Green-Mountain freeman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1844-1884, 1856-08-07
The Log School House.

Between the Ausable Forks and Franklin
Falls, as said to you, is u high region of coun-
try, cold and uninviting for agricultural pur-
poses, desolatc by nature as place of residence
but covered with large growth of timber -
This timber is mine of wealth to the manu-
(actures Of iron, furnishing them with charcoal
for their furnaces and forses Occasionally
you will find city almost of coal pits. Hun
dreds upon hundreds of them clustered around.
Some smoning in the slow progress of combus
ton, some just GOV red. and some already burn
ed, from which sooty, and charred men, had
almost said, are raking away the Goals, and
loading them for the orges. AS matter OF
fact, 1t requires people to chop the wood, build
and burn til, pits, and carry away the Goals
and they are to be found in plenty in log
houses alng the road. As u corroIlary from
these facts, it follows that children will be born
to them, And you will see the sturdy, knotty
and hardy looking little wilderness. born chaps
swarming in what you and might consider in
verse ratio, so far as numbers are concerned, to
any apparent necessity for their presence, OIL
provision for their support. Now in this coun
try, as general thing, wherever you find a
dozen children, you will find school nistres,
and school house. The three institutions
seem to be inseperable, growing along up to-
gethcr, and it is IA glorious thing that it shoult
be 80. 1t develops the native energy Of the
American character, and brings forward its in
ward might.
Well, some three or four miles south o.
Franklin Falls, in the " coal formation" as &c
ologists would say, stood a log house. There
were some fifteen or twenty hcalthylookinl
boys and girls playing, and scamperng, ant
the evidences of a prolific reproductiveness
which seemed to characterize whoever inhabited
it, While We were some distance from it, how
ever, heard 4 loud rappng on the window
sash, and the little ones disappeared with a rusl
into the house. That sound was too full of oil
memories recCllectiuns Of long ago, not to ex
plain the problem that had puzzled me- Tha
log house, standing there all alone in that littl
clearing was school house, u " seminary"
small brancl, of great system, that has throw
and is throwing this country forward with
rush of progress such as finds no parallel in th
worlds history. As we passed it the door stoo
open, and took an observation of the inmates
There was the plain but neatly dressed mistress
with her clean calico dress and black apror
her white neckerchief over her shoulders, all
crossed gracefully over her bosom; her ha
combed modestly and smoothly from ber ior'
8 head, and fastened in knot on the back OF h'
head, standing with book in hand, aud II cla
of little girls before bcr about hearing the
] read One chubby little fellow, of, say, eigl
+ or nine years of age, was standing by hiinse
in the middle of the floor, with a paper cap {
, his head, his pantaloons rolled half way to h
knees, his right hand in his mouth, and h
4 face down in ludicrous-sheepish and sham
q faced fashion. There was no mistaking his p
sition. He was undergoing punishment {
n some sin against the laws of the school, del
a onstratiDg the great truth that . the way
a the transgressor is hard. i" There was som
T.. thing so old-lashioned, so familiar to me in
n This, that was tempted to laugh and cry at t
l. same time, as the past stood out 80 palpat
d before me.
t, Do you think me capable of ridiculing thu
T. primitive people, or primitive schools Th
es ore too important, too essential to the prospe
III ty and progress of this country, in my esin
rs ton for that. remember with feelings Of p
10 found veneration, tho log school house of
e. own boyhood days. 1t was the foundation
g, the small progress have made in life. 1
I'd teachings begun in these log school-houscs, hi
be given direction to, and reused the latent en-
he gics Of many great and good man Of c
e- country, whose names have passed into the /
On tory Of these States, who will live in the worl
ly memory, when thousands of graduates of
u. Colleges and Universities will have perished
o Blessings on that log school house iu the Sa