attention, spelled:--

"Haich-o-r-eth-e, 'Orthe."

The breathless audience, leaning forward, read the visitor's
commendation in his face. Bonaventure, beaming upon him, extended one
arm, the other turned toward the child, and cried, shaking both hands
tremulously:--

"Another! another word! another to the same!"

"Mouse," said the stranger, and Bonaventure turned and cried:--

"Mah-ooseh! my nob'e lil boy! Mah-ooseh!" and Crebiche, a speaking
statue, spelled:--

"M-o-u-eth-e, mouthe."

"Co'ect, my chile! And yet, sir, and yet, 'tis he that they call
Crebiche, because like the crawfish advancing backwardly. But to the
next! another word! another word!"

The spelling, its excitements, its moments of agonizing suspense, and
its triumphs, went on. The second class is up. It spells in two, even
in three, syllables. Toutou is in it. He gets tremendously wrought up;
cannot keep two feet on the ground at once; spells fast when the word
is his; smiles in response to the visitor's smile, the only one who
dares; leans out and looks down the line with a knuckle in his mouth
as the spelling passes down; wrings one hand as his turn approaches
again; catches his word in mid-air and tosses it off, and marks with
ecstasy the triumph and pride written on the face of his master.

"But, sir," cries Bonaventure, "why consume the spelling-book? Give,
yourself, if you please, to Toutou, a word not therein comprise'." He
glanced around condescendingly upon the people of Grande Pointe.
Chat-oue is in a front seat. Toutou gathers himself for the spring,
and the stranger ponders a moment and then gives--"Florida!"

"F-l-o, flo, warr-de-warr-da,--Florida!"

A smile broke from the visitor's face unbidden, but--

"Right! my chile! co'ect, Toutou!" cried Bonaventure, running and
patting the little hero on the back and head by turns. "Sir, let
us"--He stopped short. The eyes of the house were on Chat-oue. He had
risen to his feet and made a gesture for the visitor's attention. As
the stranger looked at him he asked:--

"He spell dat las word r-i-i-ight?" But the visitor with quiet gravity
said, "Yes, that was all right;" and a companion pulled the Raccoon
down into his seat again. Bonaventure resumed.

"Sir, let us not exhoss the time with spelling! You shall now hear
them read."

The bell taps, the class retires; again, and the reading class is up.
They are the larger girls and boys. But before they begin the master
has a word fo