here I
found a peculiar kind of smile that was not a smile. It would flash
up into a lifeless flame and forthwith go out again, leaving the
face cold and stiff. "They laugh with their teeth only," I would say
to myself. But, of course, I saw "real smiles," too, on Americans,
and I instinctively learned to discern the smile of mere politeness
from the sort that came from one's heart. Nevertheless, one
evening, when we were reading in our school-book that "Kate had
a smile for everybody," and I saw that this was stated in praise of
Kate, I had a disagreeable vision of a little girl going around the
streets and grinning upon everybody she met
I abhorred the teacher for his girlish looks and affectations, but his
twang and "th" made me literally pant with hatred. At the same
time I strained every nerve to imitate him in these very sounds. It
was a hard struggle, and when I had overcome all difficulties at
last, and my girlish-looking teacher complimented me
enthusiastically upon my 'thick" and "thin." my aversion for him
suddenly thawed out
Two of my classmates were a grizzly, heavy-set man and his
sixteen-year-old son, both trying to learn English after a long day's
work.
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