s, and for
the sake of my feelings I hope you will try to do so.

"Speaking of lessons," he went on, "I don't believe in giving long ones.
I always liked short, easy lessons myself, and I suppose you do."

In point of fact he gave the longest, hardest lessons of any teacher we
ever had! We had to put in three or four hours of hard study every
evening in order to keep up; and if we failed--

By this time some of the larger boys--Newman Darnley, Ben Murch, Absum
Glinds and Melzar Tibbetts--were smiling broadly and winking at one
another. The new master, they thought, was "dead easy."

Later in the morning, when the bell rang for the boys to come in from
their recess, Newman and many of the others pushed in at the doorway,
pell-mell, as usual. Before they were fairly inside the room the new
master, calm and smiling, stood before them. One of his long arms shot
out; he collared Newman and, with a trip of the foot, flung him on the
floor. Ben Murch, coming next, landed on top of Newman. Alfred
Batchelder, Ephraim Darnley, Absum Glinds, Melzar Tibbetts and my
cousin, Halstead, followed Ben, till with incredible suddenness nine of
the boys, all almost men-grown, were piled in a squirming heap on the
floor!

Filled with awe, we smaller boys stole in to our seats, casting
frightened glances at the teacher, who stood beaming genially at the
heap of boys on the floor.

"Lie still, lie still," he said, as some of the boys at the bottom of
the pile struggled to get out. "Lie still. I suppose you forgot that it
disturbs me to have crowding and loud trampling. Try and remember that
it disturbs me."

Turning away, he said, "The girls may now have their recess."

To this day I remember just how those terrified girls stole out from the
schoolroom. Not until they had come in from their recess and had taken
their seats did Master Brench again turn his attention to the pile of
boys. He walked round it with his face wreathed in smiles.

"Like as not that floor is hard," he remarked. "It has just come into my
mind. I'm afraid you're not wholly comfortable. Rise quietly, brush one
another, and take your seats. It grieves me to think how hard that floor
must be."

There were at that time about sixty-five pupils in our district, ranging
in size and age from little four-year-olds, just learning the alphabet,
to young men and women twenty years of age. It was impossible that so
many young persons could be gathered in a room without som