"It's true," he said. "Teachers ain't changed and the boys ain't
changed. I'm eighty year old within a week, and all my life I've heard
boys blowin' about how they was goin' to lick the teacher, and I've
heard old men tell how they done it years and years before--but I've
never seen an eye-witness--what I wants is an eye-witness."
"You've been talkin' to Elmer Spiker," said Henry Holmes, plaintively.
"He's convinced you. He'd convince anybody of anything. He's got me
so dad-twisted I can't mind no more whether I went to school even."
"You never showed no signs, Henery." Isaac Bolum spoke very quietly.
"I guess you otter know it as well as anybody," Henry retorted angrily.
"Your ma was allus askin' me to take care of you, and you was a
nuisance, too, you was, Isaac. You was allus a-blubberin' and
a-swallerin' somethin'. You mind the time you swallered my copper
cent, don't you? You mind the fuss your ma made to my ma about it,
don't you? Why, she formulated regular charges that I 'tempted to
pizon you--she did, and----"
"Don't rake up them old, old sores," said Josiah Nummler soothingly,
"Ike'll give you back your copper cent, Henery.
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