"Teacher, kin I git a drink?"

It was not until Mrs. Wiggs, with a stocking tied over her eye,
emerged from the bedroom and again took command that order was
restored.

"Where is Bethlehem?" she began, reading from an old lesson-paper.

"You kin search me!" promptly answered Chris.

She ignored his remark, and passed to the next, who said, half
doubtfully:

"Ain't it in Alabama?"

"No, it's in the Holy Land," she said.

A sudden commotion arose in the back of the room. Billy, by a series
of skilful manoeuvers, had succeeded in removing the chair that held
one of the planks, and a cascade of small, indignant girls were
tobogganing sidewise down the incline. A fight was imminent, but
before any further trouble occurred Mrs. Wiggs locked Billy in the
bedroom, and became mistress of the situation.

"What I think you childern need is a talk about fussin' an'
fightin'. There ain't no use in me teachin' what they done a
thousand years ago, when you ain't got manners enough to listen at
what I am sayin'. I recollect one time durin' the war, when the
soldiers was layin' 'round the camp, tryin' they best to keep from
freezin' to death, a preacher come 'long to hold a service. An' when