The young men were especially pinched as to their
expansive chests, the broadcloth coming much too short at this point, and
shrugging up oddly enough at the shoulders, while the phenomenally slick
arrangement of their hair was calculated to produce a depressing effect
on the mind of the observer.
As they came in one by one, in a matter of fact way, and Grandma Keeler
announced hopefully to each in turn--"and this is our teacher!" they
accepted the fact with no more flattering sign than that of a dumb and
helpless resignation to the inevitable. They seated themselves about the
room in punctilious order, assuming positions painfully suggestive of a
conscientious disregard for ease, and seemed to draw some silent support
and sympathy out of their hats, which they caressed with lingering
affection touching to behold.
Grandma beckoned me aside into the pantry which immediately adjoined the
kitchen, and informed me in one of her reverberating whispers, that I
"mustn't mind the boys being slicked up, for they'd sorter dropped in to
make my acquaintance, and, if we wanted the pop-corn, it was in a bag down
under where the almanac hung, to the furtherest corner of the wood-box.
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