Middlebury register. (Middlebury, Vt.) 1886-1937, 1889-07-19
HONEST HARRY.

w uot Hiedu tntJ my IT1enu ever
bore this nickname among his school
fellows, because nicknames, more's
the pity, have knack of being I'M
complimentary; yet if ever a boy de-
served such an honorable epithet, it
was Harry.
You had only to look at that frank,
open face to guess that he was las
honest as the day was long"
In the good old days of stern disci-
pine and unsympathetic despotism,
the tremblers under the rod seemed to
have judged anything fair which
helped them to cheat their tyrants,
so long as they stood stanchly by the
cause of their companions. But now
that teachers appeal more to the con-
science and less to the back, the pu-
pills, l think, commonly come for
ward to meet them on the ground of
mutual good will. In my recollection
the code of schoolboy honor has
changed greatly for the better.
/ am writing, however, of school
where this reform was still somewhat
incomplete, and where it mi ght well
happen that boy had to choose be-
tween doing what he thought wrong
and earning the opprobrium of a
traitor to his fellows.
One scene comes clearly back to me,
in which Harry found himself hard
put to it on the horns of such di-
lemma.
1t was a wet afternoon, and some
of us had made our way into the class
room ten minutes or so before the ar
rival of Mr.. Greig, our mathematical
teacher.
Then, to pass the time, what must
Reece do, the wag of the class, but
proceed to execute in chalk on the
"Old Greig," with his long nose, his
large as life, and, in fact, a great deal
larger.
Reece was clever at this sort of
thing, and, with few bold strokes,
succeeded in SO hitting off the masters
rather ludicrous features that there
could be no mistake as to who was
meant.
Absorbed in admiration of this work
of art, none of US had needed how the
minutes went till another knot of
young mathematician, bursting in
wet end muddy from the outside, gave
notice that Mr.. Greig was at hand,
and that it was high time to have done
with our fooling.
Where's the duster2" exclaimed
Reece, in confusion, since he must
needs make all haste to wipe out his
compromising performance.
Alas certain other idle hands had
carried off the duster and were play
ing catch with it, rolled up into a
ball, at the farther end of the room.
This useful article not being imme-
ditately forthcoming, Reece was for
making dash at the blackboard with
his sleeve, but too late to do more
than smudge out one corner of that
unlucky design.
Mr.. Greig already stood in the door
way, commanding, with stentorian
tones:
Seats this momentl Do you hear
me, boysl'
There was nothing for it but to scut-
tie off to our desks as he strobe ma
jestically up the room and took his
place right before that blackboard,
with the portrait staring at US from
behind the back of the original.
As yet he had not cast his spectacles
upon it; but sooner or later, he must
turn round and then! Reece began
to think that for once his clever fin
gers had served him an i'll trick.
No sooner had the hustle of taking
places subsidized little than litter
broke out and rolled along the desks
like file firing, which caused our
teacher to proclaim silence in the
sternest tones.
He could not make out what was
amusing us SO much, why some boys
nudged their neighbors, why others
stuffed their handkerchiefs into their
mouths and grew red in the face from
the exertion to control themselves be-
comingly or why all eyes were turned
in his direction.
''Silencew repeated he, humping
vehemently with pointer, and try
ing to overawe his giggling flock by a
solemn frown, which gave him q
greater resemblance to the caricature
than ever SO that half a dozen of us
burst outright into guffaw.
Mr.. Greig grew seriously angry.
''If this foolery is not brought to an
end at once, will keep in the whole
class" he cried.
With such threat hanging over us,
we made great effort at composing
ourselves, casting down our restless
eyes, so as not to have them drawn to
to the blackboard. Still, from time to
time our visibility was on the point of
breaking out afresh, while we sat in
an agony of suppressed excitement,
awaiting, the moment when Mr. Greig
should discover it, as every moment
he seemed on the point of doing.
He kept casting glances of puzzled
suspicion in front of him, ON each
side of him, everywhere but in the
right direction, and we could see him
feel feeling his buttons and wiping his
make sure there was nothing wrong
there to amuse us-perhaps a smut on
his nose or a splash Of mud on his
shirt front.
Instead of going to work at once
with proposition of Euclid as usual
he began that day by examining us in
tho IafnitfnrC ,xyh;aI Of