ng believe to sing a heathenish jargon which
he must have thought to resemble Hebrew, twisting his face grotesquely
to seem like a Jew's, making lewd gestures--breaking off now and again
to shriek with laughter at the comicality of it all.

Then suddenly Mr. Levi returned.

He charged into the line, spun Geoghen about and tore the book from his
hands. Geoghen reached for it, as if loath to let go of so much fun--his
face impudent, grossly humorous--and Mr. Levi knocked him down.

I shall never forget how the teacher looked. His pale face, paler than
ever, gleamed as if it were cut smooth out of marble. The eyes flashed
with a noble fury. The mouth had stopped its twitching and was drawn
taut, and his teeth showed at the corners of it. And when he struck at
Geoghen his whole slender tenseness seemed to be thrown into the blow.

The crippled lad lay there for a moment, stunned. Then he got unsteadily
to his feet and picked up his crutch. A stream of profanity began to
come from his mouth. I don't think any of us had ever heard such talk
before. All the obscene things which the lowest scum of humanity can
pick up in the course of living years in the gutter, he spat out at Mr.
Levi.

But the teacher had gone back to his dais and desk and stood facing him
silently, calmly, a look of mild reproach taking the place of the anger
in his eyes. He let Geoghen have his miserable say, and then silently
pointed to the door and motioned to him to get out. And Geoghen went.

That wasn't the end of it, though. For, within a week the newspapers had
taken up the incident and enlarged it, exaggerated it--and Geoghen's
father who, it seems, was a political vassal of the alderman of this
district, had managed to have Mr. Levi brought before the Board of
Education for an investigation.

Mr. Levi had no show in that trial. He told his story truthfully. I
remember that, according to the newspapers, he made scarcely any effort
to defend himself. He merely explained that he had caught this boy
defiling the traditions of the Jewish faith, mocking what was most
sacred to him, and that he was indeed sorry that, in order to wrest the
book away from his impure hands, he had had to strike and knock down a
crippled pupil.

The newspapers called Mr. Levi a dangerous and cruel fanatic, the Board
of Education decided that he was incompetent, and Mr. Levi--his face
paler than ever, his manner more mild and saddened--announced to us on
the last day