Evening star., 1900-05-26

able kind that its chief effect is to mellow
his nature and make him more kindly and
more loving toward humanity at large and
more loved and more reverenced by his
circle of worshipers.
And. as with US tbs In his own country
prophet gets most honor. beyond the
bounds of his own parish the masters
fame is eclipsed by that of him who wields
the rule. and whose word is law in the
next parish. Consequently, when the men
Of different parishes meet at wake. not
irfreGuently do they wage a wordy war IN
assertion of the claims of their respective
masthers to signal pre-eminence among his
fellows.
Where the Master is Kind.
But after all. it is in his own little cas-
IL. that he is truly and undisputably king
in his own little low matched school house;
a house filter in size for twenty pupils than
for the hundred which often crowd 1t. A
motley hundred of all sizes. from the bab-
bling infant sent to school to keep it out
of the way to the mustached young man
who has come in the idle days OF winter
to brush up his much-neglected literary re-
qurements before sailing for the states
where he is ambitious of being able to write
his own letter home. They are OF both sex
es and of all descriptions. wear every va
riety of dress, and are alike IN one thlns
only-the amount of noise they make. For
into the little house each carries the pitch
OF voice he used on the Eills. Every one
shouts for himself and tries to outshout
his neghbor. The only thing l have met
with elsewhere to remind me of little
national school in the hills is the New
York stock exchange on a day of panic.
The most extraordinary thing IS that the
master can know what every one of his
hundred pupils is saying-what lesson this
one is committing to memory for eacn
treats his memory as if it were hard OF
hearing). what request that one is hurting
at him. what ncknames the next two are
swapping, and what problem fifth Is con-
fusing.
His young Confuciuns, as he styles them
collect at IL O'Clock. each with piece
OF turf. mis- tribute to the school fire, under
his arm. Some of them. indeed. are at the
school house and have successfully brought
off a few pugilistic encounters before the
teacher himself arrives at $50, but these
are they who live four or six miles off.
and got up before the screek o day and
had their breakfast by the light of the fire.
Others do not arrive till just before roll
call at II O'Clock: these are pupils, of
course. who live within call of the school
house and can easily afford to take their
leisure in the morning. Most of them are
the ground, but when the weather is good
few burden their feet with unnecessary
covering.
The Days Program.
The first duty of the day is the punish
ment of the schemers who remained from
school on yesterday. and. for instance, built
up owen a-Dunnion's, filling every door and
window of the cottage with snow, and then
added insult to injury by getting on the
roof top and satirzng owen down the
chimney. a moral discourse from the mas
ter. italicised by two heavy slaps of a rat
tan cane on each hand of each criminal
Gisposes of this.
Then six classes are formed. The master
takes charge of one and leaves the others
under the guidance of forward pupils from
the higher ranks Half the classes sit and
half of them ST. nd. And at the end of each
ha3f hour they exchange positions. The
school work goes on. uninterrupted by play
till 3 o'clock. But. though there is no of
ficially recognized play hour. the young ras-
calls indulge in many lessons not specifical-
ly provided for in the school time table
That bunch of huddling heads which the
master, good man. believes to be racking
and wrestling with the intricaces of frac-
tons only indicates eager audience to
fascinating Fenian tale. and that other
group that he thinks gathering gram
matical crumbs at the feet of Phelimy
Owen McGragh. are listening in awed as
tonishment of Phelimy's recital of how the
big eel of Loeb Peiste chased his father
for five miles over the hills. Phelimy's