Dodgeville chronicle. [volume] (Dodgeville, Wis.) 1862-current, 1869-01-01


| overcast with a heavy Indian-summel
,mist, SO we could not compare clock
| with the sundial 81 "a 80
| The little boys carried out their lunch
as usual, going through the store-close,
on the way. But there was not much en-
thusiasm ON the subject of lunch, and Q
good deal of generosity was observed in
| the offer from one to another of apples
and doug s-which, however, were
not often accepted. I 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 foI
| the afternoon picnic. Meanwhile, [ con.
ferred with Clapp about the black mare
He said she was ia 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 SIS 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 a day scholar.
| asked him if he should have time, and
hesaia of course he should y But, in fact,
he was not ou6 ofsigft ofthe house before
the master rang the bell 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 methodieal man,, and when
he.assignedStO us ten lines of the copy
book to be written in twenty five inutes,
giving him five for inspection" he meant
very nearly what he said, as he generally
did. ventured to say to Hatmatack and
SClapp, as we sat down at our form, "Let's
all write like Hockey" But I 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 lessonsof life, eff you want
your secret kept, keep it," -
SO we all fell tom
Time trips for trifers, but files for the
esd brs bsJaitAfM, feol las 7
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 I 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! 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
a Yf, 4 fo,
on those ten lines, and so we had some
margin to draw upon And as that rapid,
,good.uatured minute hand neared the Y
on the clock finished the in the last
+" faithful having unfortunately z no
room left on the line for the ]. Hackma-
tack was bit word behind me, and Clapp
and Singleton had but few "faithfuls !"
to finish. Why dc. 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 Tor that
the priIneval civilization still fingers in
their blood, and the Fathers wrote so, 0
Burlingame and shade of Confucius?
We sat up straight, and held our long
quill pens erect, as was our duty when we
mad finished The little boys from their
side of the room looked up surprised and
redonbled the vicious speed by which al
ready their neatn1s had been debasing
themselves into u6uiui with the dots to
the is 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
quarter down his page. r,
For a few minutes the dominic did not
observe our erected pen feathers, SO en-.
gagged was he in altering q sense line of
Singleton's or somebody's. The "sense"
of this 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
amiable dominic was relieving it from the
oVerspressure. 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 copyl The chestnuts
turn your heads" With the moment he
turned his, to see that the minute hand
had passed full halfcircle "Is it half
past?" he said, innocently. ct beg your
pardon; but ameng the Muses. you know,
we are Unconscious of time. WeN, well,
let us see. Rather shabby, George
rather shabby; not near SO good as yes
terday agss
Some strains are short, and some are
shorter
and you too, Singleton. do not know,
when you have been SO careless-you both
of you are in such haste. See, Wells and
Harris have not yet finished their lines"
Wells and Harris I think were as much
astonished in their way; for it was not
their wont to come in sixth and seventh
fairly distaneed, iRdeed-on any such
race course. But there was little time for
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 that it should pass the
proofreader as 'couning-house.' But
there is is not much In the system, and I
dare say they are all bank presidents, edi-i
tors, professors Of penmanship, or other
men of letters.
The clock actually pointed at quarter
Of eleven |! Nowtat 1890 we should have
been out at recitation, translating Ca
milla well over the plain. We had
thrown her across the river on g. lance
the dav before We Sshufffed@ nuf and T