This portrait of a high school literature classroom is one of a series of several such portraits which depict diverse classroom settings of high school literature, and which result from the second year of a teacher-research project in the greater Albany, New York area. This article portrays teacher Mr. McCabe and his eighth grade class in their unit on classical myths. It notes the rhythm to Mr. McCabe's classes, consisting of three parts: housekeeping, exhortation, and myth-telling. The report describes how Mr. McCabe dramatically retells the myths in eighth-grade idiom, inserting little homilies and dressing them up with humor for the consumption of the students in front of him, and how he holds the complete attention and cooperation of his class. The article notes that change and resistance to change are key issues for this middle school. (SR)