"School just ain't no fun, this year. The new teacher don't
never whip a soul! Does he, Mierd?"
"No."
"Not even the Bailey boys?"
"No," Mierd told Walker, "they don't seem so bad no more."
"You mean those big rascals haven't set fire to the
schoolhouse this year?"
"No. First day of school they hid a dead rat in the teacher's
desk, but since then they ain't done nothing. And you know what?"
"What?"
"Mister Shepherd won't ever make Bud, the oldest one, read.
He's been in the third reader ever since I can remember, but
every morning when it's time for the little kids in the third
reader to go up front to the recitation bench, the teacher will
say, 'Bud, looks to me like the fire's half out. Would you mind
tending to the heater?' So Bud goes out behind the schoolhouse to
the woodpile and brings in a turn of wood and pokes up the fire."
"Yeah, but you know what I found out just yesterday?" Wiley
asked. "Wallace Goode told me that every Saturday morning Mister
Shepherd rides over to the Bailey house and goes hunting with
them boys.
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