The Intermountain Catholic. (Salt Lake City [Utah] ;) 1899-1920, 1900-06-23

Father John" said Johnny Lowell,
L hate girls-that is, most girls. There
are some good ones in our class, but
that Matte Jessop isis a terror.
mean terror She ScareS me-"
How very sad" Father John an
! swered, looking anything but serious.
How does she frighten you? Sword,
pistol, gatling, or a simple club?"
Il shouldn't care for those" said
Johnny; "she would be more afraid of
them than l should. She talks"
1T is a habit with girls-and with
some boys. Do you want her to be
dumb?"
Il wish she was! If 1 say anything,
anything as simple as, Rivers run
down HILL she snaps out, L never
heard that they did, or First time
ever 1 heard of that The other day
1 told that old Betsy Ross story, and
Matte squealed out, I never heard
that Betsy Ross made the first Amer
lean flag "
What did you answer"
ooh, 1 said, Well, she did, now!
Sol
THAT was no answer! You should
always reply to words, not to a sup
posed thought. Matte did not say that
Betsy. did not make the first flag, but
that she herself had never heard of it.
If you were a lady, and older than Mat
tie, you might say, How very sad, deari
The story is quite true. You will find
it in many school books and volumes
of anecdotes and in the historical mag
azines' but being only boy, you are
not called upon to educate Miss Mar
tina
well, being a boy, father, what
shall l do?'
"A orirI of x,o,rr. 400 a catfish PirI
one of the kind whose mothers boast
that they are so possessed and
quite women of the world would
say. Mop and wait for Miss Matte to
reply. Your principal would probably
utter an astonished, Is it possible?'
You, being q, boy, must not be rude to
a girl, even when she is rude to you.
Neither must you be so eXasperatingly
civil that you will humiliate her; there
fore, you cannot say, as the self-pos-
sessed girl might, that since she does
not believe you, you feel compelled to
say that the story may be found in
such and such a place, quoting chap
ter and verse. You can simply let the
matter go and talk of something else"
"She would say the same thing about
any subject whatsoever You don't
know her. father"
well, it is not your business to re-
day she will encounter somebody not
afraid of her. l am glad that you are.
/ mistrust self-possessed boys and
little man of the world is a terror to
me. Each of us has his streak of cow
ardice, you see"
well, what do you think of this, ia
Their? The other day the eXpreSsman
brought some things up to the prin-
cipals office while I was there filling
out some reports for him. Matte was
in the head assistants office on the
other side of the great hall, and Of
course she saw everything, because
both offices are glass cased, and she
saw me go off afterwards, locking the
door and putting the key in my pocket.
Soon the principal came up the stairs,
four at a time and found the door
locked. Before he could say a Word
/ was there with the keys, for / had
remembered and turned back, and he
had passed me on the stairs. Matte
was coming across the hall and heard
me apologize and she squeaked out,
There, Johnny Lowell! 1 came over
because 1 thought you were going to
saw that the eXpressman locked the
door! He didn't lock the doorn She
was out of breath, and l was as red
as a poppy.
Now, l had heard the principal say
once that he left the girls manners,
when they had any, to the head as
sistant. and so 1 did not expect him
to say much. He always teaches us,
YOU know, that an American gentle
man must be polite to all women and
girls. even to his own little daughters,
and when he scolds one of the girls, it
means that he thinks that she has done
something unwomanly. l never heard
him scold even the Httlest primarian,
but they say that when he does scold
a. girl it half kills her"
Possible? Did he half kill MarthaT'
NO. He just looked at her and said,
Thank you very much, Miss Jessop.
Would you mind locking the other Office
and taking the keys down stairs?'
Then he took me into his office and
there he kept me ten minutes and
then sent me home, with orders not to
go near the class room on the way. OF
course ] knew that he meant, Don't
sneak to Matte about this and 1
didn't. but wasn't she hateful, father?"
The good priest smiled. Johnny, my
boy" said he, do you know that when