them boys. I'd rather take a dozen lickin's than to stay in on a day
like this an' try to git lessons in my head. I don't blame George a
bit, so I don't. I can't recall a thing in the Saviour's teachin's
about havin' to study figures an' geography, nohow. Looks to me like
the older the world gits the further it gits from common sense."

Patiently Webb held his ground till Dolly had dismissed the class;
then, turning to a table on which stood a cumbersome brass bell, she
said: "I'm going to let you have recess, but you've got to go out
quietly."

She had not ceased speaking, and had scarcely touched the handle of
the bell, when there was a deafening clatter of books and slates on
the crude benches. Feet shod and feet bare pounded the floor. Merry
yells rent the air. On the platform itself two of the arithmetic
delinquents were boxing playfully, fiercely punching, thrusting, and
dodging. At a window three boys were bodily ejecting a fourth, the
legs and feet of whom, like a human letter V, were seen disappearing
over the sill.

Smilingly Webb stood aside and let the clamoring drove hurtle past to
the playground outside, and when the way was clear he entered the
church and stalked up the single aisle toward his niece. Dolly had
turned back to the blackboard, and was sponging off the chalk figures.
She was quite pretty; her eyes were large, with fathomless hazel
depths. Her brow, under a mass of uncontrollable reddish-brown hair,
was high and indicative of decided intellectual power. She was of
medium height, very shapely, and daintily graceful. She had a good
nose and a sweet, sympathetic mouth. Her hands were slender and
tapering, though suggestive of strength. She wore a simple white