Green-Mountain freeman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1844-1884, 1873-01-08
Mistellanu.
Farm and SclOOl in 1922

At the age of twelve, new scenes and
new employnents We're opened to me. NJ
father took farm on shares with the
owner, who also owned some fifty Others,
aud who, of course, was the great man OF
the town. He got these farms by lending
a little money on them, which be foresaw
the poor borrowers could never pay, anu
then closing up the mortgages. He was
generally regarded as very hard land
lord. And it seems, as | look back over
those times, that men generally were much
harder, more exacting and unfeeling il
their business transactions than they are
now. Fathers of large families were drag
ged from their homes and long kept u
jais for small debts; the towns poor
were annually let by auction to the lowest
bidder; and there was a general selfish
ess, or inhumanity, which no public opin-
ion would now tolerate.
The poor farm which we took upon
halves j. E., to give the owner half o
all we could get from 1t, had been skinned
by former tenant; bat as my father ana
older brothers were very eff ;en; workers,
we managed to get along better than ever
before.
The scene of this new life was in the
same town, two miles from the others al
ready described. Our house was old and
uupainted two stories in front and ont
behind, with chimney that literally oc-
cupied the center. There was a dark.
unventiated hole, called cellar, which
have special reasons for remembering ana
with which | have had some terrible as
sociations. There were no closets with
doors, where things could be put away,
but few inches in the great chimney ana
shelves in the corners Of the room. |
suppose this old construction of houses
grew out of the fact that people then had
so little furniture of any kind, they want
ed to give conspicuous places to every
thing they had got Why have closets to
shut things away, when there is nothing to
put in them when people ate off pewter
plates, and carried their whole wardrobe
on their backs, without being burdened
or, in any present sense, halfcothed?
In this old-tashioned farmhouse, | lived
this third chapter of life. The work was
hard, hoeing corn, chopping wood, taking
care of cattle, and all the usual heavy f. I'm
work but it was out in the freedom of
the air and sunshine, with the variety and
reality of nature: and this, after years of
factory confinement, was delightful
Then by walking two miles | could at.
tend school two or three months every
winter. Here was another source of i'm
provement and happiness, which through
past experience, l was fully prepared to
appreciate. That district school, which
now. after half century, seems so poor
in itself and so mean in all its surround
ings, was the best thing then known to me
1t stood in the geographical center of the
district, without reference to any accom-
mediation of the majority Of the inhabit,
ants, alone, on bleak hill, at consider
able distance from the ground, with only
stone post under each corner, like the
old fashioned corn-barns. 1t was a square
room, with low ceiling, single floor, with
many cracks, and its only door opened
from the cold northwest corner. So, with
the coming in and going out of the scholars
the bringing in Of great quantities Of
wood to supply the large, open, all-devour
ing fire place, there was no lack of venti-
latlon; aud | need not add, there wa.
plenty of freezing and thawing, many
flushed heads and cold feet, in that littl,
boxy room.
Then we had different teachers almos
every season, several of whom i have oc
casion to remember without much interes
or affection coarse, rough, ignorant men
rude in manner, and ungrammatical il
speech. chosen partly because they wer,
large and strong, and not likely to spoi
the boys 5y spariDg the rod. The school
were not graded in those days. All tb
youth of the district, FROM four to twenty
one years, attended, aud were under on
teacher. Many of the boys who went l.
these short winter terms were strong. full
grown young men and the strength q
the master was often called into rcquis
ton. But what scenes those school-row
pres Died TO children Of tender and i'm
pressibe sgei
| remember, one very stormy day, who
only few went home at noon, and man
were standing round the fire at the clos
of the hour recess, came in just as tn
order had been gwen for the scholars t
take their seats; did not hear the order
ard remaining moment. unconscious G
any disobedience, the master came VI
put his hand in my hair. and jerked m
backward to the floor; then pulled me up
and ordered me TO hold out my hand for
feruling. This happened at a time whe
the patience of the school Was exhauste,
by the tyranny and brutality of the master
Two of the largest boys came to my de
Tense, and, thrusting the tyraut from tn