Miss Wallis, teacher of the primary at the Wendell Phillips School, was
picking her way carefully through the crowd one Monday, when her eye
fell on Walter, one of her own pupils. He, too, was moving as fast as
possible and just before attempting to cross Thirty-ninth street he
overtook a lame man. The crutches sprawled out somewhat helplessly and
annoyed many of the passers.
[Sidenote: Street Manners]
Walter halted scarcely a second, but as he dived past the unfortunate
man, he brushed hard against another pedestrian and fell toward the man
with the crutches. All in a second the one crutch was knocked out of his
hand and down he fell with a heavy thud to the walk.
Walter did not look back until he was across the street and then he saw
no sign of the lame man.
At school Miss Wallis took a firm hand in the matter, by having Walter
stand before the pupils of his room, tell his story, and let Miss Wallis
rush past him and knock him down. The fall, plus the injury to his
feelings, made him take a good cry on the spot. His teacher concluded
the incident by saying:
“Now, I guess you will not do that again soon, will you?”