ut I scanned his angelic
features in vain for any trace of repentance.

There followed a few moments of comparative quiet. Then came a startling,
sickening sound as of some one undergoing the tortures of strangulation.
Then, a long, convulsive gasp. I looked down upon a sea of round eyes and
uplifted hands.

"Teacher, Simmy's swallered a slate-pencil! Simmy's swallered a
slate-pencil!"

"He's swallered most a whole one!" cried the owner of one pair of
protruding orbs.

"It wa'n't!" retorted Simeon, flaming with righteous indignation--"It
wa'n't but harf a one!"

"He t-t-told me," cried a young scion of the stammering Vickery race, all
breathless with excitement, "that he was going to p-p-put it into his
m-m-mouth and t-t-take it out of his n-n-nose, and he did and it
t-t-t--and it slip-p-ped!"

"Wall, jest you keep your eyes peeled and your ears cocked," replied the
sturdy Simeon, in hoarse and jarring accents; "and see if I don't take it
out of my nose, yet."

The signs of that painful struggle slowly faded out of Simeon's face and
there was an unusual calm in the school-room.

Perhaps a quarter of an hour elapsed. I was thoughtfully engaged in
hearing one of my classes when startled by the sound of a window closed
with a sharp bang. At the same time arose the universal voice:

"Simmy B.'s got out o' the winder! Simmy B.'s got out o' the winder!"

I looked out across the snowless fields, and there having already scaled
two fences and put many a good rod between himself and the scene of his
brief imprisonment, I beheld, borne as on the wings of the wind, the form
of the retreating Simeon.

An incident at the close of my first week in Wallencamp was the visit of
the "Turkey Mogul." Such was the name given by the Wallencampers to Mr.
Baxter, the superintendent of schools.

Mr. Baxter lived many miles away in Farmouth, and was, properly, the
visitor of the schools in Farmouth County. Wallencamp was not in Farmouth
County. Nevertheless, Mr. Baxter had charge of the Wallencamp school. I
had been informed that he drove over at the beginning and close of each
term, put the scholars through the most "dreadful examins," and gave an
indiscriminate "blowin' up" to persons and things in the place. So I
looked forward to his coming with a curiosity not unmingled with more
doubtful emotions.

It was Friday, and so near the close of the afternoon session that I had
quite dismissed from my mind the contemplation of any