“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.  He sat there for a bit an’ then he leaned forward, put his hands on the desk, an’ stared right in front of him, jes’ as if we wa’n’t there at all.

“‘I thought I was fallin’,’ he said gruffly.

“We waited a while for him to begin agin, but he jes’ sit there, lookin’ straight in front of him, an’ repeatin’ ev’ry minute or two:  ’I thought I was fallin’!  I thought I was fallin’!’”

Hamilton shivered a little, for the mountain boy told the story as though he were living through the scene again.

“I don’t wonder you got scared,” he said.  “Did he come to?”

“Not right then,” the boy answered.  “We waited a while an’ then some of the fellers got up an’ went out sof’ly.  I went, too, an’ the teacheh never even seemed to see us go.”

“Didn’t you think he had gone crazy?”

“We all knew it was cunjerin’,” the lad rejoined “an’ when we got outside the door thar was Ol’ Blacky Baldwin waitin’, lookin’ jes’ the same as usual.  As I come by, he said, jes’ as smooth, ’School’s out early to-day, boys.’  But I don’t think any of us answered him.  I know I didn’t.  I jes’ took and run as hard as I knew how.  An’ when I got to the top o’ the hill an’ looked back, an’ saw Blacky goin’ into the schoolhouse again, I couldn’ get home fast enough.”

“Was that what broke up the school?”

“Not right away,” the other replied.  “Thar was some that never come nigh the place agin, but befo’ two weeks most of us was back.  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?”

“Wa’al, he’d wake up in the night screamin’, ‘I’m fallin’, I’m fallin’,’ and no one wanted to have a ha’nted teacher in the house.  An’ Blacky Baldwin, he jes’ hung aroun’ the school, and we-all would see him every day, mutterin’ an’ laughin’ to himself.  Then, suddintly, Teacheh disappeared, an’ though we hunted fo’ him everywhar, he wasn’ found.  We-all reckoned he had fallen somewhars, but I’ve thought sence that p’r’aps he jes’ went away, goin’ back to the city, and leavin’ no tracks so’s to make Ol’ Blacky Baldwin believe he’d be’n killed.”

“That sounds likely enough,” Hamilton said.  “But even if he did get away, I don’t believe that he’d want to come back.”

“I reckon not,” the mountain boy agreed.  “Anyway, the school’s shut up now.”