The Portage County Democrat. [volume] (Ravenna, Ohio) 1854-1868, 1859-09-21
for the Don,e Girtlt.
The Hard School.


In the autumn of 1912, I received visit
from one of the experimenting School Com
mittee of tie town of G.. in the State
of New Hampshire. He introduced himself
as Mr.. Blown, and at once proceeded with bis
business. He wished to employ teacher for
one of the schools in this town. He ran his
eye over my frame, and saw the result was +
satisfactory, for he Immediately expressed
desire to secure my services / asked him what
what sort of school it was.
WAL he said with peculiar nasal twang,
and pronunciation not set down by any of
our photographers, its pooty tarnation
hard school, naow, tell ye. BIT yeou've got
the bone an muscle, an reckon as haow
yeou might dew it,
He again ran his eyes over my large. sinewy
Frame and rubbed his hands with evident sat-
isfaction. es
Have schola RS been in the habit of gain
ing control of the school 2 asked.
Lord bless ye, yes. Why, no master can
stan it week. Ye see, Squire. thar,s some
pooty alfred staout boys in that ere school.
Ye see, they work in swamps, an they're kind
O. rough in their waye. We hearn tell e yeou
an was cent 10 see We. An was privileg-
ed to offer ye forty dollars month eff you'd
only come an keep it. That's morn twice as
much as we've ever paid afore'
How large is the school p asked.
| 'Wol-thar's nigh onto sixty scholars all
told, when they come-some boys, an some
gals
/ had l,eard of the school before, and been
! acquainted with an excellent teacher who had
been thrown out from the school house and
rolled in snow bank by the large boys; yet
| resolved TO go and Try it. OF personal dan
ger Ihad no fear, for happened to possess a
large frame and proportionate amount of
nerve and muscle. had exercised freely in
our gymnasium, and there was not another
man in the place who could at all hold bis
strength by the side of mine Nature bad
been lavish in her favors, and evil habits had
not impaired the faculties God had given me-
i told Mr.. Brown would keep the school,
+ 1t was to commence the first day of Dpcem-
ber and to continue three mouths But
told him must have my own way. That in
all things appertaining to the school must
, be master-that my will must be absolute,
even TO casting out half the scholars. He
said should have my own way; and he
/, pledged bis word that the Committe should
not interfere in any way, nor under an5 circum-
+ stances
At the appointed time I packed up my
o wardrobe and school books, and started for
G. When reached the village 1
learned that my school was in distant part
of t'e town-n rugged region known as
Ra,obone Holto0 On the following morning
. Mr.. Brown took me over in his sleigh. /
q found my school house on the edge of quite a
q settlement, which was located in wide valley,
). with high black mountains upon all sides.
is was taken at once to the place where I was to
e board, and in this latter respect was for
y tunate.
n My hosts name was Elias Bonny. He was
e a well-to do farmer-about forty five years OIL
IS age, firm, intelligent man, and one of the
d Select men of the town. He had five children
e that were to attend the school-the oldest be.
" ing girl of nineteen. named Lydia, and the
it youngest boy of seven.
Mr.. Brown remained to dinner, and ther
took his leave and as soon as was alone
with Mr.. Bonny, l began TO inquire particu
>, lary about the school, My host shook hi
head with dubious expression.
You know what boys are,' he said, espec
. tally if the've had their own way for Ions
y time For six winters we've had no schoo
here that could be called q school. There ar
!, quite number of stout boys, and they gen
- orally contrive to get the master out at tn
. end of the week. But think they will fn,
"a it hard to put you out
y. Il don't know l replied. But 1 reall
,e shouldn't want them 10 try it, for I'm not ap
to be very considerate when acting on the de
fensive against mere brute force.
so Bouny said he should think twould be dar
mt gerous for the scholars to make the attemp
But he added with another dubious shake {
the head, the boys are not only stout an
ID, hearty, but there's number of them. Ono
lat get them started, and they don't fear anythip.
They've had some pretty stout master to de,
with.' a5.
ess But how many are there in the school
in | asked, who are really bad-who are read
he to go ahead in any evil pranks p
Bonny pondered few minutes and then r
piled
,it- why, there's only two of them that a
to really ugly; and even they amt ready in cas-
tell of need, but they seem determined to resi-
the school MASTER sa,zt
We kept up the conversation at intervs
FRI until bed time, and when I retired for Il
is night l had made up my mind as TO the natu
ion of the work Ihad to do. had learned enous
a to assure me of several important facts.
the first place. each succeeding master b
gone into the school house with The firm CO
= viciion that he had got TO fight bis W