And, besides, what if Tommy, in the exuberance of his feelings, while
sitting on the bench, does stick out his toe a little beyond the
prescribed line. Or suppose Jimmy crowds up to him a little too closely,
and feeling that he can't breathe as freely as he wishes, gives him a
hunch; or suppose Betty, during a temporary fit of fretfulness, induced
by long setting in one posture, or overcome with the heat of a midsummer
afternoon, or the sweltering temperature of a room where an
old-fashioned box stove has been converted into a furnace; suppose Betty
gives her seat-mate a sly pinch to make her move to a more tolerable
distance, shall the teacher utter his rebuke in tones which might
possibly be appropriate if a murder was about being committed? I have
known a schoolmaster "fire up" like a steam-engine, and puff and whiz at
the occurrence of some such peccadilloes, and the consequence was that
the whole school was soon at a stand-still as to study, and the askance
looks and suppressed titter of the little flock told you that the
teacher had made no capital that time. I have seen essentially the same
thing in parents.
Now, I am not exactly justifying such conduct in children. But such
offences will exist, despite of all the wisdom, authority, and sternness
in the wide world. My position is, that these minor matters must
sometimes be left. They had better not always be seen, or if seen, not
be noticed.
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