Des Arc weekly citizen., 1869-01-19

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 Hackmatack. Half an hour each O one of the simplest problems in th
 book. And must put off the othe i. boys till tomorrow" The other boy ,l were little amazed at their respit, . but took the goods the gods provide , without comment. We went to ou seats. and in very few minutes itwa quarter of ten. and we were sent ont [ recess. Recess, you know, was guar ter Of hour;it generally began at qulr
 ter or'eevrn, but to day we had it a quarter of ten, because school was al
 hour cartier. 1 say qu,rter of ten be cause the clock said so. The sun wa
 overcast with heavy Intlian-summc l mist, so we conld not compare th' clock with the sundial.
 The little boys carried out thei lunch as usual, going through the store closet on the way. But there was ne much enthusiasm on the subject 0 lunch. and good deal of generosit, was observed in the offer from one tt another of apples aud doughnuts-- which, however, were not often accep ted. I soon stopped this by saying that nobody wanted lunch, because Vt were to dine so early, aud proposed that we should all save our provision for the afternoon picnic. Meanwhile I I conferred with Clapp about the black mare. Hc 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 dpwn into the lower pasture, in which lease 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 whilc we were eating our 1 dinner. Clapp. you see, was day scholar. asked him if he should have time. and he said of course he should. 1 But. in fact, he was not out of sight of the house before the master rang the bell out Of window, and recess was over. Even the little boys said 1t was the shortest recess they had ever | known.
 So far as felt any anxiety that day. il was in the next exercise. This Was the regular writing of copies by the whole school. Now the writing of hcopies is a pretty mechanical business, and the master wasa pretty methodical | man, and when he assigned to us ten i lines of the copy-book to be written in twenty-fve minutes, giving him five for ..inspection,r he meant very nearly what he said, as he generally did. ventured 10 say to Haimatack and | Clapp, as we sat down at our form. Let's all write like hokey." Bui I did moi dare explain 10 them. and far less to the others wlsy the writing should be rapid. Earlier than that, my uncle had taught me one of the great lessons of life. 'Ifyou want your secret kept keep it."
 So we alL fell to--on
 Tme Trips for trifers. but .Ries .t;r Me
 .faahJat
 which was the copy for the big boys for the day. The little boys were still mum-mum- -mumming in very large letters. Singleton and put in our fastrst--and Clapp and Hackma- tack caught the contagion. The mas ter 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 taslell- ed! 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-sirokers had to be very fine and life down-strokes veH heavy. Still, we had always thought it d bore to be kept twenty-five minutes on those ten lines, and so we had some margin tu draw upon. And us that rapid, good malured mnu,e-hand ncared the V. oil the clock l finished the in the lasl ",aithIui --lmving unfortunately nc room lelt on the line Tor the l. Hack. matack was but word behind me, and Clapp and Smglelon had but few "failhiuls' to finish. Why do boys think il easier to write their words ii columns than in lines? Is it simply be. cause this is the wrong wa.--O shade of Calvin LOT that the primcva civilization still fingers in their blood aud tue Fathers wrote so, 0 Burlin' game and shade of Confucjus?
 We sai up straight, and held oul long quilt pens erect, us was our dui. when we had finished. The little boy' from their side of the room looked ul surprised; and redoubled the vicious speed by which already their niunl' had been debasing themselves into uluiui with the dots to the is omitted Faithful Brrreton and Harris and Weil~--I can sec them now-pioddeo on unconscious: cou.d see that nons of them had advanced more than ' quarter down his page.
 For iew minutes The dominic did not observe our erected pcn-ieatiicrs so engaged was he in altering Il sens, line of Singleron or sonlebudy's s ] The "sense" oi this line was. that "th' virtuous father of Minerva alwayi ] rewarded green conquerors.' suci epitheis and explosives having sugges . ted themselves from Brownes Virida } rum. But thelasi syllable oi ''Palla dis" had got snagged behind conso nant, and the aniable dominic Wa