The Plymouth weekly Democrat. (Plymouth, Ind.) 1860-1869, 1868-12-31
PLYMOUTH INDIANA, THURSDAY, DECEMBER 81, 1868.

asking, "Where can the morning have
gomez" and observing to vacant space in
the hall, that "the potatoes were not yet
on the fire." AS for the dominic, he as
cribed all this to our beginning the Virgil
too late; said we might stay on the
benches and finish it now, and gave the
little boys another "take" in their arith-
metics, while we stayed till the welcome
clock struck twelve.
Certainly short morning, boys. So
much for being quiet and good Good
day, now, and pleasant afternoon to
you" 1t is at this point, so far as know,
that my conscience, for the first time,
tingled little.
A little, but, alas, not long We rushed
in for dinner. Poor Miss Tryphosa had
to apologize for the first and last time in
her life Somehow we had caught her,
she said. She was sure she had no idea
hOw,-but the morning had seemed very
short to her, and so our potatoes we're not
done. But they would be done before
long,-and of course we had not expected
much from a picked-up dinner, an hour
early. We all thanked and praised. cut
the cold corned beef, and we fell to,-our
appetltes, unlunched, beginning to come
into condition. My only trouble was to
keep the rest back till Miss Tryphosa's
potatOes-the largest little hard at heart
appeared.
For, in truth, the boys were all wild to
be away. And as ssoon as the potatoes
were well freed from their own jackets
and imprisoned under ours. l cut the
final slices of the beef. Hackmatack cut
the corresponding bread the little boys
took galore of apples and of dOughnuts
oly yaI oil IN ho 1,,po hocl kDA
the hard eggs beside, and the salt, and
hill, stopped in the schOOl-room, locked
the doors, drew the curtain, opened the
clock, cut the packthread, pocketed the
horseshoe, screwed on the bob, and
started the pendulum again, A very
good-patured pendulum indeed 1t had
done the work of four hours in two How
much better that than sulking, discomfort
ed, for a whole hour in the corner of
farmers kitchen
Miss Tryphosa and her brother had the
feeling, suppose, which sensible people
have about half the days of their lives,
"that it is extraordinary the time should
go so fast!" So much for being infinite
beings, clad for only few hours in time
and clay, nor wholly at home in those
surroundings.
Did say 1 would write the history of
that chestnutting? l did not say so. l
did not entitle this story 1.-THE Good
Chestnuts," but "The Good -natured Pen
dulum." will only say to the little girls
that all went well. We waited at the foot
of the hill for few minutes till Clapp
and Perkins came up with mare and
wagon. They said it was hardly half an
hour since school, but even the little boys
knew better, because the clock had struck
one as we left the school house. 1t was
little odd, however, that, as the boys said
this, the doctor passed in his gig, and
when Clapp asked him what time it was,
he looked at his watch, and said, "Half
past ten."
But the doctor always was so queer
Well, we had capital time just that
pleasant haze hung over the whole Into
the pasture,-by the second growth
the stream, into the trees,-and under
them,-fingers well pricked, bags all the
time growing fuller and fuller Then the
afternoon lunch, which well compensated
the abstemiousness of the morning 8, then
sharp game at ball with the chestnut burs
and even the smallest boys were made
to catch them bravely-and as the spines
ran into their plump little hands, to cry,
"Pain is no evil" A first-rate frOlic-
every minute a success. The sun would
steal down, but for once, though we had
not too much time, we seemed to have
enough to get through without hurry.
We big boys were responsible for the
youngsters, and we had them safely up on
the Holderness road, bv Clapp's grand
mothers, Tom Lynch driving and the
little ones piled in-Sarah Clavers in front
with the chesnut-bags, when the sun
went down.
By the time it was pitch dark we were
at home, and we're warmly welcomed by
the master and Miss Tryphosa. Good
! soul, she even made dip toast for our sup
pers, and had hot apples waiting for us
between the andirons The boys rushed
| in shouting, scattered to wash their hands,
and to get her to pick out the thorns, and
some of our fellows to put on some of
the chestnuts to boil. For me, I stepped
into the school-room, and, in the dark,
moved the minute hand of the clock back
two hours. Before long we all gathered
at tea-the master with us, as was his GUS
tom in the evening.
After we had told our times, as we big
boys sat picking over chestnuts, after the
little ones had been excused, Miss Try
phosa said, "Well, boys, am sure am
much indebted to you for one nice long
afternoon" My cheeks tingled little,
and when the master said, Yes, the af
ternoon fairly made up the shortcomings
of the morning." / did not dare to look
him in the face. Singleton slipped off
from table, and think he then went and
replaced the watch-keys.
The next day, as we sat in algebra,
the clock struck twelve instead of ten.
The master went and stopped the strik-
ing part. Did he look at me when he
did SO? He is now Bishop of New
Archangel. Will he perhaps write me
line to tell me? And that afternoon,
when Brereton was on his Scientific
Dialogues" actually the master said to
him, II will go back to the last lesson,
Brereton. What is the length of a
seconds pendulum ?" And Brereton
told him. What should you think the
beat of our pendulum here ?" said the doc
tor, opening the case Brereton could not
tell; and the master explained; that this
pendulum was five feet long. That the
time of the oscillations of two pendulums
was as the square root of the lengths,
Brereton had already said; so he was set
TO calculate on the board the square root
of sixty inches, and the square root of
the seconds pendulum, 39,139 l have
remembered that to this day. SO he found
out the beat of our pendulum,-and then
we verified 1t by the masters watch,
which was going that afternoon. Then
with perfect cold blood the master said,
"And if you wanted to make the pendu-
/ lum 90 twice as fast, BreretOn, what would