I do not see
any reason why some of the boarders should have made such remarks as they
have done. One cannot teach astronomy to advantage, without going out of
doors, though I confess that when two young people go out by daylight to
study the stars, as these young folks have done once or twice, I do not
so much wonder at a remark or suggestion from those who have nothing
better to do than study their neighbors.
I ought to have told the reader before this that I found, as I suspected,
that our innocent-looking Scheherezade was at the bottom of the popgun
business. I watched her very closely, and one day, when the little
monkey made us all laugh by stopping the Member of the Haouse in the
middle of a speech he was repeating to us,--it was his great effort of
the season on a bill for the protection of horn-pout in Little Muddy
River,--I caught her making the signs that set him going. At a slight
tap of her knife against her plate, he got all ready, and presently I saw
her cross her knife and fork upon her plate, and as she did so, pop! went
the small piece of artillery. The Member of the Haouse was just saying
that this bill hit his constitooents in their most vital--when a pellet
hit him in the feature of his countenance most exposed to aggressions and
least tolerant of liberties. The Member resented this unparliamentary
treatment by jumping up from his chair and giving the small aggressor a
good shaking, at the same time seizing the implement which had caused his
wrath and breaking it into splinters.
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