He held the respect and fear of his juniors
without making any open breach with the teacher. But in one way William
Bellus had been peculiarly favored. His predecessors had to deal with
Perry Thomas, and in spite of his gentle ways and intellectual cast,
Perry is active and wiry. He is a blacksmith by trade, and is the
leading tenor in the Methodist choir. This makes a combination that for
staying powers has few equals. My biggest boy's predecessor had been
utterly broken. Even the girls jeered at him until he quit school
entirely. But William had another problem. It was the disappointment of
his life that Perry Thomas retired just as he came into power. He had
declared at a mass-meeting behind the woodshed that it was a gross
injustice on the part of the directors to put a crippled teacher in
charge of the school. Where now was glory to be gained? They would have
a school-ma'am next, like they done up to Popolomus, and none but little
boys, and girls not yet out of plaits, would be so servile as to suffer
such domination.
Pages:
103
104
105
106
107
108
109
110
111
112
113
114
115
116
117
118
119
120
121
122
123
124
125
126
127