При сохранении произошла ошибка, попробуйте снова.
Если ошибка повториться, пожалуйста, напишите нам об этом в обратной связи - Написать сообщение!
At a quarter to nine the schoolchildren gathered in School Number Seven. When they learned that Miss Gunderson was ill and heard that they were going to have a new teacher, they began to whisper to each other: "A new teacher! We shall have a new teacher!"
The news traveled fast. The children were very glad to have a teacher whom nobody knew.
Stuart came at nine. He parked his car at the door of the school and boldly entered the classroom. He climbed up the leg of the teacher’s desk, and then jumped on to the top of it.
There he found a bottle of ink, a pointer, some pens and pencils, a piece of chalk, and three or four books. Stuart climbed up to the top of the books and said: "Attention, please!"
The boys and girls gathered around the desk to look at the new teacher. Everybody talked at once. The girls giggled and the boys laughed. They were pleased to see such a small teacher.
"Attention, please!" repeated Stuart. "As you know, Miss Gunderson is ill and I am taking her place."
"What’s the matter with her?" asked a boy called Roy Hart.
"Vitamin trouble," said Stuart. "She took Vitamin D when she needed A. and Vitamin В when she needed C. Let it be a lesson to all of us!"
He looked angrily at the children and they did not ask anything more about Miss Gunderson.
“Now everyone will take his or her seat,” commanded Stuart. The pupils sat down and in a moment there was silence in the classroom. Stuart got down from the books, walked to the front of the desk, cleared his throat and asked:
"Anybody absent?"
The children shook their heads.
"Anybody late?"
They shook their heads again.
"Very well," said Stuart. "Now we begin. What is the first subject that you usually study in the morning?"
"Arithmetic!" shouted the children.
"Bother arithmetic!" said Stuart. "Let’s skip it."
At these words the children shouted with joy. Everybody in the class was glad to skip arithmetic for one morning.
"What is the next subject?" asked Stuart.
"Spelling." cried the children.
“Well,” said Stuart, “of course, people must spell correctly. It is dreadful when people make mistakes in spelling. I advise you to buy a dictionary and look up the words in it. So much for spelling. What is next?”
The children were very glad to skip spelling too, and again shouted with joy. They looked at each other and laughed and waved their handkerchiefs and rulers, and some of the boys threw paper balls at the other boys. Stuart had to climb to the top of the books again.
"Quiet, please!" he said. “What is next?”
“Drawing,” cried the children.
“Oh, dear,” said Stuart angrily. “Don’t you know how to draw yet?"
“Of course we do!” cried the children.
“So much for that, then,” said Stuart.
“History comes next.” cried a little girl called Elizabeth Gardner.
“History? I don’t like that subject," said Stuart. “I don't like to talk about the past. Let us talk about something interesting.”
The children looked at each other.
“What shall we talk about?" they asked.
“Let us talk about snakes,” said Arthur Green.
“I don’t like snakes," said Stuart.
“Can we talk about Miss Gunderson?"
“No, we can’t,” said Stuart. “Let us talk about the King of the World.” He looked at the children.
“There is no King of the World," said Harry James. “Kings are out of fashion."
“All right,” said Stuart. “Then let us talk about the Chairman of the World. The world often gets into trouble because it has no chairman. I would like to be Chairman of the World myself.’’
“You are too small,” said Mary Smith.
"Nonsense!” said Stuart. “Size has nothing to do with it.’- The Chairman must be clever and he must know what is important. How many of you know what is important?”
All the children raised their hands.
“Very good,” said Stuart. “Jimmy Rock, tell us what is important."
"Sunlight, blue sky, and a bird’s song," answered Jimmy.
“Correct,” said Stuart. “These things are very important. But you forgot one thing, Jimmy. Mary Smith, what did Jimmy forget?"
“He forgot ice-cream with chocolate on it," said Mary quickly.
“You are right,” said Stuart. “Ice-cream is very important. Well, I shall be Chairman of the World this morning. But we need some laws’ if we are going to play this game. Can anybody think of any good laws for the world?”
The children began to think. Stuart wiped his face with his handkerchief, because he was very tired, and said:
“Let us have a break now, and after the break we shall continue’ our lesson.”
And he sat down to have a little rest.
When the bell rang, all the children came back into the classroom and took their seats.
“Now, who wants to be the first?” asked Stuart.
Arthur Green raised his hand.
“Don't eat mushrooms, because there are many toadstools in the forest," -he said.
"That’s not a law,” said Stuart. “It is a piece of friendly advice. Very good advice, Arthur, but advice and law are not the same. Law is much more important than advice. Who else?”
“Don’t steal,” said Roy Hart.
“Very good.” said Stuart. “A good law.”
“Never poison anything but rats,” said Harry James.
“That is not good," said Stuart. “It is unfair to rats. A law must be fair to everybody."
“Why must we be fair to rats?” asked Harry. “Rats are very unpleasant.”
“I know that they are,” said Stuart. “But from a rat’s point of view,’ poison is very unpleasant, and the Chairman has to see all sides of the problem.”
“Have you a rat’s point oi view?” asked Harry. “You look like a little rat.”
“No,” said Stuart. “I have a mouse's point of view, but I think that everybody must have his rights in the world. Who else?”
Mary Smith raised her hand. “A law against fighting.”
‘It is impractical,” said Stuart. “Boys like to fight, and they will fight all the same.’ Elizabeth Gardner, your law!”
“Not to be mean to“ one’s comrades," said Elizabeth.
“A very fine law,” said Stuart. "But I must say it will be difficult to keep it. There are many mean people in the world. But if you, children, are not mean to each other, and teach all the other boys and girls not to be mean to anybody, perhaps we shall make the world a better place.”
He wiped his face with his handkerchief again because he was very tired. It was not an easy job to be Chairman of the World.
“Now, children, I wish you all a good summer. Summer is wonderful and summer is very important.”
“Like the sunlight!" said Roy Hart.
“Like the blue sky!” said Harry James.
“Like a bird’s song!” said Mary Smith.
“That’s right," said Stuart. “It has been a pleasure to know you all. The lesson is over."
Stuart got down from the teacher’s desk, went quickly to the door, climbed into his car, waved his hand and drove off to the north. The children ran along the road after the car and shouted, “Good-bye, good-bye, good-bye!”