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"Some said he was. I don' believe it myself, an' most of us boys didn' believe it, but then the teacheh was allers mighty good to us." "Did the revenue officers come up here!" The mountain lad nodded his head. "Often," he said, "an' when they come to the stills they seemed to know ev'rythin' an' ev'rybody. An' then some one tol' that it could be proved on the teacheh.
And then we all heard him say to the teacheh: "'You air goin' to have a fall an' be killed. You air goin' to have a fear o' fallin' all your days, an' you air goin' to be drove to places where you're like to fall. By night you air goin' to dream o' fallin', an', wakin' an' sleepin', the fear is laid upon you." "And that was all?" "That was all," the mountain boy replied.
"How about the revenue men?" asked Hamilton. "They haven't be'n here sence Teacheh went away," was the reply. "An' I reckon they're not wanted." The boy stopped short as the old mountaineer came over to where he was squatting and gave him a long answer to the message he had brought. The old man read it to him from a sheet of paper on which he had penciled it roughly.
"I was allers hopin' Teacheh would come back," said the boy in his listless, passionless way, "an' he seemed so fond o' the school that I whittled a piece to give him when he showed up agin. But now I reckon he an't a-goin' to come back. Does you-all reckon he'll come back from the city?"
"I c'n do better now," the boy said quietly, "an' I've been tryin' jes' as hard as though Teacheh was in yonder schoolhouse. But thar's no one to write 'Very Good' on 'em any mo', an' I reckon thar an't goin' to be. But I'm trustin' that you'll fin' him an' you'll tell him that he an't fo'gotten." Without a word of farewell, the boy struck into the woods and was lost to sight.
Teacheh allers seemed diff'rent; ev'ry once in a while, one of us would see him walkin' on the edge of a cliff, or fin' him dizzily hangin' on to somethin' for fear o' fallin'." "How long did that go on?" queried Hamilton. "'Bout a month, I reckon. An' Teacheh was in trouble more'n more all the time, because folks wouldn' have him boardin' 'roun', same's he'd allers done." "Why not?"
He could only pass by her gate she was keeping house now and sometimes have the ecstasy of lingeringly greeting her there. "Oh, my deah, she's his teacheh, you know. But now, suppose that next Sunday " "Please call it the sabbath, Powhatan." "Yes, deah, the sabbath. If it should chance to rain " "Oh, Judge March, do you believe rain comes by chance?" "Oh, no, Daphne, dear.
Jes' like a flash Teacheh grabbed him so hard that he yelled." "Just with one hand?" Hamilton queried. "One hand. Wa'al, they pretty soon made Teacheh let go the other hand, an' helped him down fr'm the chair an' sat him down in it. As soon as his feet touched the floor, he let go the feller's shoulder an' sort o' lay back in his chair.
"About half an hour after that, one o' the boys dropped his slate pencil on the floor an' it broke, so he asked the teacheh for a new one. The slates 'n' pencils was kep' on a shelf over the teacheh's chair, an' he got on the chair to reach one down.
That's why they're so hard to teach, those po' whites, what they learn doesn't stick. I heard him tellin' yo' about the disappearance o' the last teacheh." "Yes, he was putting it down to 'cunjering. Is there much of that sort of idea in the mountains?" "None among the mount'neers proper," replied the old man.
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