St. Tammany farmer., 1922-02-04

cHAPTER=ii

and all the other pupils in the large
room Of the give B. Grade" sang re-
peatedly fractions Of what they enun-
cfated as ''The Star Span-guh-hulled
Banner; but afterward he relapsed
into the low spirits and animosity nat
ural to anybody during enforced con-
f1nement under instruction No allevia-
tion was accomplished by an invaders
temporary usurpation Of the teachers
PLATFORM brisk and unsynpathetical-
ly cheerful young woman mounting
thereon to 'teach German
For a long time mathematics and
German had been about. equally re-
pulsive to Ramsey, who found himself
daily in the compulsory presence Of
both; but he was gradually coming to
regard German with the greater hor-
ror, because, after months Of patient
mental resistance, he at last began to
comprehend that the German language
has sixteen special and particular ways
of using the German article CORE
spending to that flexible bit Of word
so easily managed in English-the
What in the world was the use Of
| having sixteen ways Of doing thing
| that could just as well be done in one?
| If the Germans had contented them
selves with insisting upon sixteen use
| less variations for infrequent words,
such as hippopotamus, for instance,
Ramsey might have thought the affair
| unreasonable but not necessarily vi
| cfous-it1 would be easy enough to
| avoid talking about a hlppopotamus
| if he ever had to go to Germany. But
| the fact that the Germans picked out
| and the and many other little words
In use all the time, and gave every one
Of them sixteen forms, and expected
Ramsey Nfilholland to learn this dizzy
ing uselessness down to the last
crotchety detail with "When to employ
Which" as d nausea to prepare for the
| final convulsion when one didn't use
Which, because 1t was an Exception"
there was fashion Of making easy
| matters hard that was merely hellish.
The teacher was strict but enthu-
| siastic; she told the children, over and
over, that the German was a beautiful
| language and her face always had
glow when she said this. At such
times the children looked patient; they
supposed it must be so, because she
was an adult and their teacher; and
| they believed her with the same man
! ner Of believing which those Of them
| who went to Sunday school used there
when the Sunday school teachers were
| pushed into explanation of various
matters set forth in the Old Testa-
ment, or gave reckless descriptions Of
heaven. That Is to say, the children
! did not challenge or deny; already
! they had been driven into habits Of
resignation and were passing out of
the age when childhood Is able to re-
! ject adult nonsense.
Ramsey Milholland did not know
whether the English language was
beautiful or not; he never thought
about it. Moreover, though his deeper
|~inwards hated German" he liked his
German teacher, and 1t was pleasant
to look at her. when that glow came
upon her face.
Sometimes, too, there were moments
Of relaxation In her class, when she
would stop the lesson and tell the
children about Germany: Whata beau
tiful, good country 1t was, so trim and
orderly, with such pleasant customs
and all the people sensible, energetic
and healthy There was "Afusic' again
in the German class, which was an
other alienation; though 1t was the
same old "Star Spangled Banner" over
again. Ramsey was tired of the song
and tired Of "My Country 'Tis of
Thee; they were bores, but it was
amusing to sing them In German. In
German they sounded "sort O. funny"
so he didn't mind this bit of the days
work
Half an hour later there arrived his
supreme trial Of this particular morn
| ing. Arithmetic then being the order
of business before the house, he was
sent alone to the blackboard, supposed
ly to make lucid the proper reply to
a fatal conundrum in decimals, and
under the glare and focus Of the
| whole room he breathed heavily and
! ftched everywhere; his brain at once
| became sheer hash. He consumed as
much time as possible in getting the
terms Of the problem stated in chalk;
| then. affecting to be critical of his own
handiwork, erased what he had dome
| and carefully wrote ii again. Afte,
that be erased half Of it, slowly re-
traced figures, and stepped back as if
| to see whether perspective improved
their appearance. Again he lifted the
| eraser.
Ramsey Milholland!" !"
"Ma am? ~
"Put down that eraser!"
"Yes'm. I just thought"
| Sharply hidden to get forward with
his task, he explained in feeble voice
that he had first to tie a shoestring
and stopped to do so, but was not per-
mitted. Miss Ridgely tried to stimu-
/ late him with hints and suggestion;
found him, so far as decimals went,
mere protoplasm, and, wondering how
SO helpless a thing could live, sum
moped to the board little Dora Yocum,
the star of@the class, whereupon Ram
sey moved toward his seat
"Stand still, Ramsey! You stay
right where you are and try to learn
something from the way Dora does