"
"The modern boys is soft," Aaron Kallaberger declared. "They regards
the teacher in a friendlier light than they used to. They are
weakenin'. The military sperrit's dyin' out. The spectacle is
conquerin' the sword."
[Illustration: Aaron Kallaberger.]
This was too direct a slap at Elmer Spiker to pass unnoticed; Elmer was
too old an arguer to use any ponderous weapon in return. He even
smiled as he punctuated his sentences with his battered spectacle-case.
"You never said a truer word, Aaron. It allus was true. It allus will
be true. It's just as true to-day as when Henery Holmes tackled old
Gilbert Spoonholler, as when Isaac Bolum yander argyed with Luke
Lampson that five times eleven was forty-five; as when you refused to
admit to the same kind teacher that Harrisburg was the capital of
Pennsylwany."
"And as to-day when William Belkis--" Theophilus Jones was acting
strangely. He was bowing politely at me.
I was mystified. Why at a time like this I should be treated as a
subject of so much distinction was a puzzle, and I was about to demand
an explanation, when Josiah Nummler interrupted.
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