[Sidenote: Disorder]
The county superintendent of Tazewell County, Illinois, was visiting a
rural school. The teacher, Mr. Owens, was nervous, and the children
responded to his unusual manner with general agitation. When he called
the grammar class to stand preparatory to going forward to the
recitation seats, Andrew Willis accidentally knocked a stone off his
desk. It fell upon the bare foot of a boy sitting just opposite to him.
The boy gave a little yelp of pain and catching up his foot rocked to
and fro a moment. Mr. Owens was more embarrassed than ever. His pupils
liked him. He had encouraged them in their natural instinct to collect
what seemed to them curious, useful or beautiful as they walked to and
from school. He now glanced over the schoolroom, actually seeing for the
first time how untidy many of the desks were. Stones, flowers, one clump
of moss, one butterfly and oddly bent twigs and collections of leaves
adorned the desks. He resolved to make some provision at once for
keeping the desks clean.