Page:Dream Life - Mitchell - 1899? Altemus.djvu/58

 at the sides, and upon the top, to conceal (as you think later in life) his diminutive height; and he steps very springily around behind the benches, glancing now and then at the books,—cautioning one scholar about his dogs-ears, and startling another from a: doze, by a very loud and odious snap of his forefinger upon the boy's head.

At other times, he sticks a hand in the armlet of his waistcoat: he brandishes in the other a thickish bit of smooth cherrywood,—sometimes dressing his hair withal; and again, giving his head a slight scratch behind the ear, while he takes occasion at the same time, for an oblique glance at a fat boy in the corner, who is reaching down from his seat after a little paper pellet, that has just been discharged at him from some unknown quarter. The master steals very cautiously and quickly to the rear of the stooping boy,—dreadfully exposed by his unfortunate position,—and inflicts a stinging blow. A weak-eyed little scholar on the next bench ventures a modest titter; at which the assistant makes a significant motion with his ruler—on the seat, as it were, of an imaginary pair of pantaloons,—which renders the weak-eyed boy on a sudden, very insensible to the recent joke. You, meantime, profess to be very much engrossed with your grammar—turned up: