Mr. Boling taught in a rural school in Central Illinois. He used the
following system as a check upon whispering.
[Sidenote: When All Whisper]
Every evening just before school closed he called the roll. Those who
had not whispered during the day were to answer “ten.” If they had
whispered once “nine.” For every time they whispered during the day they
were to deduct one from their daily grade in deportment.
With some children this acted as an effective check. One little girl,
Jennie, had truthfully answered “ten” every day since the introduction
of the system. She sat with her sister in a double seat. One day a
friend asked permission to “speak” and came to the sister’s desk to
borrow a book. Jennie not being able to find the book said to her
sister, “Look on your side!” Then she slapped her hand on her mouth and
her little heart sank. She had broken her record. She had whispered
without permission! Many notes passed between the sisters as to whether
or not Jennie had really whispered without permission. It was grimly
decided that she had. They reasoned that whereas the friend’s permission
to “speak” allowed each of them to speak to her, still that gave the
sisters no right to speak to each other. Jennie suffered all the rest of
that day. How like a real culprit she felt when she answered “nine” at
roll call. The memory of the disgrace lingers with her through the
years.
But Mr. Boling had other pupils of far different home training and
natural disposition from Jennie.
Katie Mender and Annie Kuhn were examples of this class. They whispered
almost incessantly. Jennie knew it and she believed Mr. Boling himself
knew it and yet they answered “eight,” “nine” or “ten” every evening.
A few there were who not only whispered incessantly but who shamelessly
answered “zero” every evening.
Clifton with a good-natured grin answered “zero” daily and looked around
the room with a complacency that seemed to say, “What a smart boy am I!”
And even Jennie often wondered if his care-free life was not enviable.
Nothing was ever said or done by Mr. Boling to show that Jennie was more
to be commended than Clifton.