Don't ever
kill too many bears at a shot."
After that, in the Linley district, a man who lied was said to be
killing too many bears at a shot.
Good thoughts spread with slow but sure contagion. There were some
who understood the teacher. His words went home and far with them,
even to their graves, and how much farther who can say? They went
over the hills, indeed, to other neighbourhoods, and here they are,
still travelling, and going now, it may be, to the remotest corners
of the earth. The big boys talked about this matter of lying and
declared the teacher was right.
"There's Tunk Hosely," said Sam Price. "Nobody'd take his word for
nuthin'."
"'Less he was t' say he was a fool out an' out," another boy
suggested.
"Dunno as I'd b'lieve him then," said Sam. "Fer I'd begin t' think
he knew suthin'."
A little girl came in, crying, one day.
"What is the trouble?" said the teacher, tenderly, as he leaned
over and put his arm around her.
"My father is sick," said the child, sobbing.
"Very sick?" the teacher inquired.
For a moment she could not answer, but stood shaken with sobs.
"The doctor says he can't live," said she, brokenly.
A solemn stillness fell in the little schoolroom.
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