The girl who sat next to me saw my distress, and offered to do my
sums for me. I accepted her proposal, feeling, however, that I
was a miserable cheat. But I was afraid of the master, who was
tall and gaunt, and used to stalk across the schoolroom, right
over the desk-tops, to find out if there was any mischief going
on. Once, having caught a boy annoying a seat-mate with a pin, he
punished the offender by pursuing him around the schoolroom,
sticking a pin into his shoulder whenever he could overtake him.
And he had a fearful leather strap, which was sometimes used even
upon the shrinking palm of a little girl. If he should find out
that I was a pretender and deceiver, as I knew that I was, I
could not guess what might happen to me. He never did, however.
I was left unmolested in the ignorance which I deserved. But I
never liked the girl who did my sums, and I fancied she had a
decided contempt for me.
There was a friendly looking boy always sitting at the master's
desk; they called him, the monitor.
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