Year: 1869

deed


Well, little Sarah did her prettiestuBut
the old man-there it is again-kissed her,
and stroked her face, and said he had Civ
en- the school half-holiday, and he
thought his duties to the parents forbade


his giving any more. And when little
Sarah tried again, all he would say was,
that, it we would get up early and be
dressed when the first bell rang, we wemight
ego in " to school ateight instead of niue.
Then school could be done at twelve
Miss Tryphosa might>~do as she, chose
about dinner, but, if she chose, we might
be off before one. This was something
and we made the most of it.
I Still we wished we could make a little
more time. And as it was ordered, wise
ly, | have no doubt, though, as l said, l
do not pretend to justify the use we made
OF the order,--as twas ordered, that
very Tuesday afternoon, when we were
all at work in the school-room, Brereton-
that Southern boy, you know-was recit-
ing in "Scientifc Dialogues to the Par
son. think it must have been ".Scienti-
fic Dialogues" but / am not sure. He
4 was reciting about the pendulum. The old
man told him about Galileo's chandelier, I
remember.


| w oLlLA biiCAS i saw INC WuOlS
thing in my mind as see it now. Single
ton saw it too.7 He was hearing some lit
tie boys in Liber Primus, but he turned
round gravely, and looked me full in the
face. looked at him and nodded Nor
from that day to this have l ever had TO
discuss the detajls.of the matter with him.
Only he and did three things in conse-a
| quence of that stare and that noe, he
did two and | did one


/ What he did was to go into the
dominie's bedroom, when he went up
stairs after tea, take his wateh-key from.
the pin it hung on, and put 1t into his
second bureau drawer under his woolen
socks Then he went across into Miss
| Tryphosa's room, and hung herW watch key
on tack behind her looking-glass. He
thought she would not look there, and, as
it happened, she never did. Those were
in the early days. School-boys had no
watches then. | do not think they even
wrote home for them. If they did, the
watches did not come.


do not recollect that George then told
me he did this; but l knew he did, be-
cause I knew he could. | had no fear
whatever, when | went to bed that night,
that the doctor would wind up his watch,
or Miss Tryphosa hers Asit happened, !,
neither of them did, Each asked the
other for key, the master tried the old
gold key which hung at his fob, which
had been worn out by the grandfather
when he was before Quebec with Amherst
Both of them said it was very careless in
Chloe, and both of them went to bed.


We all got up early the next day, as we
had promised But before breakfast I did.
not go near the ciock-yous need not
charge that on me- [ hurried the others
got them to breakfast ate my own
speedily. Then I did go into the school,
room ten minutes before the crowd. /
locked both doors and drew down the
paper-hanging curtain. Itook brad-awl
out of my pocket, and unscrewed the
pendulum from the bottom of the rod L
left it in the bottom of the box. / took a.
horseshoe from my pocket and lashed it
tight with packthread about quarter way
down the rod-perhaps two inches above
the quarter. put in "a nail after it was
tied, twisted the string round it twice-and
rammed the point into the knot. Then l
started the pendulum again-found to my
delight that it was very good natured, and
ticked twice as fast as ever heard it-I
shut and locked the clock door, rolled up
the pape r-hanging curtain and unlocked
the school doors.


suppose was engaged three minutes
in these affairs. cannot tell, because the
clock had stopped, and, when we are
interrupted. Nobody came into that
school-room before it was time. In the
Boston schools now they hire the scholars
to be .unpunctual, giving them extra
credits if they arrive five minutes too
early. If they knew, as well as do, what
nuisances people are who come before the
time fixed for their arrival, they would not
bribe the children in that direction. Ger
tainly dear old Parson Whipple did not.
We went in when the clock struck, and
we went out when it struck He had no
idea of improving on what was exactly
right. tttEIttFf dill


So when the clock struck eight we
rushed IN. Reverent. silence at prayers
suppose my conscience pricked me, |
have very little doubt it did-butI don'tre-
member it at all. Little boys called up in
Latin grammar. Luckily they were all
well up, and gabbled off their lesson. in
fine style:


"Amussis, mason's rule. E
Buris, the beam of a plough" &c, &c.


The lesson went down-one exception
to each boy-without one halt; the master
nodded pleasure, and passed up to the
first boy again; down it went again, and
down again. These were bright little
fellows; not one mistake-perfect credits
all. SCR III 74f f77 -


1T is very good lesson,n said the dear
old soul. "It's a pleasure to hear boys
when they recite so we'll. This will give
us little time for me to show you" q


What he was going to show them l do
not know. He turned round as he said
"time," and saw to his amazement that
the clock pointed to $50. He put his
hand to his watch unconsciously, and half
smiled when he saw that it had run down.


"No matter" said he, 1--WE are later
thar thought. Seats-algebra boys"


So we took our places, and very much
the same thing followed. Singleton and l
were sent to the black boards, for the dear
old man was in advance of the age in
those matters-and we did our very quick
est. But Hackmatack had not our motive,
and perhaps did not understand the
algebra so well, so that he stumbled and
made a long business of it, and so did the
boy who was next to him. That boy was
still on the rack, too much puzzled to see
what Singleton meant. by holding up
three fingers of one hand and one Of the
other, when the Parson sait, /" 1 cannot
spend all the morning on you; sit down,
sir" sent another boy to the board to exs
plain my work, looked at the clock, and
was this time fairly surprised to see that
twas already half past nine He seized
| the opportunity for a Parthian lesson to