master, the very image of meekness and simplicity, vainly
attempting 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--eating apples under the master's eye, pinching each other in
sport or malice, and cutting their autographs in the very legs of his
desk. The puzzled dunce, who stood beside it to say his lesson out of
book, looked no longer at the ceiling for forgotten words, but drew
closer to the master's elbow and boldly cast his eyes upon the page.
If the master did chance to rouse himself and seem alive to what was
going on, the noise subsided for a moment, and no eyes 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.

4. 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
sat fanning his flushed face with a spelling-book wishing himself a
whale, or a fly, or anything but a boy at school on that hot, broiling
day!

5. Heat! Ask that other boy, whose seat being nearest 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 were ever such a day
as that, when even the bees were diving deep down into the cups of
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 one to shut one's eyes
and go to sleep; and was this a time to be poring over musty books in
a dark room, slighted by the very sun itself? Monstrous!

6. The lessons over, writing-time began; and there being but one desk
and that the master's, each boy sat at it in turn and laboured at his
crooked copy, wh