52
THE WEST SHORE
Bonne of dignity and decency imbued in man they were
without it I did my best to humanize them, but found
my labor thrown away. I did get them to learn rosa,
rom, but that was only by threatening not to allow them
to Beg a pig killed unless the first declension were re
poatod. They made booby-traps for me. They sewed up
the legs and sleeves of my pantaloons and coat They
made me apple-pie beds. They put the soap into the toe
of my boot They gummed together the pages of the
grammar. They put gunpowder into the candle. They
cut up hair very fine and strewed my nightdress with it
Lastly, they mimicked me. Their parents, so far from
reprimanding them, laughed at these frolics and regarded
them as exhibitions of daring originality.
I have always held that moral suasion is a far better
vohicle of education than the cane, but doubt whether
moral suasion is of any avail where the moral sense is
dormant or non-existent I bolieve that, just as Nature
has provided the auditory sonso with an organ, the ear,
and the olfactory sense with an organ, the nose, and the
souse of sight with an organ, the eye, so she has fashioned
an organ for the roooption of moral impressions, con
nected by a norve with the brain. She has developed
this organ into some prominenco, uo doubt to show how
primary and important the moral sense is. She has
withdrawn from it all arteries, and has invested it in a
dolicate uotwork of highly sensitive nerves, to make it
serve much as the drum to the ear. The waves of sound
boat on this latter and resolve themBolves into idoas in
the brain; so precisely the pulsations of the cane on this
other organ are rapidly transformed into a moral idea,
and as such impress itself on the mind.
I tried very hard to do my duty. I tried to got these
boys to Btudy. I tried to lead them to look to higher
. things than pig killing and rat hunting. I tried to infuse
into thorn a boiiso of honor. But I found in them none
of the material of whioh the Tommies are made. I was
drawing my, salary and doing nothing for it I had not
got these boyB to say "horse" instead of "hoss," or to
use pocket handkerohiofB instead of the back of their
hands. At length the climax arrived. .These urchins
inado a dummy, which was intended to bear, and did
boar, a striking likonoss to myself. It could hardly do
otl.or, as it was invested in my new suit of clothes, not
yet paid for. What with the mud with which it was
Iltod, and the gonoral rough usage it recoived, my best
Sunday suit of clothes was utterly ruined. I told Mr.
Clodd plainly that I would uo longer teach such unruly
cubs as his sous, and I loft the situation. As a man of
honor I first paid the tailor for the spoilt suit, and then
found myself with ninoty-five cents in my pocket
I rooeived no thanks for my pains, no recognition that
, I had done my utmost The blamo was thrown on my
head. I did not understand the temperament of the boys;
I made no allowances for their exuberant vitality; I was
exacting, Btiff and ungenial. I folt that these wretched
louU must come to bad ends; they were the raw clay out
of which the villaiuous Harries are molded. I have lived
to boo them grow up. My prediction have not been
realized. They are now rough, sporting young men, with
good incomes, farming good estates, and farming them
well; and the gallows to which I had consigned them
does not seem destined to suspend them.
When I left Mr. Clodd's I reviewed my conduct; and
then I felt that I had acted throughout in the conscien
tious spirit of Tommy. I had striven to do good to these
wretches, and I had striven to do my duty, and to do it
thoroughly. The result was my dismissal, with ninety
five cents in my pocket Now, had I been Harry, how
different would have been my conduct, how different my
situation! I would have winked at the boys' misconduct,
excused their mischievous pranks, allowed them to shirk
lessons, praised their gallant spirits to the father and
mother, assured them that genius lurked behind all tneir
exuberant play of spirit, allowed them to go on in their
brutal pursuits unreproved, without an effort to elevate
them, have reported their sallies of wit to their parents,
and I would have had my salary raised, my position in
the house secured, and a future opened to me among the
marriageable girls of means who frequented the place.
On leaving Mr. Clodd's I wns appointed principal of
the. district school, which was managed by a board of
trustees Some of the farmers on the board took my
part against the Clodds, of whom they were envious; and
so, out of spite to the Clodds, and because I could be
secured cheap, gave me the vacant situation.
When offered the school I hesitated about accepting
it It was not that my pride suffered; it was that I mis
doubted my powers. My self-confidence had received a
rude shock in the house of the Clodds. I had believed
firmly hitherto in moral suasion, and had disapproved of
corporal punishment My views on this point were dis
turbed. You can make a racer run with a word of praise
and a pat, but not a donkey. I had had to do with a well
bred youth, and had managed him with perfect success.
I hnd tried the Clodds, and had failed. Should I suc
ceed with children of still another class? My diffidence,
and my strong Tommeian sense of honor, forced me to
accept the principalship conditionally. My tenure of the
post was to be terminable at the end of the quarter, with
out notice on either side. I felt that, should I fail, I
would be unable to continue in the situation for three
months more with justice to the children, the trustees
and myself.
I found the school in a neglected and utterly unsatis
factory condition. The assistant teacher and the late
principal had played into each other's hands, giving each
other half holidays alternately, coming unpunctually in
the mornings, and cutting the hours short in the after
noons, spending their time together gossiping in the
class room, leaving the classes under the charge of schol
ars. This I stopped. The result was that I made an
enemy of the assistant, and he went about among his
Iriends and acquaintances making complaints and stir
ring up a party against me.
I discovered that several of the children did more
scratching than scribbling. Thereupon I laid in a supply
ol corbolio soap, at my own expense, and a fine-tooth
comb, ?ud began operations with vigor. What a storm
this raised) lhe parents of the urchins I had combed
and carbokzed came to me, livid with fury, and dared me
SlrS ?V T chMtt 8 heftd8 R?ain- with the
fiftt LT W6ret h m08t ind'Knt Never before
H n,n81n-atUat their little ones were not so
clean that you might have made a meal off them. Why
were they to be combed and carbolized, whilst the sons