their heads emphatically, and that Nimble Dick spoke plainly: "No you
don't! I can't write any more than a duck can, and I never expect to."
Mrs. Roberts knew that Dirk Colson's dark face turned a fierce red, and
he snapped the offered pen half-way across the table with his indignant
thumb and finger. But of these words and acts nobody apparently took any
notice. The writing began, and the first marks given as copies were so
simple, looked so easy to do, and the attempts of the ladies and
gentlemen fell so far short of what the teacher desired, and were so
unmercifully criticised by him, and the criticisms were so merrily
received by the writers, that at last the whole thing took the form of
a joke to Nimble Dick's mind, and he became possessed with a burning
desire to try. One by one the boys stealthily followed his example;
Alfred taking care to watch eagerly, to commend both Stephen Crowley
and Gracie Dennis in the same breath for some true stroke, and criticise
both Mrs. Roberts and Nimble Dick for not holding the pen aright.

The entire party became so interested that only Mrs. Roberts knew just
when Dirk Colson stealthily filliped back his pen from the distance to
which it had been rolled, and, sitting upright that he might attract the
less notice, tried his hand on the curve which was giving even Dr.
Everett trouble.

When the young teacher discovered it he made also another discovery,
which he proclaimed:--

"Upon my word, I beg the pardon of each of you, but Colson here has made
the only respectable _R_-curve there is in the company."

Then if his sister Mart had seen the glow on Dirk's face, I am not sure
that she would have known him. There was a momentary transformation.