The National tribune., 1883-02-15
OUR YOUNG FOLKS.
The Snowfall Jury and its Stern
Decree.
by Haiiam o. Stoddard.1

/ far from it. There had been trouble in the
| little school-house of late, and Bill Henderson
| had been at the bottom of good deal Of it.
1t was not altogether because he was so very
bad boy, but he felt it little hard to be as
| big as he was, and TO be bulied for his blum
| ders by very small woman as the school
| trustees had chosen for teacher that winter.
| 1t might have been different if there had been
any boy a little taller to set him good example,
but all the tall boys in the district were attend
! ing school at the Academy. Thus Bill was left
to settle his difficulties 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 itworse
was that she told him, three or four times
day, that she was his best friend, and wanted
| to help make man of him.
! Bill could have stood q great many things
! better than he could that, for he felt that he
was quite near enough TO being man to be
! sent to the Academy.
There were other boys in the District School,
! but none of them were large enough to inter
! fere much with Bill, and he had his own way
/ q good deal in any out-of-door matters. There
were not even any large girls, but there was
! 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 suca sudden sill
ence along the lower benches, and such a buzz
after it that afternoon, when Bill Henderson
roundly declared,
"I won't spell it againp'
! "You won't, William? Did you say Il wontP
! Spell it again, sir"
Il 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 Var
| ick's further remarks, of which there were
many, except at the end of them, when he again
| blurted out,
81 won't be kept after school, nether-not
! by any woman"
! He had not been looking at the rows of little
faces on those benches, and if he had it would
not have occurred to him how many little
! women were sitting 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 Var
! lex struck the small brass tea-bel ON her desk,
/ and said:
'School is dismissed. I will see William
/ Henderson again 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' ANS voice and
Bills head was still hanging little when he
slouched out of the door, and began to trudge
/ along the road toward home.
"Now, girls, let's pelt him."
1t was Polly Burbanks shrill treble that he
! heard saying that and she had 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 -balled back again, but he knew somehow
/ that Miss Varick was watching the fun from
] the window, and that'she heard Polly Burbank
shout again: Peit him, girls. He said she was
nothing but woman"
That was the crime he had committed, and
he felt meaner and meaner about it with every
!, small globe of packed snow that hit him.
| "Pelt him, Polly! Pelt him, girls Well
stand by you"
| Bill hardly cared what boy it was that said
| that; but he knew they were coming back, and
following along to see fair play, and that they
would all be against him if he dared rebel too
| savagely against his small tormentors. They
1 grew worse and worse as he walked faster and
faster, and he was thinking whether or not it
! would.pa to run, when who should drive along
/ but Mrs. Dillaway, the minister's wife, in her
old red cutter, with old Miss Burns beside
! her.
Girls. girls" exclaimed Mrs. Dillaway,
| "what are you all about?"
"Yes," said Miss Burns, " what On yearth are
| they up to?"
'Pelting Bill Henderson," shouted Polly
| Burbank, because he sassed the school ma'am.
| Said he wouldn't mind woman"
He did, did he?"
"He 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 halfpacked snow with
so good an aim that his mouth was too full of it
| for word to come out.
"Drive on, Mrs. Dillaway," said Miss Burns.
| "Let 'em make an awful example of him. It's
high time sech talk was put an end to. Moth
| ing but woman!" declare'
If Bill had run just then, it would have
| looked as if he were trying to catch 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
much as an ounce of snow at him. They left
| all that to the girls but they could not help
packing few frst-rate snow-balls, and hand
| ing them around, like so many ready y-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 others were beginning to get tired,
| and drop off toward their own homes, when
| Bill drew near the gate of his fathers house.
! 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:
| Give him one more pelt, girls,"
She was barely ten years old herself, but the
| tall, Roman-nosed woman who came suddenly
out on the doorstep four times that at least,
I and the youngest of three shorter ladies who
followed her was nearly twenty.
"What does it all mean? William, my son,
what's the matter?"
William had no answer in good shape to
! l,,ftb tbora fn1r htya yDip
| quite ready to explain the matter, and then he
almost wished he had gone in the opposite di-
rection when he left the school-house. His
mother and his two aunts and his sister-not
one of them but took the words right out of
Polly Burbanks mouth, and said them all over,
with good many more like them.
"Pelted home from school by all the girls !"
exclaimed Mrs. Henderson at last, with very
red face "Come right in here, William Pm
a woman myself Well see about this. Go
| home, girls, all of you"
Mother" said his sister, we'd all better go
| to the school-house with William tomorrow
morning"
"Of course we WILL" said both his aunts in
say to little Kate Henderson.
did you hear that? Guess he'd rather be
pelted don't you?"
"Guess ne would; but we've done all we
could for him."
| So they had, and that was the last rebellion
| of the kind that took place during all the time
! Miss Varick taught in that district.-Harpers
Young People.