Then, too, he had his own heart to struggle against: he was so used to
whispering to this and that boy seated near him, to eating apples when
the teacher's back was turned, to making an ugly-looking picture on a
piece of paper and pinning it on the back of a small boy before him. He
was so unused to sitting still, and trying to study.
What hard work it was to study, any way! It seemed to him that he could
never get that spelling-lesson in the world; the harder he tried, the
more bewildered he grew. A dozen times he spelled the two words, receive
and believe, standing so closely together, each time sure he was right,
and each time discovering that the i's and e's must change places; he
grew utterly provoked and disheartened, and would have fairly cried, had
not Bob been beside him to see the tears, and grow merry over them.
Finally, he lost all patience with Bob, and, turning fiercely to him,
after he had for the third time pitched the greasy old spelling-book
upside down on the floor, said,--
"Look here, now, if you come that thing again, I'll pitch you out of the
window quicker than wink!"
"Edward Lewis marked for whispering," said Mr.
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