ALL A BOARD.
“Everything seems to go by contrary here,” said Norval; “let us take the direction that seems least likely.” So seeing a placard marked “No passage this way,” they went straight down the archway opposite it, and found themselves outside the station at once, and in a broad roadway. The foot-pavement was in the middle of the street, and the road on either side of it next the houses, which would have been very inconvenient had it not been that, as in Blundertown things are quite different from other towns, the roadway was beautifully clean. On the opposite side of the street from the station there was a building which, from its grand proportions and ornamental style, the boys thought must be a palace. As they stood looking at it, a black board, such as they had often seen used at school for writing sums on, made its appearance at the door and gravely walked down the steps. The board had two arms, one hand grasping a pointer, and the other a piece of chalk and a towel. It came forward, walking very clumsily with its wooden feet, and the whole appearance was so ridiculous that the boys could not help laughing. The board seemed to see this somehow, raised his piece of chalk and wrote on himself,
“Do you know who I am?”
SELF-IMPORTANT FRAME.
The boys confessed they did not. The board raised the hand with the towel and wiped himself, and then wrote,
“I am the School Board,”
pointing to the words with a grand sweep of the stick, as much as to say, “What do you think of that?” They were not at all overawed by this great announcement, and the ridiculous flourish of the pointer made them look at one another and laugh again. At this the board looked blacker than ever, and angrily wiping himself wrote,