The Kenosha telegraph. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1860-1888, 1883-03-02
PELTED HOME FROM SCHOOL.

drawn, and so was the answer
1.-The girls are pelting Bill Henderson
cause he sassed the school ma am.
Come o-on"
They were coming, for school had
not been out three minutes, and none
Of them had gone far from it. There
had been trouble in the little school
house of late, and Bill Henderson had
been at the bottom of a good deal of it.
1t was not altogether because he was
so very bad boy, but he felt it a little
hard to be as big as he was, and to be
tullied for his blunders byso very small
a woman as the school trustees had
chosen for teacher that winter. 1t
might have been different if there had
been any boy little taller to set him a
good example, but all the tall Toys
were attending school at the Academy.
Thus Bill was left to settle the difficult
ties in his own way, and he had not
yet been able to settle them at all, for
little Miss Varick refused to have mercy
on his mistakes of any kind. What
made it worse was that she told him,
three or four times a day, that she was
his best friend, and wanted to help
make a man of him.
Bill could have stood a great many
things better than he could that, for he
felt that he was quite near enough to
being a man to be sent to the Academy.
There were other boys in the District
School, but none of them were large
enough to interfere much with Bill, and
he had his own way good deal in any
out of-door matters There were noteven
any large girls, but there was a perfect
swarm of small ones, and Miss Varick
had somehow persuaded them all that
she had come among them as a sort of
guardian angel.
That. was why there was such sud-
den silence along the lower benches,
when Bill Henderson roundly de-
clared:
81 won't spell it againr'
''You won't, William? Did you say
4 WON'T? Spell it again, SIR
II won't. | don't mean to let any
woman boss me-
''Spell it, STRIP
Bill held down his head sulkily. but
he did not open his lips again in reply
to Miss Varick's further remarks, of
which there were many, except at the
end of them, when he again blurted
OUT
II won be kept after school, neither
NOT by any woman"
He had not been looking at the rows
of little faces on those enches, and if
he had it would not have occurred to
him how many little women were sit
ting there, not one of them comparing
in point of size with even little Miss
Varick
Particularly he had failed to see the
look of wrath in the black eyes of Polly
Burbank, and he had no notion OF what
made her buzz around so among the
other girls the moment Miss Varic (
struck the small brass tea-beA on her
desk, and said:
''School is dismissed. I will see
William Henderson about this half an
hour before school opens tomorrow
morning"
There was a sound of something to
come in the clear tones of the school
ma ann voice, and Bills head was still
hanging alittle when he slouched out of
the door, and began to trudge along the
road toward home.
Nov, girls, let S pelt him. ~
1t was Polly Burbank's shrill treble
that he heard saying that, and she had
a SNOWFALL ready-made to show what
she meant. 1t was not very big or
hard one, but it hit him just under the
left ear, and Kate Sullivan followed it
with another that went into his neck.
At any other time he might have set to
work and snow-b alled back aga n, but
he knew somehow that Miss Varick was
watching the fun from the window, and
that she heard Polly Burbank shout
again: ''Pelt him girls. He said she
was nothing but woman. -
That was the crime he had'commit-
ted, and he felt meaner and meaner
about it with every small globe of
packed snow that hit him.
"Pelt HIM, Polly! Pelt him, girls!
Wen stand by you.
Bill hardly cared what boy it was that
said that; but he knew they were com
ing back, and following along to see
fair play, and that they would all be
against him if he dared rebel too saw
agely against his small tormentors.
They grew worse and worse as he
walked faster and faster, and he was
thinking whether or not it would pay
to run, when who should drive along
but Mrs. Dil'away, the minister's wife,
in her old red cutter, with old Miss
Burns beside her.
''Girls! girlsr' exclaimed Mrs. Dilla-
way, what are you all about?'
yes" said Miss Burns. "what on
yearth are they up to?''
''Felting Bill Henderson," shouted
Polly Burbank, ''because he sassed the
schoo!-nla' am. Said he wouldn' mind
a woman. T"
"He did, did hep"
'tHe wouldn't, would he:''
Bill lifted his head, and was just
about to say something, when a small
girl with very red hair threw big ball
of half packed snow with so good an
aim that his mouth was too full of it for
a word to come out.
"Drive on, Mrs. Dillaway." said Miss
Burns. "Let EN- make an awful ex-
ample of him. It's high time sech talk
was put an end to. Nothing but a
woman! / declared
If Bill had run just then, it would have
looked as if he were trying to catch a
ride on that very cutter, and he could
not bear the thought of that. He
walked as fast as he knew how, but SO
did all the other boys, and by common
consent not one of them threw so much
as an ounce of snow at him. They left
all that to the girls; but they could not
help packing a few first-rate snow-balls.
and handing them around, like so many
ready-made cartridges in time of war.
Polly Burbank was everywhere, all
around her victim, and so was Kate
Sullivan, and so was the little girl with
the very red hair; but some of the 9th
ers we're beginning to get tired, and
drop off toward their own homes, when
Bill drew near the gate of his fathers
hou e. He had been walking somewhat
more slowly for the last few rods. and
had looked up now and then as If he
wanted to know if there was any one in
that front yard.
The girls had done the same, but
there had been no one visible until just
as Bill reached the gate, and Polly
shouted:
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