[Sidenote: Matching Pennies]
Miss Starr had one pupil, a little Italian, who interested her greatly.
He sold papers before and after school and had the sharpness and
suspicion of character which much familiarity with hard conditions gives
even a child. He resisted all her friendly advances with a
“No-you-don’t” caution that both amused and nettled her.
One day ’Tonio indulged in a form of mischief at which he was an adept.
He matched pennies with Grover Helm, the affluent son of the corner
grocer. When they had been at it for about ten minutes, Grover was no
longer affluent, and therefore he complained to Miss Starr.
“’Tonio wanted to match pennies and he got me into it, and I said I
would just for fun, not for keeps. Now he has all my pennies and won’t
give them back to me. Please make him give them back to me.”
“You two boys may stay after school, and we’ll talk about it then,” Miss
Starr directed.
When the other pupils left ’Tonio considered the situation and decided
that discretion was the better part of valor. He had often been severely
whipped for matching pennies; he had no doubt that another beating was
due for this offense.
“’Tonio, will you come up here?” Miss Starr’s voice sounded kind, but
’Tonio had experienced the honeyed tones of an authority, which has not
yet captured its victim, before. He rose promptly, but instead of coming
directly forward passed back of the rows of desks, and then suddenly
bolted for the door and escaped, leaving Grover to tell his
incriminating tale unchallenged.
The truant officer brought him in two days later, after a hard hunt. He
looked pinched and hungry, but still defiant, and faced Miss Starr like
a chased animal at bay.
“Grover, he began it,” was his only defense. “You should whip him, too.”
“No one has said anything about whipping. Did you think I was going to
whip you? Is that why you ran away?”
“Don’t you whip?” ’Tonio asked.
“I never have, ’Tonio. Now, I should like to talk to you about matching
pennies. I don’t know how it is done, even. You don’t need to be afraid.
Will you stay tonight and talk to me? I don’t want to hurt you; I want
to help you.”
’Tonio stayed that night, and they had a long talk. Miss Starr could not
quite bring Tonio to her way of thinking; his inherent bent to gambling
was too well ingrained for that. What she did do was to persuade him
thoroughly, by the kindness of her manner, that she was his true friend.
’Tonio trusted her utterly from that day, and for love of her abstained
from penny-matching and all other mischief in school. Miss Starr sighed
because his regeneration was not more thorough than it was, for she
heard sometimes of his misdeeds with the gang he belonged to; but in her
own domain he was a loyal and helpful citizen. She had removed that
distrust of authority which his former experiences had built up in him,
and which was the cause of his resistance.