America on the blackboard, to exercise the geography class upon. But he
made a sad business of it with his unsteady hand, and a smothered titter
rippled over the house. He knew what the matter was, and set himself to
right it. He sponged out lines and remade them; but he only distorted
them more than ever, and the tittering was more pronounced. He threw his
entire attention upon his work, now, as if determined not to be put down
by the mirth. He felt that all eyes were fastened upon him; he imagined
he was succeeding, and yet the tittering continued; it even manifestly
increased. And well it might. There was a garret above, pierced with
a scuttle over his head; and down through this scuttle came a cat,
suspended around the haunches by a string; she had a rag tied about
her head and jaws to keep her from mewing; as she slowly descended she
curved upward and clawed at the string, she swung downward and clawed
at the intangible air. The tittering rose higher and higher the cat was
within six inches of the absorbed teacher s head down, down, a little
lower, and she grabbed his wig with her desperate claws, clung to it,
and was snatched up into the garret in an instant with her trophy still
in her possession! And how the light did blaze abroad from the master s
bald pate for the signpainter s boy had _gilded_ it!
That broke up the meeting. The boys were avenged. Vacation had come.
[*] NOTE: The pretended compositions quoted in this chapter are taken
without alteration from a volume entitled Prose and Poetry, by a
Western Lady but they are exactly and precisely after the schoolgirl
pattern, and hence are much happier than any mere imitations could be.
CHAPTER XXII
Tom joined the new order of Cadets of Temperance, being attracted by the
showy character of their regalia. He promised to abstain from smoking,
chewing, and profanity as long as he remained a member. Now he found out
a new thing namely, that to promise not to do a thing is the surest way
in the world to make a body want to go and do that very thing. Tom soon
found himself tormented with a desire to drink and swear; the desire
grew to be so intense that nothing but the hope of a chance to display
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