The National tribune., 1904-06-30
(Everybody's Magazine.)

view. Sne reallZeu tnat niS uHIelSHeu JOY
in the tidings he bore was only the exuda-
tion of a boys instructive delight in
row, not a malicious pleasure in his COM
ing downfall That announcement was the
following, delivered in hreathless voice,
the words because of his haste, slightly
run together:
Say, teacher, Pat OQuinn's fathers
comm UP to school this mornin' with Pat.
He's dead mad with you. lie says he
going to break your STATS
The little school-teachcr stared Dlanhiy
for a second down into Williams $ lrradl-
ated face, and William stared with guiie
less glee back into hers. But it was evi-
dent that under her absorption, she was
thinking hard
IAN right, William" she said, after a
long pause. you may clean all the 1roht
blackbOards and water the plants. 80
William set to work on the boards with
a zest that threatened to dissOcate all tne
bones in his body, and soon covered every
thing in sight with a fine White chalk
dust The teacher, with less ADO, Wen.
about the work of arranging her desk anu
getting out the materials Tor the uay
lessons. 1t was perceptible, however, that
her mind was not on what she was DONG:
II was the first year of her teaching, ana
her lines had fallen in difficult places: IN
a consested Boston school. The district
was poor one. the population largely
Irish Catholic. The other teachers III the
building were old. Most OF them had Deen
teaching for periods running from = 10
35 years. They had become the machines
that such a routine, and years OF II, IS
bound TO make of the most AMBITIOUS NELL
taIties They had little sympathy for hef
youth, and even less with the new ldehs
of teaching and discipline that she was
gradually introducing into her work. She
had not had much trouble with the chill
tlren themselves, with the exception OF
Pat O'Ouinn but he had become veri-
table thorn in her flesh. He was idle, dls-
orderly, ins0ient, and malclously so, II
seemed to her. She had tried all the tricks
and devices of her slender experience 10
bring him into line with the rest OF her
well-disciplined little class, but as yet she
had not succeeded. In fact, she had very
definitely failed. Pats surly insubordlna-
tion had eliminated yesterday. when he
had refused TO obey her, and she had sent
him home with the admonition not TO re-
turn until his mother came with HIM.
Pats father was one of the local he
roes. He had been a good average work
ing-man until the unlucky day dawned
when in a bar-room scrap he had had the
felicity to knock John l.. Sullivan down.
From that time onward he lived In the
fame of his great blow. lie gave up MS
work and lived furtiye saloon existence,
sinking gradually into deeper and deeper
strata of idleness, unnoticed except when
a sudden visit TO town Of the famous pu-
giIist revived memories of his great mo-
ment and brought him into prominence
again. He was, it happened, and rather
unaceountably. a favorite with the famous
man. During the puglist's brief stay he
lived splendid life. moving grandly from
saloon to saloon, in one day s-long pro-
tracted spree.
The little teacher thought all this over.
and it is not surprising that her face
sObered. For a moment she wondered IL
she iIad BETTER ask the advice of some OF
the older teachers in regard to the matter.
But her pride eafae :to her rescue, urging
her to meet the difficulty Hnaided. Finally
her sense of huinor got the upper hand,
and she smiled.
simultaneously. line. Of dimples. that
lived subsidiary existence about her
mouth, flashed into prominence. She went
to the cioset-dOor and looked at herself IN
the mirror hanging there. She was little
round person. curly and dimply, with a
dewy mouth. and soft brown eyes that
seemed to grow vivid when she laughed.
She had no features to speak OF, but to
make up, her complexion was fresh, and
her expression changeable. She was glad,
as she surveyed herself in the scrap OF
looking glass, that she did not happen to
be wearing her regular school uniform,
that she had dressed thus early for the
Tea SQe expected 10 tHdl alter
noon. Her brow hghtened as she turned
away. the little figure was so dainty in
the soft pearly-gray gown with the globe
Of fluffy white chiffon at its neck.
The children came into the room when
the quarter-of bell rang, in the orderly
way in which she had trained them bat
there was an air of subdued excitement
about them. They glanced eagerly at her
where she stood at the hall-door, watching
the filing, and their sense Of the i'm
portance Of the things they knew was
only rivailed BY their recognition of the
fact that teacher was wearing some pretty
new clothes. They examined her curiously
before they exchanged the knowing looks
of their secret delight.
The 8 o'clock bell rang. The class came
to position, each pair Of hands folded on
the desk. every back as straight as if a
ramrod had. without warning, been run
into it. The teacher closed the door,
walked deliberately TO her desk, took from
the row Of books there her Bible, opened
it and sat down. And then suddenly there
reverberated through the room the tattoo
Of a stern and commanding knock. Every
child in the class jumped, although each
one of them had been secretly anticipating
this summons, and their unalloyed joy in
the prospective row ran over every face.
The teacher went to the door and
opened it.
Mr. OQuinn was short and thick-set.
He had burly figure and burly, battered
looking features. A nose, several times
broken had destroyed all his pretenses to
a classic profile; and linen which il is q
kindly euphemism to call soiled, skin
that might be charitably described as
swarthy if it had not had to accommo-
date itself to blond coloring, q pervadine
odor of whisky and cheap tobacco put him
at once. out of the category Of the well.
groomed. But to her surprise, the teacher
discovered at the back of all this, and in q
sense apologizing for il, pair Of blue eyes
that looked, if their expression had not
been angry, as il they might be bluff and
jovial. He was holding Pat by the shoul
der, and the little teacher, translating the
boys face by means of the fathers, found
TO her surprise that his eyes might be jolly
too if they had not happened, as at thu
present moment, to be openly impudent il
expression. He had red hair and so many
freckles that further discovery in regard L
his features was virtually a work OF ex
cayation. She recognized vaguely, how
ever, that the expression that Pats mother
had once used in her presence was fairl,
descriptive. She had said that Pat wal
''the spit of his father" At the time tn,
teacher had gathered that the similarit,
was not confined to physique. She had, il
consequence, not until yesterday, bothered
hA tkAH