Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1873-07-18
ABOUT CHILDREN.

The Utica Herald tells how an Oxford
school-mistress punished three truants who
the other day went fishing instead of at
tending to their studies On the following
morning they held consultation as to how
they could best prepare for the wrath to
come, the result of which was that they en-
tered the school-room each dressed in ;hree
pairs of winter pantaloons. An uncom-
Portable morning wore away noon came
but no whipping. The day was extremely
warm, but the whipping would surely come
during the afternoon. The afternoon passed
away at last. The hoy with the newest
trowsers on thought it never would. Before
the scholars were dismissed the three run
aways were requested to remain The end
of six hours sweltering had at last come
The trial of juvenile ingenuity over peda-
gogical severity was near at hand. The rest
of the scholars gone, the three recreants
were summoned before the teacher, who
merely lectured the boys briefly on the i'm
propriety of running away from school, and
then dismissed them. Three warmer, more
ungraeeful OF more supremely disgusted ur-
ehins never threw mud at a strange boy than
they who emerged from the schoolhouse and
ambled sorrowfully homeward.
\ seyen-year-oldster inquired of us the
other day, Papa. how much is twice four"
and when we replied with parental kind
ness, - eight. my boy" he made very
pleasant, but somewhat unbecoming remark
about jolly green, or words to that effect
Then with his pencil he made n boyish look
ing figure 1, then he made another adioin-
ing it, then with a dignity that 20 years of
a pedagogue life might covet, he asked us,
witha smile that was childlike and bland,
. which does that look the most like. eight
On 44?' Apparently the argument was all
on one side, and we sent him to the mater
nal side of the room in hopes that BY prac-
teal application he might learn something
emphatic about doubling up endways. But
even there sympathy sided with the juvenile
joker and his cheap conundrum. Such things
sometimes do tempt man to take family
government into his own hands. Bcnninq-
ton Banner.
The Troy Press says that clergyman
while talking to the children in one of the
Sunday schools in that city Sunday, asked
them what holyday occurred next week. A
bright little girl in the infant class promptly
answered, g the Fourth of July
Don't let your children play alone in the
barn. The only son of Prosper Keep of
Erie county, Pa, got hung in the barn the
other day, and as he hung four days before
they found him, his usefulness as an only
son was pretty much destroyed
There are few emotions of the human soul
for which we feel more sympathy than the
heroic efforts of small boys to emulate the
splendid deeds of their patriot forelathers
To the generous youth who chopped down
his fathers favorite cherry and noblv
said his elder brother did it, we offer admif-
ration and fluctuations. Bootless it were to
call the sacrifice incomplete the feeling of
a lofty heart was there, and as Daubson.
the unappreciated artist, says 81 Feeling 5
everything" VIE: sadness we read of the
unmerited fate of the Taunton boy who late
ly perused for the first time the story of Put
nam and the wolf. Fired by the tale. this
glorious boy seized his grandmother's an
Gent and most araiable cat, and thrust her
into the cellar. Then, armed with n torch
and bunch of deadly fire-crackers. he
brayely entered the darkness to meet the
fearful animal. Hearing bowling, yowl-
ing, a popping, etc. the kind grandmother
of that true-hearted lad pounced down the
cellar stairs and returned with her hero,
Would that we might record scene OF
pathetic tenderness and gratitude but no
Suffice it to say that three distinct and un-
pleasant switches were cut that afternoon
from the plum-tree in the venerable lady's
garden.-N. Y. Tribune
At Murienburg, Germany, schoolmastel
severely punished a little boy for nattention
and when the noon recess arrived locked
him up in the schoolroom. The child, only
ten years old, sat down and wrote letter te
his parents asking their forgiveness, made
/ his will, and then deliberately hung himself
| He was dead when the school room was re.
opened