Tempest and Sunshine

Billy was surprised. The butt of the school, he was accustomed to the

jeers of his companions, but such kindness, and from Fanny, too, was

unexpected. He, however, drew from his desk his old slate and arithmetic

and he and Fanny were soon deep in the mysteries of compound fractions. A

half hour passed away and at the end of that time Billy's sums were done.

"Now, Billy," said Fanny, "see that you do not send me any more letters,

and mind, too, and not wink at me so often; you will remember?" Bill gave

the required promise and Fanny bounded away in quest of her schoolmates,

who laughed at her for taking so much pains with such a dolt as Bill

Jeffrey. That afternoon Fanny resolved to retrieve her character as a

scholar; so she applied herself closely to her task, and before recitation

hour arrived she had learned every word of her lesson. But alas for poor

Fanny. She was always stumbling into some new difficulty, and fate, this

afternoon, seemed resolved to play a sorry trick upon her.

The schoolhouse stood at the foot of a long, steep hill, which would have

been chosen for a capital sliding place by New York boys; but in Kentucky

the winters are, comparatively speaking, so mild that the boys know but

little of that rare fun, "sliding down hill." The winter of which we are

speaking was, however, unusually severe, and the schoolboys had persevered

until they had succeeded in making a tolerably nice sliding place, and

they had also furnished themselves with a goodly number of rather

rough-looking sleds, of which Bill Jeffrey owned the largest. The girls

were all anxious to try a ride down the hill, and none more so than Fanny;

but the boys would not lend their sleds, and the girls would not ride with

the boys, and as the latter always hid their precious sleighs, the girls

had as yet never succeeded in their wishes. But on this day, Bill Jeffrey,

touched by Fanny's unlooked-for kindness, whispered to her, just as school

was commencing, that she might take his big sled at recess.

This was a treat indeed, and when recess came, Fanny, with half a dozen

other girls, climbed to the top of the hill, and began piling on to Bill's

old sled. It was settled that Fanny should guide the craft, and numerous

were the cautions of the girls that she should "mind and steer straight."

"Oh, yes, I'll do that," said Fanny; "but wouldn't it be funny," added

she, "if we should make a mistake and go plump into the schoolhouse!"