the teacher is incessantly engaged.

9. In some districts in New England, the young teacher will find one or
more boys, generally among the larger ones, who will come to the school
with the express determination to make a difficulty if they can. The
best way is generally to face these individuals at once, in the most
direct and open manner, and, at the same time, with perfect good humor,
and kindness of feeling and deportment towards them personally. An
example or two will best illustrate what I mean.

A teacher heard a rapping noise repeatedly, one day, just after he had
commenced his labors, under such circumstances as to lead him to suppose
it was designed. He did not appear to notice it, but remained after
school until the scholars had all gone, and then made a thorough
examination. He found at length a broken place in the plastering, where
a _lath_ was loose, and a string was tied to the end of it, and thence
carried along the wall under the benches, to the seat of a mischievous
boy, and fastened to a nail. By pulling the string he could spring the
lath, and then let it snap back to its place. He left every thing as it
was, and the next day while engaged in a lesson, he heard the noise
again.

He rose from his seat.

The scholars all looked up from their books.

"Did you hear that noise?" said he.

"Yes sir."

"Do you know what it is?"

"No sir."

"Very well, I only wanted to call your attention to it. I may perhaps
speak of it again, by and by."

He then resumed his exercise as if nothing had happened. The guilty boy
was agitated and confused, and was utterly at a loss to know what to do.
What could the teacher mean? Had he discovered the trick?--and if so
what _was_ he going to do?

He grew more and more uneasy, and resolved that, at all events, it was
best for him to retreat. Accordingly, at the next recess, as the teacher
had anticipated, he went slyly to the lath, cut the string, then
returned to his seat, and drew the line in, rolled it up, and put it in
his pocket. The teacher, who was secretly watching him, observed the
whole manoeuvre.

At the close of the school, when the books were laid aside, and all was
silence, he treated the affair thus.

"Do you remember the noise to which I called your attention early this
afternoon?

"Yes, sir."

"I will explain it to you now. One of the boys tied a string to a loose
lath in the side of the room, and then having the end of it at his seat,
he