CHAPTER XVI

THE BLOWING UP OF THE BRIDGE

"Say, this is something fierce, Dave!"

"I agree with you, Roger. I don't see how we are going to do such a long lesson."

"Old Haskers is getting worse and worse," growled Phil. "I think we ought to report it to Doctor Clay."

"Just what I think," came from Ben. "He keeps piling it on harder and harder. I think he is trying to break us."

"Break us?" queried our hero, looking up from his book.

"Yes, make us miss entirely, you know."

"Why should he want us to do that?" asked Roger.

"Then we wouldn't be able to graduate this coming June."

"Would he be mean enough to do that?" asked Dave.

"I think he would be mean enough for anything," responded Phil. "Oh, I am not going to stand it!" he cried.

The boys had just come upstairs, after an extra hard session in their Latin class. All were aroused over the treatment received at the hands of Job Haskers. He had been harsh and dictatorial to the last degree, and several times it had looked as if there might be an outbreak.

The next day the outbreak came. Phil sprang up in class and denounced the unreasonable teacher, and Ben followed. Then Dave and Roger took a hand, and so did Buster and several others.

"Sit down! Sit down!" cried Job Haskers, growing white in the face. "Sit down, and keep quiet."

"I won't keep quiet," answered the shipowner's son. "You are treating us unfairly, Mr. Haskers, and I won't stand for it." What are the answers to this following set of questions: 1. Where did the boys go?
2. Which class had they just had?
3. With which teacher?
4. Was he nice?
5. Who stood up?
6. What did he say?
7. Who went next?
8. Whose father owns a ship?
9. When do they graduate?
10. Who could they tell about the teacher's conduct?
11. Which chapter is this?
12. And its title?
Answer: 1. Upstairs
2. Latin
3. Job Haskers
4. He was harsh and dictorial
5. Phil
6. Sit down
7. Ben
8. the shipowner's son
9. in June
10. Doctor Clay
11. 16
12. THE BLOWING UP OF THE BRIDGE

Njideka Akunyili started college planning to be a doctor, but left as an artist and is now billed as one of New York's most promising new talents.

The 29-year-old Nigerian-born artist has just completed a year-long residence with the prestigious Studio Harlem in New York.

All five of her works sold in the first half hour of this year's Art Basel, the world's top fair for modern and contemporary art and African style magazine Arise described her as "fast becoming the art world's newest star."

Akunyili was born and brought up in the small town of New Haven in Enugu, Nigeria, and moved to the United States for college at the age of 16.

Her work, a combination of drawing, painting, printmaking and collage, combines Nigerian and American culture.

"Nigeria is almost a third character in my work," she said. "A lot of my work is about investigating my love for Nigeria and my life in America.

"I met my husband at college and there was some anxiety that if I married outside my culture I would lose my identity, but there is a space in my work where these things come together."

Akunyili is hoping to help change attitudes to art in Nigeria, where she said appreciation is growing slowly.

"If I hadn't left Nigeria, I wouldn't be an artist, I would be a doctor," she said. "When I told my parents I wanted to be an artist, they couldn't get their heads around why an educated person who went to college in America would want to be an artist. What are the answers to this following set of questions: 1. Does Akunyili love Nigeria?
2. What character is it in her work?
3. How old was she when she moved to the United States?
4. What prompted her to come to the States?
5. Was she born and brought up in a huge city?
6. What was the name of the small town she grew up in?
7. What province is that in?
8. What country?
9. Does her work combine Japanese and South American culture?
10. What about painting?
11. What did she plan on becoming when she went to college?
Answer: 1. Yes
2. Almost a third character
3. 16
4. For college
5. No
6. New Haven
7. Enugu
8. Nigeria
9. No
10. It combines Nigerian and American culture
11. An artist

CHAPTER XXIV.

PEGGY HAS REVENGE.

Joe Wegg made a rapid recovery, his strength returning under the influence of pleasant surroundings and frequent visits from Ethel and Uncle John's three nieces. Not a word was hinted to either the invalid or the school teacher regarding the inquiries Mr. Merrick was making about the deed to the Bogue timber lands, which, if found, would make the young couple independent. Joe was planning to exploit a new patent as soon as he could earn enough to get it introduced, and Ethel exhibited a sublime confidence in the boy's ability that rendered all question of money insignificant.

Joe's sudden appearance in the land of his birth and his generally smashed up condition were a nine days' wonder in Millville. The gossips wanted to know all the whys and wherefores, but the boy kept his room in the hotel, or only walked out when accompanied by Ethel or one of the three nieces. Sometimes they took him to ride, as he grew better, and the fact that Joe "were hand an' glove wi' the nabobs" lent him a distinction he had never before possessed.

McNutt, always busy over somebody else's affairs, was very curious to know what had caused the accident Joe had suffered. Notwithstanding the little affair of the letter, in which he had not appeared with especial credit, Peggy made an effort to interview the young man that resulted in his complete discomfiture. But that did not deter him from indulging in various vivid speculations about Joe Wegg, which the simple villagers listened to with attention. For one thing, he confided to "the boys" at the store that, in his opinion, the man who had murdered Cap'n Wegg had tried to murder his son also, and it wasn't likely Joe could manage to escape him a second time. Another tale evolved from Peggy's fertile imagination was that Joe, being about to starve to death in the city, had turned burglar and been shot in the arm in an attempt at housebreaking. What are the answers to this following set of questions: 1. Who felt better quickly?
2. What helped?
3. What did he want to do?
4. Why?
5. Who thought he could do it?
6. Where did he go?
7. What did he do?
8. What else?
9. What did he do when he was stronger?
10. What did that give him?
Answer:
1. Joe Wegg
2. pleasant surroundings and frequent visits
3. exploit a new patent
4. make the young couple independent
5. Ethel
6. Millville
7. kept to his room
8. walked out when accompanied
9. rode
10. a distinction