The aegis & intelligencer. [volume] (Bel Air, Md.) 1864-1923, 1907-11-22

tedest thing that ever happened, but
| can't see where it's going to do any
hurt. If the gals begun it, then it
wasn't his fault"
That night the schoOlmaster dropped
in at RObinson's to see about having
some clothes pegs put up. Miss Jennie
was ready for him. There were three
or four others present and at proper
moment she asked him to demonstrate
a certain example in mathematics.
Excuse me-" he smilingly replied,
but you pronounce the word as de
mon-strate.' 1t is demonstrate"
Il beg your pardon"
"And beg yours"
4 pocket dictionary settled the dis
pute i'll the teachers favor, and then
and there the husky son of a farmer,
who was present. whispered 10 the
cha grined girl that he'd lick the teach
er before Saturday came again, and
she didn't say a word against it.
Two or three days later it became
known all over the neighbOrhood that
it was Mr.. Cranes last week. He was
to be licked out of the neighborh0od.
II he heard, he went his way the same
as before. Friday afternoon was the
time appointed, and Will Hayes was
the champion selected. When school
was called again after dinner there
were several visitors. and on the
fences outside sat dozen farmers
Instead of calling up the class in geog
raphy, the teacher took from his desk
a pair of boxing gloves and said:
There are several young men here
who would probably like to learn the
art of boxing. The man who is man
stands up squarely instead of roughing
it. Will, wouldn't you like to step out
doors and put these on with me?'
Will said he would That's what he
was aching to do. Ten minutes later
he was aching to get the gloves off.
lie had been jolted and Jared and
knocked head over heels until he
thought his head was as big as a bar
rel. 1t had all been done in a good
naturcd way, but beneath it he read
the lesson, and that night he said to
one of his cronies:
Say, if that Teller should turn him
self loose once we'd be little lambs
'longSide of him. One of his swats
would knock a barn off its underpin-
ninGs."
That put Il quietuS on any further
thoughts of Instruction, and Miss
Jenny said to herself that she hated
the young man from the depths of her
heart. lie called and corrected her
grammar. and her hate was intensified.
lie called and found fault because her
verses made sorrow rhyme with
tailor" and she stamped her foot.
The girls wouldn't try another rush,
and the boys refused to tackle him,
while her father said that things were
going better than ever before. In this
emergency she turned to herself. There
was small lake on which the teacher
used to skate for an hour in the even.
ing. Sometimes he had company and
sometimes he was alone The family
Ak and the family daughter might have
been missed just at dusk one evening.
Later on the family daughter might
have been asked the cause of her rest
lesSneSs. She was up and down all
over the house, and she finally put on
her hood and cloak and went out into
the night. 1t was she with a long pole
who pulled the teacher out of the air
hole into which he had skated and
was in danger of drowning. 1t was she
who wrapped her cloak around his
shivering form as men carried him to
her fathers house. 1t was she who
acted as nurse for the next three days,
and it was she who hid her face in her
hands and said:
I'm an awful wicked girl. l cut that
air hole in the lake, hoping you would
skate into it and be drowned"
But l wasn't, you see" replied
Crane.
100000, and I'm so glad"'
"And so am l. l wanted something
to happen so that | could tell you-tell
you-So that could
And he dem on-strated what he
meant, and she accepted the pronuncia-
ton of the word without appealing to
the dictionary.