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Now, Rafe supposed, as schoolmaster himself, he would have to punish misconduct He dreaded the moment when he would be forced to place the dunce cap on the head of one of the fun-loving children ere to be his pupils

He could hear the with a ball in the path Soon it would be tiin He was a little nervous now, on his first day at the job He had studied Teaching Methods at the acade and Declaiination and moderately adept at Proverbs But his Mathematical Calculations were a little weak, he knew, and he was very lacking in Stern Demeanor

"YouMethods professor had said at his evaluation "Work at being stern"

"I do try," Rafe said

The Birthday Ball

"Your face makes it difficult, I know," the professor said sympathetically

"My face?"

No one had ever commented on Rafe's face before, except his mother He remembered dimly that she had always called him the bonniest of her boys, a sweet little joke between them because he was her only son

His face was actually fairly ordinary His bright brown eyes were flecked with yellow, and he had a high forehead onto which his brown hair often fell, though he brushed it back so frequently with his hand that it had become a habit

"A stern face," the professor explained, "requires that thehis ainst his teeth He looked quite fierce, actually, when he did it, and Rafe was a little unnerved

"And the forehead should be furrowed," the professor went on "With the forehead furrowed, the eyebrows quite naturally fall into a state of increased bushiness Like so"

He de hishis forehead

"It's an extre quite uncoht of it

"Yes Well Work at it"

"Yes, sir"

"Your face falls into affable lines The corners of your ood for a schoolmaster It deceives the children"

"Oh, I certainly don't want to be guilty of deceiving the children!" Rafe had said It was soly about

Noas his first day as schoolmaster, a day that had come upon him sooner than he had expected, because of the sudden retirement of the previous teacher, who had held the job for e his face He furrowed his brow and set his mouth in a line It was hard to hold it that way, because it ached a little, and

The Birthday Ball

though he didn't realize it, the corners of hisof a smile

Herr Gutray-haired and bearded Rafe, in contrast, was quite young--only eighteen He had co for an apprenticeship in a distant domain when quite suddenly he had been called back to this village, the very one in which he had been born, because of the sudden departure of Herr Gutmann

(He had not been told why Herr Gutmann had left But it was rumored that the love of his life, a wo letter fro she was now lonely)

Thinking of it, Rafe wondered what it ht be like to have a love of one's life It had never happened to hiht of the females he kneell

Hishi after giving birth to his little sister, when he was still a tiny boy She was buried now in the churchyard down the lane from the schoolhouse He had tipped his hat in her honor as he had walked past this very

His sister? He had loved her, too But sadly she also was lost to him forever She had si his studies When Rafe, on returning from the teachers' academy, had asked his father about the whereabouts of his sister, the burly, loud-voiced rease off his beard with one hand and bellowed, "Useless things, girls! I sold her!" and would give no further explanation So he had er sister ever since, and without even a grave tohich he could tip his hat

Other feirl who tended to talk too , tedious stories with no point to them

Then there was Aunt Chloë, orked as the cook at the castle But she had whiskers and warts Rafe knew that beauty ithin But when the without had whiskers and warts, it was hard to venture beyond

Anyway, none of those, he thought, had anything to do with the love of one's life It was a concept he would probably never understand Rafe sighed and stopped thinking about love and what itthat it would probably never co and would love his pupils; perhaps that would be enough Carefully he stacked his papers on his desk in a tidy pile He cleaned his fingernails one more time with a small knife that he kept in his pocket Then he took out his handkerchief and wiped the dust once again froood teacher

He said it to hiood teacher

I will do ood teacher

Then he looked at the carved cuckoo clock on the classroom wall (It had been his mother's, but he didn't want to think about that It made him sad) The clock told him that it was ti the bell that sue children to school

3 The Chaot so s"

Princess Patricia Priscilla frowned "Nothing I want," she said to the chairl picked up a silver-backed hairbrush For a morinned at herself, and blushed

"Not this, miss?" She held up the brush "It's beautiful If you like, I can brush your hair for you, a hundred strokes I can count to one hundred, truly I can And you can sit at the hed "We do that every day I'm tired of it I know! What if" Her face lit up with interest

"What, s around and I brushed your hair a hundred strokes?" Princess Patricia Priscilla reached for the hairbrush

But the cha table and backed away "Oh, no, miss That wouldn't do"