the fact that this
flagrant act of disobedience was more than he could bear. Indignation
however soon gave place to astonishment, for the little fellow, without
waiting for a single word from his teacher's lips, quietly arose to his
feet, and with the placid expression of an individual performing a
meritorious action, marched across the school-room and deliberately
seated himself in the place he had before occupied between the two
little girls.

"Willard Glazier!" thundered the master, "come here, sir, immediately!"

The boy of course instantly obeyed.

"What do you mean, sir!" exclaimed the teacher, "how dare you conduct
yourself in this disgraceful manner, sir!"

Young Willard looked astonished.

"Why, Mr. ----," said he, "didn't you say that if I whispered to Myron
Sprague again, I should go back and sit between Lizzie and Annie?"

"Yes, sir, I did, and how dare you disobey me in this way?"

"Why, sir," said Willard, "I whispered again to him, because,
sir,--because--I like to sit there, sir."

A light dawned upon the mind of the master, and thereafter he adopted a
less attractive mode of punishing Willard's offences. To some of my
readers such incidents may seem too trivial for record, and no doubt
such days as these _are_ foolish days, but are they not in our memories,
among our very happiest too? As David Copperfield said of such, so say
we, that "of all my time that Time has in his grip, there's none at
which I smile so much, or think of half so kindly."

The usual surroundings of a public school made a great change in the
existence of Willard Glazier, and it is necessary to note its influence,
for in writing the life of a man in its private as well as its public
relations, the chief point to be considered is that which men call
_character_, and how it was formed and fashioned.

If the truth must be told, the "little deacon" had not been a month in
attendance at school before he was up to every imaginable species of
mischief that the fertile brain of a school-boy could conceive--provided
its execution did not involve unequivocal untruth or palpable
dishonesty.

No human being, save one, was exempt from his practical jokes. That one
was his mother. In his wildest moods, a glance of reproach from her
would check him. His father, however, enjoyed no such immunity, and in a
kindly way, he delighted in tormenting the good man whenever the
opportunity offered.

For instance, that worthy gentleman, among