[Sidenote: Pulling Hair]
Miss Eastman, a teacher of the fourth grade in a small town in
Minnesota, was driven to her wit’s end when Benjamin McCloy repeatedly
refused to stop pulling the hair of the little girl who sat in front of
him.
“I guess this is the only thing that will do you any good, Benjamin
McCloy,” she said, as she drew a ruler from her desk drawer. “March
right up here to the front of the room. Aren’t you ashamed of yourself?”
At the question, Benjamin bristled up to his full four feet, two inches.
“No, I’m not ashamed. She needn’t think I’m going to have hair all over
my desk,” thought Benjamin as he went up to take his beating like a man.
Miss Eastman seemed to make no impression upon him with the ruler.
Finally it broke in two.
“Loyd,” she addressed a boy in the room who never was known to do
anything wrong. “Take this money and go over to the little store and buy
me another ruler.”
“Gee! That’ll break you up,” came a muffled response from a ringleader
in the room.
“Well, that’s nothing out of your pocket, is it?” Miss Eastman remarked
with ill-concealed temper.