e--an'--an'--wouldn't I look fine teachin' school?" Jake Ransom
exclaimed, but the bully melted out of him by way of the fact that she had
heard good reports of him. He would not smoke this level-eyed girl out of
the schoolhouse, nor sprinkle the floor with cayenne, as was the usual
proceeding of the country bumpkin who failed to admire his teacher. Jake
Ransom was not really a bully; he was a shy boy who had been domineered
over by a young popinjay of a teacher who had never taught school before
and who had himself many lessons to learn in life's school. The boy
brought out his slate, spit on its grimy surface and wiped it with his
sleeve. One of the buttons on his cuff squeaked as he wiped it across, and
the children had something tangible to laugh at. Elizabeth was wise enough
to take no notice of that laugh.

Some one has said that experience is not as to duration but as to
intensity, and it was Elizabeth's fate to live at great pressure in every
important stage of her life. But for the fact that she had made a friend
of Jake Ransom that month's events would have had a different story. Sadie
Crane took exceptions to every move made and every mandate issued from the
teacher's desk. The spirit of insubordination to which the entire school
had been subjected that winter made good soil for Sadie's tares. For the
most part the dissatisfaction was a subtle thing, an undercurrent of which
Elizabeth was aware, but upon which she could lay no finger of rebuke, but
at times it was more traceable, and then, to the young teacher's surprise,
Jake Ransom had ways of dealing with the offenders outside of school
hours. Sadie's tongue was sharp and she was accustomed to a wholesome
attitude of fear among the scholars, but her first thrusts at Jake had
aroused a demon of which she had little dreamed. Jake had no foolish pride
and would admit his faults so guilelessly that her satire fell to the
ground. He was an entirely new sort to the spiteful child. The terrible
advantage the person who will admit his faults cheerfully has over the one
who has pride and evades was never more manifest. Jake Ransom pointed out
to a credulous following the causes of Sadie's disaffection, and left the
envious child in such a state of futile rage that she was ready to burst
with her ill-directed fury. In the end the month's work had to be granted
the tribute of success, and the term closed with a distinct triumph for
Elizabeth and the experience of a who