ting
to fix his mind upon the duties of the day, and to forget his little sick
friend. But the tedium of his office reminded him more strongly of the
willing scholar, and his thoughts were rambling from his pupils--it was
plain.

None knew this better than the idlest boys, who, growing bolder with
impunity, waxed louder and more daring; playing "odd or even" under the
master's eye; eating apples openly and without rebuke; pinching each other
in sport or malice, without the least reserve; and cutting their initials
in the very legs of his desk. The puzzled dunce, who stood beside it to
say his lesson "off the book," looked no longer at the ceiling for
forgotten words, but drew closer to the master's elbow, and boldly cast
his eye upon the page; the wag of the little troop squinted and made
grimaces (at the smallest boy, of course), holding no book before his
face, and his approving companions knew no constraint in their delight. If
the master did chance to rouse himself, and seem alive to what was going
on, the noise subsided for a moment, and no eye met his but wore a
studious and deeply humble look; but the instant he relapsed again, it
broke out afresh, and ten times louder than before.

Oh! how some of those idle fellows longed to be outside, and how they
looked at the open door and window, as if they half meditated rushing
violently out, plunging into the woods, and being wild boys and savages
from that time forth. What rebellious thoughts of the cool river, and some
shady bathing place, beneath willow trees with branches dipping in the
water, kept tempting and urging that sturdy boy, who, with his shirt
collar unbuttoned, and flung back as far as it could go, sat fanning his
flushed face with a spelling book, wishing himself a whale, or a minnow,
or a fly, or anything but a boy at school, on that hot, broiling day.

Heat! ask that other boy, whose seat being nearest to the door, gave him
opportunities of gliding out into the garden, and driving his companions
to madness, by dipping his face into the bucket of the well, and then
rolling on the grass,--ask him if there was ever such a day as that, when
even the bees were diving deep down into the cups of the flowers, and
stopping there, as if they had made up their minds to retire from
business, and be manufacturers of honey no more. The day was made for
laziness, and lying on one's back in green places, and staring at the sky,
till its brightness forced the gazer