The Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1837-1867, 1847-11-06
LOCKE AMSDEN,
THE SCHOOLMASTER.
by THE AUTHOR OF "NIAY MARTIN" AND THE
SCREEN MOUNTAIN BOYS"


SCREEN MOUNTAIN BOYS"
Our story, contrary perhaps to fashionable
precedent, opens at common farm house,
situated on one of the principal roads leading
through the interior of the notherly portion
ofthe Union. 1t was near the middle of the
day, in that part of the spring season when
the rough and chill features of winter are be-
coming so equally blended with the soft and
mild ones ofsummer upon the face of nature,
that we feel at loss in deciding whether the
characteristics of the one or the other most
prevail. The hills were mostly bare, but
their appearance was not that ofsummer:and
the tempted eye turned away unsatislied from
the checrless prospect which their dreary
and frost-backened sides presented. The
levels on the other hand, were still covered
with snow and yet their aspect was not that
ofwinter. Clumps Of willows, scattered a.
long the hedges, or around the waste places
OF the meadows, were white with the starting
buds or blossoms of spring. The old white
mantle of the frost-king was also becoming
sadly dingy and tattered. Each stump and
stone was enclosed by n widening circle of
bare ground; while the tops of the burrows,
peering through the dssolving SHOWS, were
beginning to streak, with long, faint, dotted
lines, the selt-disclosng plough-ields. The
cattle We're laZIly Illuminating i'll the barn
yaru, occasionally loving aud casting wish
lui Sihhce nj the Dare hlls around, but with
out offering to move towards them, as if they
WonSht That the prospects there were hardly
Suiilcleht 10 induce them yet to leave their
winter quarters. The rth-lo"ug sheep,
however, had broken t"0in their fold, and
having reached the borders of the hills by
some partially trod path, were busy nibbling
at the roots ofthe shrveled heritage, unheed-
tul of the bleating cries of their feehler com
hfy h.,1 lotfZ al 81, ,,I,
erous snow-drifts, encountered in their mi
graons from one bare patch to another.
The owner of the farming establishment,
IN reference to which we have been speak
Ing, was in the door-yard, engaged in split
ting aud pilng up his yearly stock of fire.
wood He was q man Of about forty, not of
very intellectual countenance, indeed, but
ola stout hardy, and we'll made frame, which
showed to advantage in the handsome and
appropriate long. striped. wooden froct, in
which he was plying himself with the mod
crate and easy motions which are, perhaps,
peculiar to men of great physical power. A
rugged and resolute looking boy, of perhaps
a dozen wears of age, having thrown himself
upon one knee before small pile of prepar-
ed wood, lying near the kitchen door for i'm
mediate use, and having heaped the clefts in
to one arm till thew reached TO his chin. as if
in within to see how much he could carry in.
was now engared in irving with n conric;ous
bravado. like air, to balance an additional
stick on his head. by way of increasing his
already enormous load.
In another mart of the ward and no neor his
master as he could remain undisturbed, lay
the we'll fed house dog reclining upon his
belly, with his muzzle which was pointed in
direction most favorable for lookout,
resting on a clean. broad chip, with ears at
tent, and eyes keenly following the slow
creeping motions of a small carriage, that
was now seen in the distance winding along
the road from the south; of whose approach
he from time to time, as he considered him
self in duty bound, gave notice by low
growl, which as the vehicle at length emerg.
ed from some partially screening bushes in.
to plain and near view, was raised tc
lazy ,Uo,oi The carriage in question prov
ed to be light, open wagon, drawn by on,
horse, and containing middle-aged man, OF