"Ah! sir! too true, too true ah yo' words; nevertheless, their
cooelty! 'Tis not what is print' _in_ the books, but what you learn
_through_ the books!"

"Yes; and so you hadn't never ought to have made the bargain you made;
but, my friends, a bargain's a bargain, and the teacher's"--He paused
invitingly, and an answer came from the audience. It was Catou who
rose and said:

"Naw, sah. Naw; he don't got to go!" But again 'Mian thundered:

"_Taise toi_, Catou. Shot op!"

"I say," continued the stranger, "the mistake's been made. _Three_
mistakes have been made!"

"Yass!" roared Chat-oue, leaping to his feet and turning upon the
assemblage a face fierce with triumph. Suspense and suspicions were
past now; he was to see his desire on his enemy. But instantly a dozen
men were on their feet--St. Pierre, Catou, Bonaventure himself, with a
countenance full of pleading deprecation, and even Claude, flushed
with anger.

"Naw, sah! Naw, sah! Waun meesteck?"

"Seet down, all han'!" yelled 'Mian; "all han' seet dah-oon!" Only
Chat-oue took his seat, glancing upon the rest with the exultant look
of one who can afford to yield ground.

"The first mistake," resumed the stranger, addressing himself
especially to the risen men still standing, and pointedly to Catou,
"the first mistake was in the kind of bargain you made." He ceased,
and passed his eyes around from one to another until they rested an
instant on the bewildered countenance of Chat-oue. Then he turned
again upon the people, who had sat down, and began to speak with the
exultation of a man that feels his subject lifting him above himself.

"I came out here to show up that man as a fraud. But what do I find? A
poor, unpaid, half-starved man that loves his thankless work better
than his life, teaching what not one schoolmaster in a thousand can
teach; teaching his whole school four better things than were ever
printed in any school-book,--how to study, how to think, how to value
knowledge, and to love one another and mankind. What you'd ought to
have done was to agree that such a school should keep open, and such a
teacher should stay, if jest one, one lone child should answer one
single book-question right! But as I said before, a bargain's a
bargain--Hold on there! Sit down! You sha'n't interrupt me again!" Men
were standing up on every side. There was confusion and a loud buzz of
voices. "The second mistake," the stranger made haste to cry, "was
thinking the