was a truly amusing one. If he succeeded in escaping this penalty of
transgression until the first recess he was considered fortunate. He
usually returned from the school sports too much exhausted for any
further exertion, but in half an hour was as lively again as ever. All
veneration for authority seemed to have been replaced in David by a
strong sense of the ridiculous. His seat was immediately under the eye
of the master, with his face to the wall, and a large map of ancient
Rome before him, but this did not prevent him from turning about on all
possible occasions and expressing his various states of mind in such
ludicrous pantomime as would set off the young girls and small boys like
a row of torpedoes. Whatever might be said or done in the school without
bringing condign punishment on his head David was sure to say or do; and
his criticism of passing events and comments during recitations were
quite as edifying as those of the instructor,--which is saying a good
deal. He had committed to memory one of the longest lists of exceptions
in the Latin grammar, and never missed an opportunity of repeating it as
rapidly as possible and with a comical look.

His one object of aversion was Mr. Sanborn's rattan, and what to do
about it he did not know; until coming to school one morning very early
with another youth of the same disposition, they cut it into sections
and smoked it. After this he was in great terror for several days lest
the theft should be discovered, but as the rattan was more for ornament
than exercise, its absence did not appear to have been noticed. Of
course these performances made quite a hero of him with the girls, and
he was rewarded with their smiles and favor at the school dances and
other social occasions.

As an artistic contrast to this picture we remember three beautiful
girls who boarded with the wife of the village blacksmith, in one of the