31 OCTOBER 1931, Page 12

Too DEAR.

A Yankee schoolmaster, a teacher of chirography,. not long since located himself in Rensselaer county, New York, and com- menced a school under the most favourable auspices. He gathered round him a score of pupils, most of whom were of the 'fairer order of creation. One, in particular, was a very angel in features— one of your beautiful country maidens, which spring up in their seclusion, fair as the wild flowers of theii native Valleys. As might have been expected, she played iniquity with the heart of the schoolmaster. Day after day he sat by her side—guided her taper fingers, and felt her dark tresses lightly sweeping his cheek, as she leaned with him towards the manuscript. It was too much— human philosophy could not stand it. In a luckless moment be pressed his lips to her cheek, and imprinted upon it one of those kisses, in which

"The lip will linger, like some bee Sipping a favourite flower."

And what think you, gentle reader, was the result, of all this Why, the unfortunate chirographer was prosecuted for his lecture on kissing, and turned adrift with a fine of 1,000 doltara hanging over his shoulders, like the pack of Bunyan's pilgrim I