.

"My notion is," said Wendel the mason, "the village is a deal too bad
at first and a deal too good afterward. I don't see how things can
change so in one and the same place."

"What puts me out most," said Buchmaier, "is that they can't get
through without even making out what sort of clothes people shall wear
and what they sha'n't. That's just like the cruelty-to-animals
societies. These things must be left to every man's own taste and
fancy. And once I could hardly help laughing when Oswald, in his
uniform and with the feathers on his hat, embraced the thirty-two men
one by one: there's a job for you!"

The teacher called to mind that the book had been written years ago,
when people were far more ceremonious than at present. He adverted to
the fine moral of the book and the many fine passages it contained. He
showed how great is the use of position, money, dress, and other
externals to those who desire to carry out good intentions among men,
and concluded by saying that it was unjust to make such incidental
trifles an excuse for condemning the whole.

"No doubt about that," said Buchmaier. "If I could see the man that
wrote that book, I'd take off my hat rather than to the king himself,
and say, 'You're a good fellow, and mean well by us.' That's my
notion."

When they rose to go, Thaddie nudged Mat, and said, in a whisper,
"Come! out with it now, or they'll all run away."

"What do you say, men," began Mat, "to getting the teacher to read to
us an evening or two every week?"

"Why, that would be first-rate," cried all.

"I'm quite ready," said the teacher. "Let's have a meeting to-morrow
night, say in the school-room. Meantime, all can think about the
society, and make proposals."

"Yes, that's right," said every one: and they parted in great
good-humor.

The meeting, which was held next day, was stormy. The teacher, with
Buchmaier's assistance, had prepared a draft of a constitution. It was
read paragraph by paragraph, with a long pause after each. At every
pause there was a buzz of conversation; but when the talkers were
requested to express their opinions publicly they suddenly ceased. None
but Mat, Hansgeorge, Kilian, and Wendel could be induced to address the
whole company. A general tempest was provoked by the paragraph,--

"During the continuance of the reading-nights no smoking shall be
permitted."

There was no end to the angry mutterings, until Buchmaier, nodding to
the teacher, as if to