The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1888-11-18
90 r Il s S Y. .
BY BRET HARTE.
Arr7oE OF "TRE Luck OF ROARING
CAuP.""TALEs OF THE ARGoSAUTs,"
.IN THE CARoUINEz WOODS"
"MARUJAM," ETC.

"IN THE CARoUINEz WOODS"
.'MARUJAM," ETC.
Copyrighted 1888 Ly the Author.
CHAPTER l.
As the master OF the Ind an Spring
echo,l emerged from the pine woods into
tho little clearing before the school house, he
stonred whistling. put his hat less jauntily
ON his head, threw away some wild flowers
he had gathered on his way, and otherwise
sssun,ed the Sc we're demeanor of his profess
con and his mature age--which was at
least 90 Not that he usually felt this an
.ssur,ntiop; it was firm conviction of his
serious nature that he impressed Others, as
he did himself, with the blended austerCy
and eunui of deep ard exhausted expert
ence
The building which was assigned to him
and his flock by the board of education of
TuoIumne county, California, had been
originally church. 1t still bore a faded
odor of sanctity, mingled, however, with
slater and slightly alcoholic breath of po-
litical discussion, the result of its weekly
occupation. under the authority of the
hoard as a tribune for the enunciation of
marty principles and devotion TO the liber-
ties of the people. There were a few dog
cared hymu books on the teachers desk,
and the blackboard but imperfectly hid an
imnassioned appeal to the citizens of In
dian Spring to Rally" for Stebbius as SUI
pervisor. The master had been struck with
the size of the black type in which this
placard was printed, and with a shrewd
perception of its value to the round wan
dering eyes of his smaller pupils, allowed it
to remain as a pleasing example of orthog
raphy. Unfortunately, although subdlvided
and spelt by them in its separate letters
with painful and perfect accuracy, it was
collectively known as "Wally,' and its
general import productive of vague hi
larity.
Taking large key from his pocket the
master unlocked the door and threw it
open, stepping back with a certain precau-
ton begotten of his experience in once find
ing a small but sociable rattlesnake coiled
no near the threshold. A slight disturbance
which followed his intrusion showed the
value of that precaution, and the fact that
the room had been already used for various
private and peaceful gatherings of animated
nature An irregular attendance of yellow
birds and squirrels dismissed themselves
hurriedly through the broken floor and
windows, but a golden lizard stiffened
suddenly into stony fright on the edge of
an open al iJlLu6uIC, bOuCnOu Ouc utdIb Ol
the master so strongly by its resemblance to
some kept in forgotten scholar who bad sue
cunlbed over the task he could not accom-
plisb, that he was seized with compunc-
ton.
Recovering himself and re-establishing
as it were, the decorous discipline of the
room by ciappiug his hands and saying
'Sholn he passed up the narrow aisle of
benches, replacing the forgotten arithmetic,
nd mob mn from 10 ha- nd
there certain fiagmeutary pieces of plaster
and crumbling wood that mad fallen from
the ceiling, as if this grove of Academus
had been shedding It's leaves overnight.
When he reached his own desk he lifted the
I'D and remained for some moments mo-
tionless, gazing into it. His apparent medi-
tatio0, however, was simply the combined
reflection of his own features in
small pocket mirror III its recesses and a
perplexing doubt in his mind whether the
sscrlfce of his budding muStache was not
essential to the professional austerity of his
countenance. But be was presently aware
of the sound Of small voices, light cries
and brief laughter scattered at vague and
remote distances from the school house
not unlike the birds and squirrels he had
Just dispossessed. He recognized by these
signs that il was O'Clock, and his scholars
we're assembling.
They came i'll their usual desultory fash
iCn-the fashion of country school children
the world over-irreguarly, Spasmodically,
and always as if accidentally; a few hand
n-hand, Others driven ahead of or dropped
behind their elders; some in struggling
groups more or less coherent and at times
oily connected by far-off intermediate
voices scattered on a space of half a mile,
but never quite alone; always preoccupied
by something else than the actual business
on hand; appearing suddenly from bitches.
behind trunks, and between fence rails;
cropping up in unexpected places along the
road after vague aud purposeless detours-
seemingly going anywhere and everywhere
but to school! So unlocked for, i'll fact,
was their final arrival that the master who
had few moments before failed to descry
single torn straw hat or ruined sun bon
net above his visible horizon, was always
startled to find them suddenly under his
windows, as if, like the birds, they had
aighted from the trees. Nor was their
moral attitude toward their duty any tho
more varied; they always arrived as if tired
and reluctant, with a doubling sulkiness
that perhaps afterward beamed into
charming hypocrisy, but invariably tenn
PORTING with their instincts until the last
moment, and only relinquishing possible
uuancy on the very threshold. Even after
they were marshalled on their usual
benches they gazed at each other every
morning with a perfectly fresh astonish-
ment and a daily recurring enjoyment of
some hidden joke in this tremendous rem
contre.
II had been the habit of the master to
utilize the preliminary vagrancies of his
little flock by inviting them on assem- bling
to recount any interesting incident of their
journey hither; or failing this, from their
not infrequent shyness in expressing what
had secretly interested them, any event that
had occurred within their knowledge since
they last met. He had done this, partly
to give them time to recover them
selves in that more formal atmosphere, and
partly, fear, because. notwithstanding his
conscientious gravity, it greatly amused
him. 1t also diverted them from their
usual round-eyed, breathless contemplation
OF himSelf-a regular mJrning inspection
which generally embraced every detail of
lis dress and appearance, and made every
change or deviation the subject Of whispered
comment or stony astonishment. He knew
That they knew him more thoroughly than
he did himself, and shrank from the intuit-
I'VE vision Of these small cairvoyantS.
WellP said the master, gravey.
There was the usual interval Of bashful
hesitation, verging on nervous hilarity or
hypocritical attention. For the last six
months this question by the master had
been invariably received each morning as a
yelled pleasantly which might lead TO baleful
information or conceal some query out OF
the dreadful books before him. Yet this
very element of danger had its destinations
Johnny Filgee, asmall boy, blushed violent