, his Latin and | Greek books all around him, and, what was worse, a broad snew-covered hill front of him. down which sled after sled was gliding with the most tantalizing rapidty. Tom was twen- | ty, and devoted to learning, but he was not above good coast when the chance presented itself. Occasionally he favored his sister, who was the only other occupant of the room, with very audible growlings against the restrictions of study hours.
 The two were students in the academy whose mathemaically square buildings rose almost opposite to the Kingsley house. They were nearly of an age; but the one was pre- pairing to enter college; the education of the ether was considered nearly completed The two young people, with their father and mother, made up the whole family; but MT. Kingsley, Tn the simple, unpretending way of | the village received into his house as boarder one of the academic professors, and also occa- sional students when they happened to be | friends of the children. It was this first named individual who was exciting Toms at tention, in lack Of anything better to look at. | May" he said, jerking his head over his l shoulder with a quick, characteristic move ment, ''iust come here and see Professor Ren- sel go by"
 His sister dropped her work and came to the window. On the other side of the street stood a tall, upgainly man, with a scholarly ] stoOp in his shoulders, head of bushy hair much threaded with gray, pair of mild, wise | spectacles, and a general air of perplexed &C., | quescence in all mundane affairs whatever | In his hands he held very tiny sled, looking at it at arms length, as if it was something of an explosive nature. One six-year old little | fellow was surveying his broken plaything l irip yph tHUn tbara a1 urchins danced up and down in front of the 1 professor, endcavoring duly to set forth the | nature of the accident that had happened to | the runner. Two dogs wagged their tails hopefully in the background, and, to com l plete the procession, disabled crow, the pet of one of the villagers, brought up the rear. It hopped gravely along, now on one foot, now | on the other, setting it's head on one side III | oracular fashion, and looking ten times blacker | and wickeder than ever against the whiteness | of the snow.
 | After considering the situation few mn- | utes the professor started off again. dragging | the sled by the.rope, and his procession, crow and all trotted along behind him. "Now," said Tom, ''he will go straight to | the carpenters shop to get that thing mended; and the carpenter, after impressing upon him the arduous nature of the job, will charge | just ten times what it is worth, and he will | pay it without word" | No doubt he will"
 "And these little beggars will run off with out even thanking him." | ''But they are fond of him, Tom" 'l don't care. May, you can make that man believe any thing" 'I know it,
 "Just fancy his gong out with a telescope | and watching the moon all night because we boys told him there were changes on it's sur
  And when he couldn't find them, and came to l us to point them out, we pretended to see them plainly enough, told him his eyes were getting weak, and he believed every word of it, and has taken to wearing spectacles from that day."
 Well, they are becoming, at any rate, and he is short-sighted" said his sister, laughing
 "But May, the best joke of all you never heard of. Promise me you won't tell any body about it."
 "Of course not, except Jem"
 ''Oh, Jem knows all about it already; he was in it. Seems to me you're very dutiful, though all at once. Getting engaged has inn proved you"
 "We1l pray that it may last, said his sis ter demurely.
 (Which ?-the improvement, or the en- gagement? How maay people have you been engaged to before this, Nay" 'ADOut nalI dozen, JnlnK ''I think so too. Don't treat Jem in that way. He's friend of mine and, after all, it's rather mortfying, you know, to fel- low"
 Ut can't be very mortifying in this case, because nobody is to know of the engage ment."
 'I should like to know if they don't! Why May, it is known all over town Jem told of it himself. You see, you are rather pretty for girl; and then there's that bit of money grandmother left you. On the whole, Jem's rather proud of it, and no wonder"
 Let's have the joke now, Tom; never mind the compliments"
 'Never complimented any body in my life. What are you talking about? But about that little affair you remember when we were ex- perimentlng with that nitrogen iodine in the laboratory May?'
 "Yes."
 "You remember how explosive it was-safe as long as you kept it wet, but going off like nitro-g glycerine and dyamite put together when it got dry ?"
 Tt didn't go off unless some one touched it, Tom.'
 Il rather guess it did. If fellow merely breathed yard away from it, off it went. But that's of no consequence, for in this case somebody was expected to touch it |"
 And that somebody was the professor, of course ?'
 ''Of course. We made lot of it, and put some on the handle of his door, some in his Slippers, and some among his books; the rest we scattered around promiscuonsly. And, as good luck would have it, there came up a heavy thunder shower that very afternoon. The professor came hurrying in accidentally Jem and 1 met him on the stairs. We asked him to explain difficult Latin passage. 'Oh come right income right in, boys he says, in that benevolent way of his, and laid his hand on the door-knob. Bang! He jumped back as if he had been shot. Bless me, what's the matter ? he exclaimed, rubbing his nose We didn't say anything, but acted as if twas the most everyday occurrence. We'll, we went in, and he pulled off his boots and started to get his slippers on. Bang bang! Oh, May you never saw the like of that jump l believe he actually struck the ceiling. When he went to draw down the win1ow curtain, bang again. When he took down the Latin book-it was a big and heavy one-bang! bang bang! And so on with every thing he touched in the room, till began to think the poor man would lose his wits. But the best of it was he never even suspected the cause. You know his wisdom lies in Latin and Greek he doesn't know anything about the sciences, though 1 believe he regards them with more awe than all the rest of the curriculum put to- gether. We'll, Jem just told him the thunder shower had done it, that it had charged the room with electricity, and that he himself was first-rate prime conductor. Jem expatiated learnedly for half an hour or more on the freaks of electricity; talked, you know, as if it was usual thing to see rooms behaving in that fashion. And if you'll believe me, the professor actually took it all in; is writing paper now-if Jem's any authority on the sub ject-on these extraordinary natural phenom- na."
 Tom was in ecstasies of laughter by this time and his sister was not slow in joining him.
 ''I was only afraid father would hear the noise, and stop the fun," gasped he at last, when he was able to speak Luckily he didn't come in till it was all over. suggested to the professor that it might fright en mother if he was to mention it lat the table, and he has been as mum about it as possible about it ever since. May, we can make him believe anvthine-anythinp whatayar If I