The aegis & intelligencer. [volume] (Bel Air, Md.) 1864-1923, 1907-11-22
TERMS.-S1.OO A Year II Advance.
- The -
Schoolmaster
BY HERMAN LEWIS.

9 Copyrighted, 1907, by E. C. PARCELS.
SYVYVvVVvVYYYV
There was no doubt that Farmer
Watkins was the richest man at Rob
inson's Corners. and there was no
doubt that his ninetcen-year-oldd augh-
ter was the best looking and best edu
Gated girl for five miles around. III
one way that was saying much. for the
other farmers were poor and the other
girls rather plain and uneducated, but
in another way it amounted TO very
little To an outsider The SChOolmaStcr
WAS an outsider He had come from
a distance of fifty miles to teach the
winter term at the Corners. He was
Il young man of twenty-three. slim and
pale faced. and the big boys who
were to attend the term smiled and
chuckled at sight of him. There were
half Il dozen who ''reckoned' they
could stand him on his head if he got
too fresh.
1t was Farmer Watkins who engaged
the young man. He was president Of
the school board. and what he said
went Ii was his daughter Jennie
who decided him in this. She was his
only child, and he was Il WidOwer, and
what she said also went. There were
also Il dozen other applicants, and she
threw her influence for Walter Crane
for very curious reason. He was the
only one among the applicants who
had the manners of Il gentleman and
the only one who appeared to her to
be her superior in education. The
school didn't require and had never
had Il gentleman for teacher. 1t did
not require and had never had an cdu-
Gated man.
The pupils were a rough and igno-
rant lot. attending when they pleased
and doing about as they pleased.
Sometimes the farmers sons of eight
cen, strong as horses and rough as
bears, had broken UP the school after
four weeks; sometimes they had let 1t
continue on until spring. Sometimes
the big girls" had rushed the master
and rolled him i'll Il SnOwdrift and shat
tered his dignity, and sometimes they
had been content to turn the school
room into Il sewing bee and laugh at
him as he protested.
And now they were going to try
new teacher, and Jennie Watkins had
plans to make him trouble from the
very start. She had no particular dis
like, but she wanted to see him taken
down Il peg--several pegs. He had too
much aSSurance-toO much confidence
in himself. Why, at the examination
of candidates at her fathers house,
when Mr.. Crane had been asked what
ocean surrounded Switzerland he had
smiled and replied none at all, when
she knew as we'll as could be that it
was the Atlantic. She didn't say any
thing then, but she saved it up for
some future time. She had always
spelled the word ''dissipatcd' with one
s." but he went right at it and spelled
1t with two, and even produced a spell
ing book to show that he was right.
She had always answered that the
Rocky mountains were In Kansas, and
when ne moved them farther west her
cheeks got red and she put a rod in
pickle for him. That young man was
pretending that he knew altogether too
much. He was even cOndescending
little to her father and he wasn't pay
ing half enough attention to her.
Mr. Crane secured board at the house
of a farmers widow and opened his
school. He announced that it was to
begin at a. III. Heretofore it had be-
gun at almost any hour to suit the
scholars. He made this announcement
without consulting Farmer Watkins
and without Farmer Watkins consult
ing his daughter. This was another
sign Of his independence.
He insisted on having dry instead of
green wood for the big box stove, and
he insisted OH repairs to the stove to
carry the smoke away. There was no
blackboard, and he made and painted
one Some of the benches were broken,
and he asked that they be repaired.
There We're some panes of glass need
ed in the windows, lock on the door
and new tin water pail. and before
school actually opened the teacher was
being looked upon as living curiosity.
He had gone through the neighbor-
hood and made a brief call at every
house to ascertain how many scholars
he would have and to form their ac-
Quaintance in advance. His call did
not last longer at the Watkins house
than elsewhere. He was gentlemanly,
unembarrassed and Il ready talker, and
Jennie had just begun to wonder if
she wouldn't like him after all when
he picked up some poetry she had been
writing and had left where he was GER
tain to see it and criticised her rhymes
and the spelling of three or four differ
ent words. He did worse. He Sug-
gested that she attend school, and, fail
ing in that, he would assist her of an
evening now and then. The girl re-
strained herself from killing him on
the spot, but she said TO herself that
his career would be brief and full of
tribulation. She went to her father
for sympathy, but after she had stated
her case her surprise was unbounded
to hear him reply:
"Well, mebbe you do make mistake
here and there. This eddecation is such
Il tangled up lulns ludl L can STU HoN
anybody ever spells cat twice alike.
| guess that young Teller sorter knows
what he's about"
The custom in district schools all
over America is to give Il new mas
ter week before proceeding to let
him understand who runs that school.
house The rule was followed III this
case. There were those who thought
there would be no outbreak. Miss Jen-
ME Watkins was not one of them. She
hadn't exactly conspired, but she had
had something to say to several or
the big boys and girls Just week.
and then FIVE or six gaunt and over.
grown girls rushed" the master. He
| took If as Il joke, and it was the girls
who were buried in the Snowdrifts.
| Mr. Crane said that he would dismiss
school any day for fifteen minutes to
| enable the pupils to indulge in athletic
| exercises Miss Jennie was indignant
| when one of the bedraggled girls came
| nlong and stated the result of the rush
| She went to her father about 1t, and
! after thinking it over he answered.:
"Mehhn II wasn't the most d1Fni