The Montgomery advertiser., 1905-06-23
THE BANNER SCHOLAR.
BY F. H. LANCASTER. (Copyright. 1905, by Daily Story Pub.
 

(Copyright, 1905, by Daily story Pup Company.)
 Ha. It was not Layinia Crevecour fault that she loved Donician Nicaise nor that she was a blond, nor that % sne was dull of wit Ha! So dull of WI that had she lived in Louisiana hei parents would have said rrankly Una, i'she had no head" and kept her a' home to help with the washing in. stead of sending her to school to bt
 a by-word for stupidity; but she was
 born in Mississippi, so she went tc
 And feii in love? But yes! Love
 comes to all things from violets tc vultures. Why should it not come te
 poor Lavina Creyecour. with ner paos o comicaily out of place in that squad of creole children?
 And she loved Donician Nicaise How
 could she help itY He ,s so ,,srry nappy mis-. 2.
 ehief. nSn9s0fTit 1t made her glad, glad. jus, to see him come swinging up the hill And when he called her white head
 to tease her, she laughed. ,,,S she in, neVe, e, the other girls did. But no-thost placid blue eyes of hers could not have been coaxed to flash. nor that ever. smiling lip to curl It .,s was tas,,yse true wna' spirit" Her teacher with sorrowful irony dubbed Lavina in her heart the banner scholar. Ha! that tedSHe. hau taught long time Mais oui! she knew a thing or two. But what did sur prise-fairly amaze--her was the girl submissiveness. Instead of sullen re- bellion, here was evinced only pathetic desire to please-patience un- der nroyocation The teachers psy- chology stirred within her. Psycho- logy! Like 1t took anything more than common sense to say that wnen @ by. and when she's happy It's because fla! But 1t took all the teachers com mon sense to get at the real names be- hind the nick-names: ana 10 get at lne spelling behind the pronunciation. Registering results. approximating ages where reliable data was not forth coming, divining which scholars had brought old easy he9orn e3oKs an6 .6ey wbeS hea ones had brought new hard books that they would not be prepared to enter for two years to come. getting new the teacher had enough to do. Hard work? Yes, ,(and plepty of It. Fifty names on the roll. Some studying the big geography, some the alphabet. leaking when 1t raIned and the goats pumping around under the schooihouse. No wonder teacher had no time to see with her eyes and hear with her ears when the big girls came In on Mon day morning with the request that they might make speeches" next Friday afternoon after school, ,,,
 Why, yes," she said, "Fll be glad to hear them" and thought no more about 1t until tho banner scholar. very 'watery in the eyes and very red In the face, slipped to her desk at recess and asked if she too might make speech" next Friday. Teacher said kindly that she would be glad indeed to have Lavinia join the speech-mak- CTS; but that evening she took half hour off to think. Those girls are up to some mischief" was the con ciusIon reached promptly. And, af- ter n pause my poor banner scholar is to be the victim. And she, poor, patient, sweettempered soul IS try ing to get even with them at their own game. What nerve! Fade away Thermopylae But what IS t all about?"
 Common sense or psychology-which will you have? But 1t was ten minutes before teacher saw. or seemed to see, red rose in Lavinia's straw -colored hair Where had she seen that rose earlier in the day? But, yes! Doni- elan Nicaise had brought 1t to school, swinging 1t by the long stem. Donlclan. Had he given 1t to-was that why?
 Donician! Of course he was fa- vorite with all the girls. He was the ban1srmest And he's playing my noor banner school against their CO., anetrv What a shame! Making a lash of her to whip their vanity. The OVft But why? Tn her own world the teacher knew both men and women who had been used as lashes, and like flashes tossed aside when the fiagella-