Port Tobacco times, and Charles County advertiser. (Port Tobacco, Md.) 1845-1898, 1846-01-08
MISCELLANE OUS.
THE DEAD COW BROOK SCHOOL.

In Poetry and Prose- by Cur1aeI Pardon Jones, B. s. M
TUNE-tsW spare that tree"
When but little boy
tn Cow Brook School went;
First Webster was my joy,
Then Daboll my intent;
Murray went clean through,
And learnt his rules by hart,
And read in the 'EPreceptor'' tew,
And then in the FEThird Part.'
Then DER the crusted snow,
With Joyous steps | trod
The white birch bending low
With iccles did nod.
With hand-sled in my hand
The hillside steep | sought,
And Joined the merry band,
And the way we used to ride down hill,
one arter another over the glare ice, and sometimes
clean smack acrost the swamp medder pond at the
foot was caution in railroads.
Phil Antny was our schoomaster
larned man was he;
In 'rithmetic he'd gone as fur
AS the Double Rule of Three!
He'd studied physic: tew,
And where he boarded round
He cured worms and tizzick tew,
With roots dug from the ground.
Upon the hill it stood,
That schoolhouse old and warm,
With that big pile of wood,
1t laughed at cold and Storm
The hillside slope in front,
How glorious in the view
We used tn slide full half a mile
On sleds and dug-outs, tew!
"The boys may gwout," says the school
master, says he, one forenoon, ''and du you
90 and break your etarnal necks a ridIn'
down hill in that hog troth, and you see
what you'll ketch when | git holt on you,
that's all Stop! Come back, all on you
come back! Is that the way to gwout, like
passel of skeert sheep runnn' over one
another? Where's your manners: Halnt
] told you more'n hundred times bout
that? Now start, one til a time, and when
you git to the door, turn round and make
your manners, every one on you. Sy Har-
rington, come right straight back here, sir !!
You're a terrible smart Teller, Amt you ,
Mebby you thought didn't see you, when
you was pretendin' to make bow, hump
your forrard agin Reuben Johnson's nose,
on purpose! Jest see how you made it
bleed don't cry Reuben, I'LL feel better
arter it's done achin."
81 didn't go tn du it; Rube come pushin'
up jest as turned round to make my mall
ners; didn't have room tn du it, 'thout
hitn' him on the nose"
"What did you push up that fashion for,
Reuben; hadn't you no more sense than
that %
81 couldn't help it; Jim Wright stuck
pin intu me, and it kinder made me Jump
forrard little, and''-
.Wall, 90 long out, both on you, and be-
have yourselves, and tell Jeems Wright tn
come here; | have bizness of importance tn
do with him."
And away went the boys, and they hadn't
been out tew minnets alore they was both
mounted on a hand-sled streakin it down
hill like chain lite'nin. There wasn't boy
In school that wasn't coastin in some way
or another. Some was on sleds, some on
planks, some on logs, some in wooden trays,
and them that hadn't nothin else to ride on,
would set down fiat on the ice, and let 9TH
ers drag 'em by two strings tied round their
ankles. But they all remembered what
Doctor Phil Ant'ny told 'em, and nobody
didn't fetch the big hog-troth. There it
stood, right on the startin pint, as eazy as a
hair-trigger to 60 of: l've seen dozen fell
lers git into it, all twisted together, to the
bottom of the hill, like young rats in meal
tub. Wall putty soon Doctor Phil Ant'ny
come out of the school house, to look for
Jim Wright, but Jim had jest started in his
little tray-the swiftest craft on the track,
'cept the big hog-troth-and his bushy red
hair was beginnin to stream back like a
blaze of fire. "Stopn' cried Doctor Phil,
"stop, you little sarpint, or Pll be arter you,
and give you the wust lickin you ever got
in your life % II can't" cried Jim, lookin
back, "the critters got started, and faint no