that he should leave it at the end of a month, if he were tired of it.

The advent of Master Langdon to Pigwacket Centre created a much more
lively sensation than had attended that of either of his predecessors.
Looks go a good way all the world over, and though there were several
good-looking people in the place, and Major Bush was what the natives of
the town called a "hahnsome mahn," that is, big, fat, and red, yet the
sight of a really elegant young fellow, with the natural air which grows
up with carefully-bred young persons, was a novelty. The Brahmin blood
which came from his grandfather as well as from his mother, a direct
descendant of the old Flynt family, well known by the famous tutor, Henry
Flynt, (see Cat. Harv. Anno 1693,) had been enlivened and enriched by
that of the Wentworths, which had had a good deal of ripe old Madeira and
other generous elements mingled with it, so that it ran to gout sometimes
in the old folks and to high spirit, warm complexion, and curly hair in
some of the younger ones. The soft curling hair Mr. Bernard had
inherited,--something, perhaps, of the high spirit; but that we shall
have a chance of finding out by and by. But the long sermons and the
frugal board of his Brahmin ancestry, with his own habits of study, had
told upon his color, which was subdued to something more of delicacy than
one would care to see in a young fellow with rough work before him.
This, however, made him look more interesting, or, as the young ladies at
Major Bush's said, "interestin'."

When Mr. Bernard showed himself at meeting, on the first Sunday after his
arrival, it may be supposed that a good many eyes were turned upon the
young schoolmaster. There was something heroic in his coming forward so
readily to take a place which called for a strong hand, and a prompt,
steady will to guide it. In fact, his position was that of a military
chieftain on the eve of a battle. Everybody knew everything in Pigwacket