e_
slang."

Bubble looked very blank. "Why, what _shall_ I say?" he asked, simply.
"Pink won't let me say 'I swow,' 'cause it's vulgar; an' if I say 'by'
anything, Ma says it's swearin',--an' I can't swear, nohow!"

"Of course not," said Hilda. "But why _must_ you say anything,
Bubble,--anything of that sort, I mean?"

"Oh!" said the boy, "I d' 'no 's I kin say ezackly _why_, Miss Hildy;
but--but--wal, I swan! I mean, I--I don't mean I swan--but--there now!
You see how 'tis, Miss Hildy. Things don't seem to hev no taste to 'em,
without you say _somethin'_."

"Let me think," said Hilda. "Perhaps I can think of something that will
sound better."

"I might say, 'Gee Whittekers!'" suggested Bubble, brightening up a
little. "I know some fellers as says that."

"I don't think that would do," replied Hilda, decidedly. "What does it
mean?"

"Don't mean nothing as I knows on," said the boy; "but it sounds kind o'
hahnsome, don't it?"

Hilda shook her head with a smile. She did not think "Gee Whittekers" a
"hahnsome" expression.

"Bubble," she said after a few moments' reflection, during which her
scholar watched her anxiously, "I have an idea. If you _must_ say
'something,' beside what you actually have to say, let it be something
that will remind you of your lessons; then it may help you to remember
them. Instead of Gee--what is it?--Gee Whittekers, say Geography, or
Spelling, or Arithmetic; and instead of 'I swan,' say 'I study!' What do
you think of this plan?"

"Fustrate!" exclaimed Bubble, nodding his head enthusiastically. "I like
fustrate! Ge-_o_graphy! Why, that sounds just like pie! I--I don't mean
that, Miss Hildy. I didn't mean to say it, nohow! It kind o' slipped
out, ye know." Bubble paused, and hung his head in much confusion.

"Never mind!" said Hilda, kindly. "Of course you cannot make the change
all at once, Bubble. But little by little, if you really think about it,
you will bring it about. Next week," she added, "I think we must begin
upon grammar. You are doing very well indeed in spelling and geography,
and pretty well in arithmetic; but your grammar, Bubble, is simply
frightful."

"Be it?" said Bubble, resignedly. "I want to know!"

"And now," said the young instructress, rising, and shaking out her
crumpled frock, "that is enough for to-day, Bubble. We must be going
home soon; but first, I want to take a peep at the lower part of the old
mill, that you told me about yesterday. You have be