s of intimacy with sundry seas, volcanoes, islands, and other
sizable objects. The glib certainty of his contemptuous familiarity with
the alphabet and its untoward combinations, as he flung off words
in four syllables in his impudent chirping treble, seemed something
uncanny, almost appalling, to Tyler Sudley, who could not have done the
like to save his stalwart life. He would stare dumfounded at the erudite
personage at the head of the class; Leander's bare feet were always
carefully adjusted to a crack between the puncheons of the floor,
literally "toeing the mark "; his broad trousers, frayed out liberally
at the hem, revealed his skinny and scarred little ankles, for
his out-door adventures were not without a record upon the more
impressionable portions of his anatomy; his waistband was drawn high up
under his shoulder-blades and his ribs, and girt over the shoulders of
his unbleached cotton shirt by braces, which all his learning did not
prevent him from calling "galluses"; his cut, scratched, calloused
hands were held stiffly down at the side seams in his nether garments in
strict accordance with the regulations. But rules could not control the
twinkle in his big blue eyes, the mingled effrontery and affection on
his freckled face as he perceived the on-looking visitor, nor hinder the
wink, the swiftly thrust-out tongue, as swiftly withdrawn, the egregious
display of two rows of dishevelled jagged squirrel teeth, when once
more, with an offhand toss of his tangled brown hair, he nimbly spelled
a long twisted-tailed word, and leered capably at the grave intent
face framed in the window. "Why, Abner!" Tyler Sudley would break out,
addressing the teacher, all unmindful of scholastic etiquette, a flush
of pleasure rising to his swarthy cheek as he thrust back his wide black
hat on his long dark hair and turned his candid gray eyes, all aglow,
upon the cadaverous, ascetic preceptor, "ain't Lee-yander a-gittin' on
powerful, _powerful_ fas' with his book?"

"Not in enny ways so special," Sage would reply in cavalier
discouragement, his disaffected gaze resting upon the champion scholar,
who stood elated, confident, needing no commendation to assure him of
his pre-eminence; "but he air disobejient, an' turr'ble, turr'ble bad."

The nonchalance with which Leander Yerby hearkened to this criticism
intimated a persuasion that there were many obedient people in this
world, but few who could so disport themselves in the intr