The Owosso times. (Owosso, Mich.) 1897-1926, 1906-06-15
man who lied was said to be killing too

Good thoughts spread with slow but
sure contagion. There We're some who
understood the teacher. His words
to their graves, and how much farther
who can say? They went over the
hills nipdeed, to other neighborhoods,
and Nje they are, still travelling, and
going now, it may be, to the remotest
corners of the earth. The big boys
talked about this matter of lying and
declared the teacher was right
"There's Tunk Hosely," said Sam
Price. "Nobody'd take his word fur
nuthin'."
"'Less he was t say he was q fool
out an out" another boy suggested.
Dunno as I'd believe him then"
said Sam, ''fer I'd begin t. think he
knew suthin'."
A little girl came in crying one day.
'What is the trouble?" said the teach
err tenderly, as he leaned over and put
his arm around her.
my father is SICK" said the child,
sobbing.
Every sick?' the teacher inquired.
For moment she could not answer,
but stood shaken with sobs.
''The doctor says he can't live" said
she brokenly.
A solemn stiffness fell in the little
child and held her close to his broad
breast a moment.
"Be brave, little girl" said he, pat
ting her head gently. doctors don't
always know. He may be better to-
morrow"
He took the child to her seat and sat
beside her and whispered a moment,
his mouth close to her ear And what
he said none knew save the girl her
self, who ceased to cry in a moment,
but never ceased to remember 1T.
A long time he sat, with his arm
around her, questioning the classes.
He seemed to have taken his place be-
tween her and the dark shadow.
Joe Beach had been making poor
Roadway in arithmetic.
'I'll come over this evening, and
Wen see what's the trouble. It's all
very easy" the teacher said.
young man that evening and filed him
with high ambition after hauling him
out of his difficulty.
But of all difficulties the teacher had
to deal with, Polly Vaughn was the
greatest. She was nearly perfect in all
her studies, but q little mischievous
and very dear to him. "Pretty"-that
is one thing all said of her there in
PARKWAY, and they said also with
bitter twang that she loved to lie abed
and read novels. To Sidney Trove the
word pretty" was inadequate. AS tc
lying abed and reading novels, he was
free to say that he believed In it,
1--WE get very indignant about slav
cry in the SOUTH" he used to say, "but
how about slavery on the northern
farms? l know people who rise at
cockcrow and strain their sinews in
heavy toll the livelong day and spend
the Sabbath trembling in the lonely
shadow of the Valley of Death.
know a man who whipped his boy till
- &e bled because he ran away to go
fishing. It's all slavery, pure and sim
ple'
''In the sweat of thy face shalt thou
eat bread till thou return unto the
ground" said Ezra Tower.
eff God said it, he made slaves of us
ALL" said young Trove. when 1 look
around here and see people wasted to
the bone with sweat and toll, too weary
often to eat the bread they have earn
ed; when l see their children dying of
consumption from excess of labor and
pork fat, 1 forget the slaves Of man
and think only Of these wretched slaves
of God"
But Polly was not of them the teach
er pitied She was a bit disconnected
but surely she was cheerful and well
fed. God gave her beauty, and the
widow saw it and put her own strength
between the curse and the child. Polly
had her task every day, but Polly had
her way also in too many things and
became a bit selfish, as might have
been expected. But there was some
thing very sweet and fine about Polly.
They were plain clothes she wore, but
nobody save herself and mother gave
them any thought. Who, seeing her
big, laughing eyes, her finely modelled
face, with cheeks pink and dimpled,
her shapely, white teeth, her mass Of
dark hair, browning a form tall and
straight as an arrow, could see any
thing but the merry hearted Polly?
miss Vaughn, you will please re-
main q few moments after school,
said the teacher one day near o'clock.
Twice she had been caught whispering
that day with the young girl who sat
behind her. Trove had looked down,
stroking his little mustache thought
fully, and made no remark. The girl
had gone to work, then, her cheeks red
with embarrassment.
'T wish you'd do me favor, Miss
Polly" said the teacher when they
were alone.
She blushed deeply and sat looking
down as she fused with her handker-
chief. She was bit frightened by the
serious air of that big young man.
ut isn't much" he went on. I'D
like you to help me teach q little. To
morrow morning / shall make q map
on the blackboard, and while 1 am
doing 1t I'd like you to conduct the
school. When you have finished with