Marshall County Republican. (Plymouth, Ind.) 1856-1878, 1872-04-18
Fun at Winter School.

got eager to 90 to the district school
| winter. There is such a chance
learning that he must be dull
who does not come out in the sprin
| f2ir skater, an accurate -baller,
an accomplished slider down-hill,
or without board, on his seat on
stomach, or his feet. Take a mode
| nil, with foot-slide down it worn
| ley smoothness, and there is noti
ike it for whiting away boot Leaf
! The boy is the friend of the shoema
| An active lad can wear down pa
| cowhide soles in week, so that the
will scrape his toes. Shedding or C,
| ing is also slow fun compared to
" bareback" sliding down q steep
hill over-a hard, gllstening crust.
not only dangerous, but destructive
iacl1et and pantaloons, to a degree
make a tailor laugh. If any OF
animal wore out his skin as a sch
| BOY does his clothes in winter, he VIC
need a new one once a month. I
country district school, patcheswere.
by any means a sign of poverty, but
the boys courage and adventurous di
position. Our elders used to threaten
TO dress us in leather and pu
sheet-iron seats in our trousers.
The boy said he wore out his tr0wsers on
the hard seats in the school-house,
cyphering hard sums. For that extra
ordinary statement he received two
castigations, one at home that was mild,
and one from the schoolmaster, who
was careful to lay the rod upon the boys
sliding place, furnishing him, as he
loosely called it, on sliding scale, ac-
cording to the thinness Of his panta-
looms.
What / liked best, however, was the
study of history, eacly history, the In
dian wars. We studied it mostly a
noontimes, and we had it illustrated as
, the childrens nowadays have object
lessons" though it was not so much to
have lessons as TO revive old history.
Back of the school house rose a round
hill, upon which, tradition said, had
stood in colonial times, block house,
built by settlers for defense against the
! Indians. For the Indians had the
] idea that the whites were not settled
! enough, and used to come nights and
settle them with a tomahawk. 1t was
. | called Fort Hill. 1t was very steep on
! each side, the river running close by.
! 1t was charming place ii summer,
! where one could find laurel, and checker
e berries, and sassafras roots, and sit in
. the COL breeze locking at the noun
s tains across the river, and listening to
: the murmur of the Deer6eld The
. Methodists built meeting house there
) alterN ards, but the hill was so slippery
: in winter that the aged could not climb
= it, and the wind ragged so tiercely that it
= blew nearly all the young Methodlsts
:, away (many of them were afterwards
!; heard of in the Vest, and finally the
meeting house itself canie down into
the valley, and grew steeple, and en-
loved itself ever afterwards. 1t used to
d be notion IN New England that 9
j. meeting house ought to stand as nea'
IS heaven as possible.
" The boys in school divided then
le selves into two parties one was the
to early settlers, and the other the Ie-
st quots, the latter the most numerous
to The early settlers built a snow fort on
ly the hill, and a strong fortress it was
as constructed of snow balls rolled up to &
Ii vast size (Iarger than the Cyclopiar
is blocks Of stone which form the ETus
of can walls in Italy,, piled one upon an
.e. other, and the whole cemented by pour
ne ing water upon it, which froze and mad
b. the walls solid. The Pequots helpe'
II. the whites build it. 1t had a covered
Of way, under the snow, through whicl
IS only could it be entered, and it ha'
We bastions, and towers and opening
IS through which to fire, and great man
" other things for which there are n
at names in military books. And it had
Id glaois and ditch outside.
as When it was completed, the early Sc
lie tiers, leaving the women in the schoo
he house prey to the Indians, used to re
he tire into it and await the attack of th
ire Pequots. There was only handful {
Ise the garrison, while the Indians wei
many, and also barbarous. And it W;
in this light that the great question W,
settled, whether boy might snowba
o.. with balls that he had soaked over nigl
r.. and let freeze They were hard as cobb
he stones, and if boy should be hit on tt
Cd head by one of them, he could not te
~, whether he was a Pequot or an ear
an settler. 1t was considered as unfair
an use these ice-balls in open fight as it
1la to use poisoned ammunition IN real wa
NO But as the whites were protected by
,1t fort, and the Indians were treacherol
81 by nature, it was decided that the latt-
he might use the hard missiles.
.an The Pequots used to come swarTniI
mo up the hill, with hideous war-whoop
,oI attacking the fort on all sides with gre
10 10 noise and a shower of balls. The gar
IF son replied with yells of defiance al
itb well-directed shots, hurting back the
yae vaders when they attempted toscale t
o~. walls. The settlers had the advanta
a of position, but they were sometim
non overpowered by numbers, and won
he often have had to surrender but for t
! 70 ringing of the school bell. The PequC
were in great fear of the school bell.
do not remember that the whit
ever surrendered voluntarily; but on
!. or twice the fort was carried by stor
ler, and the garrison were massacred tc
lere boy and thrown out of the fortress, b;
the ing been first scalped. To take a DO
TED scalp was to take his cap, and after tt
was he was dead if he played fair. The
Tere were great many hard hits given a
few taken, but always cheerfully, for it V
IN in the cause Of our early history. I
gre history of Greece and Rome was st
e1- compared to this.