Tommy put up his hand, and, at a nod, went up to the master.
"Well, Tommy, what is the matter?"
"Please, sir, Nancy Toomey has been calling you a carroty-headed crawler."
Tommy's eyebrows were raised, his eyes and mouth wide open. Philip
looked over his head at Nancy, whose face was on fire. He slowly
repeated:
"Nancy Toomey has been calling me a carroty-headed crawler, has she?"
"Yes, sir. That's what she called you. I heard her."
"Well, Tommy, go to your seat like a good boy. Nancy won't call
names any more."
In a little more than a week perfect discipline and good order
prevailed in the school.
A BUSH HERMIT.
It is not good for man to be alone, but Philip became a hermit. Half
a mile from the school and the main road there was an empty slab hut
roofed with shingles. It was on the top of a long sloping hill,
which afforded a beautiful view over the lake and the distant hills.
Half an acre of garden ground was fenced in with the hut, and it was
part of the farm of a man from Hampshire, England, who lived with his
wife near the main road. A man from Hampshire is an Englishman, and
should speak English; but, when Philip tried to make a bargain about
the hut, he could not understand the Hampshire language, and the
farmer's wife had to interpret. And that farmer lived to the age of
eighty years, and never learned to speak English.
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