The Plymouth weekly Democrat. (Plymouth, Ind.) 1860-1869, 1868-12-31

as usual, going through the store-closet
on the way. But there was not much en-
thusiasm on the subject of lunch, and
good deal of generosity was observed in
the offer from one to another of apples
and doughnuts-which, however, were
not often accepted. soon stopped this by
saying that nobody wanted lunch, because
we were to dine so early, and proposed
that we should all save our provision for
the,afternoon picnic. Meanwhile, con-
ferred with Clapp about the black mare.
He said she was in the upper pasture,
which was the next field to our sugar-lot !;
and he thought he would run across now
and drive her down into the lower pas
ture, in which case she would be standing
by the bars as soon as school was over, and
he could take her at once, and give her
some grain while We were eating our din
ner. Clapp, you see, was day scholar.
| asked him if he should have time, and
he said of course he should. But, in fact,
he was not out of sight of the he use before
the master rang the beH out Of the win
dow, and recess was over. Even the little
BOYS said it was the shortest recess they
had ever known.
So far as | felt any anxiety that day, it
was in the next exercise. This was the
regular writing Of copies by the whole
school. Now the writing of copies is a
pretty mechanical business, and the master
was pretty methodical man, and when
he assigned to us ten lines of the copy
book to be written in twenty inutes,
giving him five for inspection" he meant
very nearly what he said, as he generally
! did. l ventured to say to Hatmatack and
Clapp, as we sat down at our form, Lets
all write like hokey" But did not dare
explain to them, and far less to the others
why the writing should be rapid. Earlier
than that, my uncle had taught me one
of the great lessons of life, If you want
your secret kept keep it"
So we all fell to-on
Time trips for trifsrs bit flies for the
tastJM,
which was the copy for the big boys for
the day The little boys were still
mum-mum-mumming in very large let
ters Singleton and | put in our fast
est-and Clapp and Hackmatack caught
the contagiOn. The master sat correcting
| Latin exercises, and the school was very
still, as always when we were writing
| How lucky that you never could hear the
old clock tick when the case was shut and
fastened l should not be much worried
now by the stint we had then, but in those
days these fingers were more fit for bats
and balls than for pens, and the up strokes
had to be very fine and the dOwn-strOkes
very heavy. Still, we had always thought
it bore to be kept twenty-five minutes
on those ten lines, and SO we had some
margin to draw upon. And as that rapid,
good natured minute hand neared the V
on the clock finished the u in the last
&C f.ft hf, .rtr atnlx
room left on the line for the !. Hackma-
and Singleton had but few "faithfuls !"
to finish Why do boys think it easier to
write their words in columns than in
lines? Is it simply because this is the
wrong way-O shade of Calvin !-or that
the primeval civilization still fingers in
their blood, and the Fathers wrote SO, o
Burlingame and shade of Confucius?
We sat up straight, and held our long
quill pens erect, as was our duty when we
had finished The little Boys from their
side of the room looked up surprised; and
redoubled the vicious speed by which al
ready their NUNS had been debasing
| themselves into uiutui with the dots to
the rs omitted Faithful Brereton and
Harris and Wells-I can see them now
plOdded on unconscious; could see that
none of them had advanced more than q
| quarter down his page.
For a few minutes the dominic did not
observe our erected pen-feathers, so en-
gagged was he in altering "sense line " of
Singletons or somebody's. The "sense"
ofthis line was, that " the virtuous father
of Minerva always rewarded green con-
querors," such epithets and exple-
tives having suggested themselves
from Brownies Viridarium. But the
last syllable of "Palladis had
got snagged behind cOnsOnant, and the
amiabe dominic was relieving it from the
over pressure. So we sat like Roman
senators, with our quill sceptres poised
not coughing nor moving, nor in any way
calling his attention, that the others might
have the more time. And the little boys
fairly galloped with their NUNS, But our
sedate fellows on the other form plodded
painfully on--and had only finished seven
lines when Mr.. Whipple looked up, saw
the senators and the sceptres, and said, re-
proachfully: "You cannot all have hur-
ried through that copy! The chestnuts
turn your heads" With the moment he
turned his, to see that the minute hand
past?" he said, innocently. IL beg your
y
we are unconscious of time. Well, well
let us see. Rather shabby, George
rather shabby; not near so good as yes
terday;
Some strains are short, and some arr
shorter:
and you too, Singleton. / do not know
when you have been so careless-you both
i of you are in such haste. See, Wells and
Harris have not yet finished their lines"
Wells and Harris l think were as much
astonished in their way for it was not
their wont to come in sixth and seventh
fairly distanced, indeed-on any such
race course. But there was little time fol
criticism. That good natured pendulum
was rushing on. The little boys escaped
without comment on those vicious ms
and, it there were anything in the system
each one of them ought to write com
, monwealth" now, so thatit should pass tn,
proof reader as "counS(hg house" Blu
, there is is not much in the system, and
!, dare say they are all bank presidents, eji
, tors, professors of penmanship or othe
men of letters.
The clock actually pointed at quartz
of eleven Now at 1890 we should hav
been out at recitation, translating Ca
milla we'll over the plain. We ha,
thrown her across the river on a lane
D the day before. We shuffied out, and
4 still in hurry, had TO be corrected 70
8 speed by the master. then assumed
r more decorous tone, his grated nerve
9 were soothed as he heard the soothing ca
I dences OF the Latin,-and then, of course
t Just the same thing happened ds before
q The lesson was ninety lines, but we ha