George Henderson was dubbed by his classmates “the clown” because he was
always doing something laughable. Usually his fun was of a harmless
type, but occasionally his pranks overstepped the bounds of propriety.
[Sidenote: Mimicry of Gesture]
His teacher, Miss Stanton, had unconsciously fallen into the habit of
making nervous little gestures when she was explaining lessons to the
pupils, and, indeed, when she was talking with the pupils outside of
school. Several times during recitations she had noticed George
entertaining the pupils near him by imitating, under the shelter of the
desk, of course, all the little movements of her nervous, energetic
hands. She resolved to overcome the habit of emphasizing her words by
gesture, but the more absorbed she became in her teaching, the less
could she think about her hands. If she concentrated attention upon her
hands, her teaching suffered and the whole class became listless.
Resolved not to sacrifice the class for the sake of one fun-loving boy,
Miss Stanton next tried another plan.
“Mary, you may name all the capitals of the countries of Europe,” she
said.
When Mary was about half through with her list of capitals, Miss Stanton
interrupted her with,
“That is far enough, Mary; George may finish.”
Now George knew the capitals perfectly, but he had been busy behind the
desk with a particularly successful imitation of Miss Stanton’s
movements, and suddenly surprised, could not recall where Mary had left
off.
Miss Stanton waited just a moment, then said, gravely, but without any
indication of resentment,
“I am sorry to have you fail on anything so important as this, George.
Jack may go on.”
George sat quite demurely for several minutes, for he was a little
disappointed at losing a chance to recite a lesson which he had really
prepared with considerable care. However, he comforted himself by
thinking: “Well, she called on me once. She won’t do so again,” and
after a short time he went serenely on with his dramatics.
Miss Stanton also went on apparently oblivious to what was taking place
behind the desk. After a few minutes she said,
“Stephen, beginning with the northern countries, tell us what the
farmers raise in each of these countries.”