get
out of the door.

"Nail him, Brad!"

"I don't want that tooth pulled, doc."

"Yes, you do, and you had just as well make up your mind to get back in
that chair."

"By Gosh, you had better get a mule to kick it out!"

Brad and Shawn got him in the chair again and the doctor tried for
another hold on the tooth. The back of the chair gave way with a crash.

"What's that?" said the doctor.

"I think it wuz my backbone come uncoupled," said the farmer. Brad
grabbed him by the left leg and the struggling group went down in a
heap, but the doctor came up with a gleam of triumph on his face, and
holding aloft the terrible molar. Brad was panting, over by the door.

As the farmer turned to leave, he walked over to doctor Hissong and
said, "Doc, if you air as good at doctorin' other diseases as you air at
pullin' teeth, thar hain't much prospect of this community enlargin' her
population."

Doctor Hissong glanced over toward the bookcase where Shawn was
standing:

"Shawn, do you still want to be a doctor?"

"Not a tooth doctor," said Shawn.

CHAPTER III

IN SCHOOL

The varying routine of school was a trying ordeal to Shawn. The spelling
classes, the reading and the terrible arithmetic were as a nightmare to
his mind which yearned for the freedom of the river and the woods. Afar
off yonder was the stream, where the white gulls were soaring lazily
above the channel. Through the windows he could see the tall sycamores
and the white-graveled beach, where he and Coaly had spent so many happy
hours. In his fancy he could see the cool crystal water oozing out from
the spring which he had dug in the sand, and which he had lined with
white boulders. Oh, to be down there, breathing the sweet air as he
paddled his john-boat about the stream. He turned from the enrapturing
view--turned to the hateful books. The children around him were bending
over their studies, happiness reflected from their faces, but gloom sat
on the countenance of Shawn. Oh, for Coaly and freedom. All might have
gone well had it not been for Coaly. To leave Coaly chained up at home
through the long hours; to be separated from this companion, who yelped
and begged so hard to be taken along, was becoming more unbearable each
day, and there came a day when the pleading eyes brought his release,
and together they marched into the school.

The story of "Mary's Little Lamb" was not associated with Coaly in
Shawn's mind. Shawn put his books on