. Next thing ye knew, daown'd go the hoe agin, and up would go his
arms, a sawin' the air like a windmill, an' there he'd be a spaoutin' an'
a elocutin' fit ter kill. Who but Timotheus would ever think of combinin'
hoein' an' elocutin'? I tell ye, he's the most possessed of 'rig'nal'ty of
any pusson I ever seen."

"I wonder someone don't think he's a reg'lar loony, a carryin' on like
that," muttered Joel, filled with jealousy and disgust.

Old Mr. Simpkins was deaf, and Joel's muttered remark passed unnoticed.

"He ain't one er them fellers that can't do but one thing to a time.
T'other day I axed him ter bring two pail er water inter the barn, and
away he went ter git 'em. Anybody'd think a pail er water in each hand
oughter held him daown, but no sir, that feller came across the door-yard,
both pails full, an' his head in the air, his maouth wide open, and the
elocutin' a goin' on continoous."

"Ef I thought fer a moment that edication would make any er my children
act like that, I vaow I'd keep 'em outer school fer one while," said a
farmer who had recently arrived in the village, and roars of laughter
followed this remark.

As he was deaf, old Mr. Simpkins failed to catch the meaning of the
hilarity, so he construed it as it pleased him to, and when the laughter
had subsided, said,

"I don't wonder ye laugh, ye didn't see him er doin' it, so ye don't know
haow he looked, but I tell ye 'twas a grand sight ter see a young feller
so eloquent that nothin' on airth could stop him."

"Must 'a been a 'stonishing sight," agreed Mr. Jenks, "but naow, friends,
we've talked fer quite a spell on one thing or another, an we ain't much
nigher ter settlin' the question of a bigger schoolroom than when we
started.

"Naow instead er hagglin' 'baout it, I b'lieve we'd better have a
committee meetin' called, and a reg'lar vote taken, an' I say right here
and naow, that I shall vote fer better quarters fer the school an' I'll
'gree, as I said, ter put my hand right in my pocket an' give the thing a
start.

"Nathan Lawton gave the use of his best room fer a schoolroom last year,
an' 'twas kind an' generous fer him ter do it, but the village has been
growin' just amazin', an' this year shows a bigger list of inhabitants,
an' it 'pears as if most of the new comers had a family er children, so
something's got ter be done 'baout that school buildin'."

"Good fer ye," squeaked old Nate Burnham, "an' I wish ye luck at the
meetin'.