three miles from this miserable place. You'll have to go
about fifteen miles."

"How do you know?"

"Why, an old fellow from a neighborhood about that far away came out
here the other day and sent off a dispatch, telling some man off, I
don't remember where, to send a teacher out there."

"And one might have come by this time," I suggested, with a sense of
fear.

"No, you are the only one that has put in an appearance, and the only
one that is likely to come. I understand that they don't treat teachers
very well out there."

"How so?"

"The boys have a habit of ducking them in the creek, I hear."

"Oh, is that all? Be fun for me."

"You won't think so after you see those roosters. Let me see. Take the
Purdy road out there, and go straight ahead to the east, and when you
think you have gone about fifteen miles, ask for the house of Lim
Jucklin. The last teacher, I understand, boarded at his house."

"You appear to know a good deal about it."

"Well, the truth of it is, I do, for the last teacher came and went this
way. And he told me like this: 'The thing opened up all right, plenty of
rags, but that evening some of the young fellows came to me and said
that unless I brought some sort of treat the next morning they would put
me in the creek; said that they hated to do it, but that time-honored
customs must be observed. I didn't bring any treat and I went into the
creek. Then I left.' Yes, that's what he said, and I concluded that as
for me I would rather be here. It isn't so lively, but it is a good deal
dryer. But you can't get there to-night. Better take a shake-down here
with me till morning, and then you may catch some farmer going that way
with a wagon."

I thanked him for this courtesy, and readily accepted it. And the next
morning, with my trunk on my shoulder, I set out upon what I conceived
to be my career in life.

CHAPTER II.

The month was April, and the day was blithe, with no blotch in the sky.
The country was rough, the road was pebbly in the bottoms and flinty on
the hills, but there was a leaping joy everywhere; in the woods where
the blue-jays were shouting, down the branch where the woodpecker tapped
in an oak tree's sounding board. It must have been a low-hanging
ambition to be thrilled with the prospect of teaching school, or was it
buoyant health that made me happy? I eased down my trunk, and boyishly
threw stones away off into an echoing hollow. A rabbit ran out into the
r