The daily sentinel., 1903-12-05

4 Side OF Chicago. left the
1CE train at Cover Hill Sta
ton. Wis, where II teach
ers' summer school was in progress
Professor Bent-he had sat in col
lege chair in his day-was forty years
old. His hair was n tritie gray, his
eyes We're kindly and his shoulders II
bit stopped. He was going to the sum
mer school to hear the natural history
lectures of Audubon Burroughs Wood.
and to get bit of nature first hand
from the fields.
At the big boarding house by the
brook with the great trees at its back.
Thaddeus Bent met half Il dozen teach
ers whom he knew and half a hundred
whom he didn't know. The assistant
principal of the Diogenes was there.
and had been there for n month. She
felt bound TO do her duty by her chief.
She introduced him right and left.
Then she put on her thinking cap.
He won't care much for those frivo-
1ous creatures just out of the normal"
she said to herself Hell want some
one to pair off with Now there's
Theodosia Desmond, principal of the
Plato School, way up on Chicago's
North Side. She's just his opposite.
but oppOsites get on we'll so here goes"
And the assistant principal introduced
Principal Thaddeus Bent to PRINCIPAL
Desmond
Professor Bent found himself in the
company of Miss Desmond on the
veranda. the second morning after his
arrival. Theodosia was a little crea-
ture, with n trim figure rather posi-
tive manner and piquant nose on
which rested a pair of glasses. Theo-
dosia was thirty-five and admitted it
when it was necessary.
whats your hobby, Professor
Bent?" she asked. Every one of us
has hobby, or we wouldn't be here
"Well, | confess, Miss Desmond, to
n weakness fo- natural history. l
like frogs, snakes, snails, turtles, water
bugs and the rest
Horrors, all of them. Excuse me-
but 1 thought you We're above creep
ing things. 1 haven't n bit of sym
pathy with you or with them. The
proper study of mankind is man
and mans attributes. let me add. L
study mental philosophy It's the only
thing worth studying We won't get
L
am above the earth bit, as high as
mans head, at any rate. The brain
and the understanding-thes be noble
themes. Snakes and toads, or, how
~an you?"
well, trust 1 am a little above the
creepers and the hoppers at times
There are the birds and the trees; they
appeal to me-"
'All of kind; mans and woman's
mentality is the thing for me. I've
heard forty of Professor Searcher's lee
lures on Mind already, and I'm going
to hear The other forty. Some of the
other teachers have fallen away. They
are not true blue, though they made
much pretense at the start Can't l
induce you to hear Professor Seacher?
He'll convert you"
"Pray forgive me, but I've heard
Searcher and 1 found him a bore. but
I'll go if you'll take me-"
Theodosia blushed a bit. She was
past even such remote hint of gal
lantry as this. she had thought
mo. won't take YOU" she said "but
you may come if you will. Go well up
to the front. Professor Searcher does
not speak any too clearly and l sit up
there-I mean you can hear better
there"
There were excursions into the woods
and fields arranged by the teachers as
sembled at Cover Hill. Prof ssor Bent
took the tramps. and through the urg-
ing assistant principal Theodosia Des-
mond occasionally went along. This
student of man amused Professor Bent.
and despite her antagonism she attract
ed him little
On. one of the excursions he found
himself alone with her in woodland
path. Each had books. What have
you there, Professor Bent?" asked Miss
Desmond.
"I have p. II. Gosse, n man too little
read now, and Burroughs, and White
of Selborne. They are full of frogs and
snakes and foxes and birds"
Theodosia Desmond tossed her head.
and her piquant nose became as near