A Country Doctor and Selected Stories and Sketches

rn morocco-covered Bible. These were placed in an orderly row, and behind them was a small wooden box which held some broken pieces of blackboard crayon. The teacher, whom no timid new sch

ep on the step, and looked wise and old enough to have gone to school with several generations of children. It was half past three o'clock in the afternoon, and the primer class, settled into the apathy of after-recess fatigue, presented a

tudents were as inadequate, at that weary moment, to the pursuit of letters as if they had been woolly spring lambs on a sunny hillside. The teacher corrected and admonished with great patience, glancing now and then toward points of danger and insurrection, whence came a suspicious buzz of whispering from behind a desk-lid or a pair of widespread large geographies. Now and then a toiling child would rise and come down the aisle, with his forefinger firm upon a puzzling word as if it were

n full bloom, although the season was very late, and deep in the woods there were stil

your book, now; you ought to remember who went to this school when he was a little boy. You've heard folks tell about the Honorable Joseph K. Laneway? He used to be in primer just as you are now, and 't wasn't long befo

ra looked relieved, and the other children brightened up as they recognized a tale familiar to

ht to be proud that you are schoolmates of District Number Four, and can remember that the celebrated General L

t if Mr. Laneway were to come in and see them he would be mortified to death; and the members of the school committee always referred to hi

ely. The Honorable Mr. Laneway figured on the flyleaf as an extremely cross-eyed person, with strangely crooked legs and arms and a terrific expression. He was outlined with red and blue pen

ver their desks to see who might be passing. They caught a glimpse of a shiny carriage; the old dog bounded out, barking, but nothing passed the open door. The carriage had stopped;

h a smile, and knocked. Miss Marilla Hender blushed, smoothed her pretty hair anxiously with both hands, and s

he stranger asked politely, with a fine bow of deference to Miss Hende

ir?" in quite another tone from that in

The guest represented a type of person previously unknown in District Number Four. Everything about him spoke of wealth and authority. The old dog returned

a badge of office. "Primer class may now retire!" she said firmly, although the lesson was not more than half through; and the class promptly escaped to their seats, waddling and stumbling, u

in geography, sir?" asked the fair Marilla, recoveri

looking eagerly about the old school-house, and sometimes gazing steadily at the children. The lesson went on finely, and when it was finished Miss Hender asked the girl at the head of the class to name the States and Territories, which she instantly did, mispronouncing nearly all the names of the latter; then others stated boundaries and capitals, and the resources of the New England

irls, who turned pale with fright, and thought he must be crazy. When this girl gave a faint squeak Miss Hender recovered herself, and rapped twice with the ruler to restore order; then became entirely tranquil. There had been talk of replacing the hacked and worn old school-desks with patent desks and chairs; this was

ng, but she had an ardent desire to be pleasing to a person of such evident distinction. "We always tell strangers-I thought, sir, you might be gratified to know-that this is the school-house wh

er's arithmetic, and, seeing the imaginary portrait of the great General Laneway, laughed a little,-a very

ee was buzzing and bumping at the pane agai

act is this, young people," said he, in a tone that was ha

er instinctively gave him an assisting push, and once free the great soldier, statesman, and millionaire took a few steps forward to the open

have flown back to the hills and brooks of Winby and to this little old school-house. I could shut my eyes and call back the buzz of voices, and fear my teacher's frown, and feel my boyish ambitions waking and stirring in my breast. On that bench where I just sat I saw some notches that I

one of the Senators from Kansota. I say this as humbly as I say it proudly. I used to read of the valor and patriotism of the old Greeks and Romans with my youthful blood leaping along my veins, and it came to pass that my own country was in danger, and that I could help to fight her battles. Perhaps some one of these little lads has before him a more eventful life than I have lived, and is looking forward to activity and honor and the pride of fame. I wish him all the joy that I have had, all the toil that I have had, and all the bitter disappointments even; for adversity leads a man to depend upon that which is above him, and the path of glory is a lonely path, beset by temptations and a bitter sense of the weakness an

ad begun to flag in attention, but one or two faces among the elder scholars fairly shone with vital sympathy and a lovely prescience of their future. Their eyes met his as if they struck a flas

ust quivering with the attempt to make a proper reply and thank Mr. Laneway for the honor of his visit to the school, when he asked her which of the boys could be trusted to drive back his hired horse to the Four Corners. Eight boys, large and small, nearly every boy in the school, rose at once and snapped insistent fingers; but Johnny Spencer alon

ledgments to the teacher. "I fear that I have interru

said everything that her lips forgot. "My grandmother will want to see you, sir," she ventured to say. "I guess you will rem

her that I am coming to see her before I go away, and give her my love. Thank you, my dear," as Marilla offered his missing hat. "Good-

of the young voices; but most of the child

rnoon. The class in grammar may recite," said Miss

y stern with the grammar class, but every one in school had an inner