Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1888-11-09
CHAPTER III.

AS the children were slowly struggling
ter waited for an opportunity to speak to
Rupert, That beautiful but scarcely
amable youth was, as usual, surrounded
and impeded by a group of his small fe-
male admirers, for whom, it is but just to
add, he had supreme contempt. Posi-
bly, 1t was this healthy quality that iuclin-
ed the master toward him, and it was con-
seQuently with some satisfaction that he
overheard fragments OF his openly dispar-
aging comments upon his worshipperS.
There ~ to Clarnda Jones, don't
flop And don't you" to Octavia Dean,
go on breathing over my head like that.
If there's anything | hate it's having a
girl breathing round me. Yes, you were
felt it in my hair. And you too--you're
always snoopin' and snoodgin'. OBJ, yes,
you want to know lUhy Iye got an extra
copy book and another ritmetic, Miss
Curiosity. Well, what would you give to
know Want to see if they're pretty'
with infinite scorn at the adjectlve). 'NO,
they amt prcttN That's all you girls
think about-whats pretty and what's
curious Quit now Come Don't We see
teachers lookin' at you. Amt you asham-
ed ~
He caught the masters reckoning eye
and came forward slightly abashed, with
"a flush of irritation still on his handsome
| face and his chestnut curls slightly rum
pied. Que, which Octavia had covertly
accented by twisting round her foretlnger,
stood up like a crest on his head.
''Ive told Uncle.Ben that youmight help
him here after school hours, said the
master, taking him aside. You may
therefore, omit your writing exercise in
the morning and do it in the afternoon"
The boys dark eyes sparkled. And If
1t would be all the same TO you, sir" he
added earnestly, You might sorter give
out in school that | was TO be Kept in"
Pm afraid that would hardly dc" said
the master much amused; But why :"
] Rupert color deepened, 80 ez to keep
them darned girls from foolin' round me
and followln' me back here"
ave will attend to that" said the mas
! ter smiling u moment after he added
more seriously, Il suppose your father
knows that you are to receive money for
! this And he doesn't object ?"
He Oh, no - returned Rupert, with a
slight look Of establishment, and the same
/ general suggestion of patronizing his
/ progenitor That he had previously shown
| 10 his younger brother. You needn't
mind him" In reality Filgee pGrC, n wild
over of two years standing, had tacltly
allowed the discipline of his family to de-
volve upon Rupert. Remembering this, the
master could only say, Very we'll" and
! good-naturedly dismiss the pupil to his
seat and the subject from his mind. The
last laggard had Just slipped in, the mas
ter had glanced over the occupied benches,
with his hand upon the warning bell,
when there was quick step on the gravel,
a iiutter Of skirts ike the sound of alight-
ing birds and a young woman lightly en-
tered.
In the rounded, untouched and I'M
troubled freshness of her cheek and chin,
and the forward droop of her slender
neck, she appeared girl OF Is in her de
veloped figure and the maturer drapery of
her full skirts she seemed woman; in
her combination of ndtDG recklessness and
perfect understanding of her person she
was both. In spite OF few school books
that jauntily swung from n strap in her
gloved hand, she bore no resemblance to a
pupil in her pretty gown of dotted mus
lin with bows of blue ribbon on the skirts
and corsage, and cluster of roses In her
belt she was as inconsistent and ipcon
gruous to the others as fashion plate
would have been in the dry and dog cared
pages before them. Yet she carried it of
with demure mingling of the ndtUetC OF
youth and the dplOmb of a woman. and II:
she swept down the narrow aisle, bury
ing few small wondering heads in tht
overflow of her fiounces, there was NJ
doubt OF her reception in the arch smile
Two bits. /. e, twenty-five cents