The boys’ hands traveled reluctantly to the breast pockets of their coats. Teddy brought forth a card devoid, by lucky chance, of black marks. Howard Randall’s card, however, was decorated with several evidences of his failure to obey the rules of Martin Brothers’ store.
“I am sorry to be obliged to give a boy a demerit before he has been my pupil ten minutes,” she said with a significance that made Teddy hang his head and resolve to keep his card clear thereafter.
Her pretty face grew perceptibly harder as she leveled cold eyes upon the fat boy. “This is the fifth demerit for you this month, sir. Remember, October is not half over. It would pay you to make up your mind to be a good boy. Now, listen to me. The next time I have occasion to speak to you I shall send you to Miss Pierce and tell her that I do not care to have a boy like you in my class.”
The fat boy listened in sulky silence to Miss Leonard’s threat. As she turned and walked down the aisle to her desk, he made a face at her retreating back. Several boys, who were watching him, giggled. The teacher eyed him sharply as she faced her class, but by this time the fat boy’s face had returned to its expression of sullenness.
After this break in the usual routine of the school work, matters progressed more smoothly. Miss Leonard interviewed Teddy and Harry as to their class standing in the schools which they had attended previous to their entry into the store. She was not slow to perceive Harry’s eagerness for study, and that he was farther advanced than the majority of the boys in her class. He seemed so anxious to learn, too. She felt that it would be a pleasure to teach him. She had serious doubts of Teddy, however. By no means did she hold him blameless for the recent disturbance. Still, there was something very likable about him. At least Teddy was honest and straightforward. This would, perhaps, outweigh his mischievous tendencies. She determined to keep him busy every moment of the time he spent in her class-room, and in this respect she showed that rare good sense which had made her the most successful teacher in Martin Brothers’ school for boys.
As each boy had only two mornings in the week in which to attend school, these mornings were extremely busy ones. On Tuesday and Friday Company B went to school, on Wednesday and Saturday it was Company C’s turn. School opened promptly at half-past seven o’clock, with the reading of the Bible. In Miss Leonard’s room each boy was required to recite a Bible verse or poetical quotation. The recital of the quotations followed the Bible reading. Then the remainder of the time until eight o’clock was devoted to penmanship, the boys copying a paragraph placed on the large blackboard which took up most of the wall space directly behind Miss Leonard’s desk. A peculiarity of the writing lesson was that once the copy was begun it could not be erased or re-written. It must stand as it had been originally put down. This was Miss Leonard’s own idea, and it went far toward inculcating the habits of neatness and carefulness in writing.
From eight o’clock until half-past eight, the three sections joined in gymnastic exercises on one morning and on the other the same period was devoted to concert singing. On the same floor with the schoolrooms a small gymnasium had been fitted with wands, dumb-bells, Indian clubs, and all the paraphernalia of a high-school gymnasium. Their instructor was a young salesman in the sporting goods department, who left the selling floor for a half hour every other morning to give the boys the benefit of his services.
From half-past eight until nine o’clock came the arithmetic recitation, followed by a half hour of geography. From half-past nine until ten o’clock was a study hour, followed by half an hour of English grammar and composition. From half-past ten until a quarter to eleven was also given over to study, and the last fifteen minutes of the morning were devoted to spelling. As far as possible the boys were given no home work to do, although they were privileged to prepare their arithmetic, English or geography lessons outside of school, if they failed to finish them during the time allotted during each school morning for study.
Such was the programme of the school in which Teddy and Harry now found themselves. Harry’s eyes shone with a great happiness, as the morning wore away and the several periods of recitation and study came and went, while for the first time in his life, perhaps, Teddy was genuinely interested in school.