Cressy | Page 3

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CRESSY
by Bret Harte

CRESSY

CHAPTER I.
As the master of the Indian Spring school emerged from the pine
woods into the little clearing before the schoolhouse, he stopped
whistling, put his hat less jauntily on his head, threw away some wild
flowers he had gathered on his way, and otherwise assumed the severe
demeanor of his profession and his mature age--which was at least
twenty. Not that he usually felt this an assumption; it was a firm
conviction of his serious nature that he impressed others, as he did
himself, with the blended austerity and ennui of deep and exhausted
experience.
The building which was assigned to him and his flock by the Board of
Education of Tuolumne County, California, had been originally a
church. It still bore a faded odor of sanctity, mingled, however, with a
later and slightly alcoholic breath of political discussion, the result of
its weekly occupation under the authority of the Board as a Tribune for
the enunciation of party principles and devotion to the Liberties of the
People. There were a few dog- eared hymn-books on the teacher's desk,
and the blackboard but imperfectly hid an impassioned appeal to the
citizens of Indian Spring to "Rally" for Stebbins as Supervisor. The
master had been struck with the size of the black type in which this
placard was printed, and with a shrewd perception of its value to the
round wandering eyes of his smaller pupils, allowed it to remain as a
pleasing example of orthography. Unfortunately, although subdivided
and spelt by them in its separate letters with painful and perfect
accuracy, it was collectively known as "Wally," and its general import
productive of vague hilarity.
Taking a large key from his pocket, the master unlocked the door and
threw it open, stepping back with a certain precaution begotten of his
experience in once finding a small but sociable rattlesnake coiled up
near the threshold. A slight disturbance which followed his intrusion
showed the value of that precaution, and the fact that the room had
been already used for various private and peaceful gatherings of
animated nature. An irregular attendance of yellow-birds and squirrels

dismissed themselves hurriedly through the broken floor and windows,
but a golden lizard, stiffened