By-the-bye, Charley, when I first entered the school I was very much
afraid that my own attainments would seem very little compared with
those of my then unknown companions, but I have got rid of that fear
now, I am in the class next the highest and am eagerly looking forward
to the day, which I hope is not far distant, when I shall stand in the
first ranks in Fulton Academy. There are two teachers. Mr. Oswald, the
head master, and Mr. Lawrence, who is quite a young man, is the
assistant teacher. This same assistant is very pompous in his manner,
and when Mr. Oswald is not present, he is disposed to act something
of the tyrant. He has red hair, which I believe is a matter of much
annoyance to him, for he is uncommonly vain regarding his personal
appearance. Knowing this, some of the boys delight in playing off jokes
upon him. One day last week, Mr. Lawrence was leaning over a desk,
working out a difficult example in Arithmetic, directly behind him was
Ned Stanton, the most mirthful and fun-loving boy in the whole school.
Ned took a match from his pocket and, first giving me a sly nudge to
look, held it close to Mr. Lawrence's head, making believe to light it
by his red curling locks. The act was so sudden and withal so comic that
I burst out laughing before I thought where I was. Mr. Oswald raised his
eyes just in time to see Ned holding the match, I expected the fellow
was in for a punishment for sure; but will you believe me when I tell
you that Mr. Oswald actually laughed himself. He tried hard to put on
a stern look, and said "I think Edward you had best attend to your
ciphering." The assistant was so busily occupied that he saw nor heard
nothing of it all, till he raised his head, and seeing many of the
scholars trying to conceal their laughter, and even observing an
expression of quiet mirth on Mr. Oswald's face, he looked from one to
another with such a ludicrous manner of enquiry and astonishment it made
the matter still worse. But, whatever Mr. Lawrence may lack in any way,
is more than made up to us in Mr. Oswald. He is past thirty years of