They chorused a queer croak in reply--hesitating, inarticulate, shy. He
unlocked the door and entered the cold, bare room--familiar, unlovely,
with a certain power of primitive associations. In such a room he had
studied his primer and his Ray's Arithmetic. In such a room he had made
gradual recession from the smallest front seat to the back wall seat;
and from one side of such a room to the other he had furtively
worshipped a graceful, girlish head.
He allowed himself but a moment of such dreaming before assuming
command, and with his ready helpers a fire was soon started. Other
children came in, timorous as rabbits, slipping by, each with an eye
fixed on him like a scared chicken. They pre-empted their seats by
putting down books and slates, and there arose sly wars for possession,
which he watched with amusement--it was so like his own life at that
age.
He assumed control as nearly in the manner of the old-time teachers as
he could recall, and the work of his teaching was begun. The day passed
quickly, and, as he walked homeward again, there stood that rotting
church, and in his mind there rose a surging emotion larger than he
could himself comprehend--a desire to rebuild it by uniting the warring
factions, of whose lack of Christianity this deserted chapel was a fatal
witness.