Shepherdstown register. [volume] (Shepherdstown, Va. [W. Va.]) 1849-1955, 1891-10-09
THEDUCKING OF Mr.. Dick

A stranger, looking on from the
background, would have been greatly
amused to see the expression on the
faces of the boys and girls of the Rose
Lane school when they saw for the
first time the new teacher, Mr.. TIM
othy Dick, approaching.
1t was almost nine o'clock before
he came. and some of the larger ones
had been saying that they guessed
he had been scared out
"Mebbe he won't be so slow going
away as he is getting here, said Nat
Brace, a surly-looking, untidy boy
about seventeen years old.
1t was neat little new country
school-house in the first freshness and
spotlessness of snowy white paint.
The blinds were painted grass green
and there were green paper shades to
the windows-an unusual thing IN
country scbool-house in that neigh
| borhood.
The luxury of blinds in the windows
ola school-house was sharply ridlculed
by several slow-going people in the
district.
Next thing you know they'll be
putin down lowered carpets and So
fies for them to lop down on that gifts
too lazy to set up said old Mr..
Joyce.
"Laws-a-massy - said Mrs. Jasper,
who had visited the new schoolhouse
with Mrs. Joyce to see how the tax
money was being squandered. Amt
Won heerd what all this style is being
put on for p
"Of course I've heerd, Sally Jasper
and it's all nonsense, as you IL see
fore you're six months older. NOW,
the idear, Sally Jasper, the very idear'
Sally Jasper. the very idear, that the
scholars air goin' TO behave any bet
Ter in n school-house all finished up
like that than they would in the old
house! Just as if white paint and
green shelters and fancy school furnl-
ture, and all that, had anything to do
with q boys mortal nature =.
It's all Wesley Redding's doings,
replied Mrs. Jasper. He sticks up
for il that the scholars air goin' to
act accordin' to their surroundin s.
and if they have to set in dirty
tumble.down old school-housc, with
the plasterin' half off n the walls, the
stove all rusted out, and with OLD
benches for seats and no place to put
a cap or a shawl, exceptin' to set on
'em-he saws, Wesley Redding does,
that BOYS and girls air bound to be
slipshod and even sassy themselves
From the day he was 'lected director
OF the deeStrict he fit for "a new house;
and now well see how his theory
works"
The new house stood on a gentle
rise at one end of the long Rose Lane,
a grassy thoroughfare, sweet with the
scent and bright with the delicate pink
of wild roses blooming in almost every
fence corner in their season.
But the roses had fallen, and the
yellow leaves OF the bushes betokened
frost and snow when young Mr. Tim
othy Dick walked up Rose Lane for
the first time, one bright but slightly
chilly October day.
When the teacher left the Lane
and walked up the well-worn path
toward the schoolhouse, the curious
ewes of the forty or more boys and
girls, of all sizes and ages, beheld Tor
the first time slightly built, smooth
faced and very trim young man, who
came walking up the path, and greet
ed them cordially.
"Good-morniLg,' he said, with a
smile. Il have almost set you bad
example by being late myself on the
first dav of school, but have walked
all the way from my home in Wayne
which YOU know is nearly six miles
from here, and Mr. Redding detained
me for several minutes when l was
passing his house. But there are still
three or four minutes before nine
o'clock so no one can really say that
am late. Can he, my little man p
! He pnt his hand lightly on the
tangled red curIs of little Sammy
Pixies head as he spoke. Sammy,
quite overcome by this unexpected
attention, blushed scarlet and lisped
I out
mo, thir.'
Il am here just in time to open the
school, the teacher went on, 'and
we will go right in and get to work.
He stepped to the door Of the
school-room, as he spoke, and said, in
a pleasant tone.
well, we'll What a bright, pretty
school-room We ought to make IA
nous progress in such room as this
And we must keep it just as tidy as II
Is now"
Mr. Dick was a marked exception
TO many OF the former teachers OF the
school in the exceeding tidiness Of his
appearance.
I IL L