Knoxville journal. [volume] (Knoxville, Iowa) 1874-1986, 1874-08-20
Our Young Folks.
CALLIE KENNEY's VICTORY.
BY ANNA NORTH.


desk, and the girls were all dressed in
fresh muslins decked with gay ribbons.
II was examination day in Callie Ken
news school There were ever so many
people there, and the girls were all in
great tremble of excitement for fear they
might fail; excepting Callie-she didn't
care much, she felt that she hadn't much
to gain or lose. Everybody knows, i
guess, that Callie Kenney is very back
ward scholar. One teacher called her
little blockhead, and the rest could not
help thinking so, though they did not for
get themselves so far as TO say it. She
would look at her sums and couldn't tell
to save her life what TO do with the fig
ures, She would try addition, and If
that wasn't right would multiply, sub
tract and divide by turns. Sometimes
she would stumble on the answer, but
she was a good deal more likely not to,
for she had never been able TO learn the
multiplication table skipping around"
The letters in the spelling lesson got all
mixed and twisted, and as for boundaries
and rivers and capitals--dear mel
The classes were called up and the ex-
ercises went smoothly on. People smiled
to hear Florence Kenney recIte; she stood
with one foot braced, her curls thrown
back, her eyes fixed on the picture of
George Washington, and answered ques-
tions as if for dear life! Callie wasn't
the least bit jealous of her, she was such
dear, obliging little puss, they loved
her Just as well at home as If she had
been as wise as King Solomon.
Callie was kept in the background as
much as possible, and only managed to
miss two or three questions; but when
the average standing was read and her
name was the very lowest on the list it
made her feel very uncomfortable to see
how grave and sorry her father and
mother looked.
Aren't you going to see how many
marks you can get next term, Callie,
dear?" asked papa on the way home. She
only laughed little uneasily, but quiet
| ly resolved to do the hardest work next
| term she had ever done in her life.
| There wasn't grain of laziness about
| her; anything she could do with her
| hands always gained her credit. She
| was nice little seamstress and must
| clan, drew pretty pictures and had ac-
| quired good, regular handwriting. But
it was very, uery hard work for her to
| learn lesson. She would often make a
complete failure when she had studied
hard She became discouraged; then
made up her mind that she didn't care
much, and got into way of slipping
along in her classes with as little
labor as possible. Having made her
good resolution, Callie commenced work
| at once You can't think how hard she
had to study before she conquered the
multiplication table, but she persevered
until no one could "skip" faster than
she. She would go to sleep at night re-
| peating it she generally got about as far
| as siX-times-seven-ar e-for-ty-and
| that was the last of it till morning. She
learned a little spelling lesson every day,
and once week wrote n letter to her
| grandma, first in pencil, copying it neat
| ly after the mistakes were corrected. A
| pretty good vacations work for a little
girl who would rather do anything else
| than study. Nobody knew what she
was about, either, only Florence sus-
pected.
When school began again Callie had
her hands full; she had to study almost
every minute out of school hours to keep
up at all with her classes Her teacher
assisted her all she could, and Florence
heard her lessons and helped and ex-
plained-as sweet and patient little
teacher as could be. Little by little the
lessons seemed to grow easier, and she
did improve wonderfully.
By the time examination day came
around again Callie was in perfect
tremor of fear and anxiety. The last
time she had interpolation TO lose now she
felt as though everything was at stake.
She sat with her hands clasped tight to-
gether, fairly pale with excitement, and
was just beginning TO be MORALLY afraid
that she did not know the Mines" after
all, when her class was called. Miss
Woodford was perfectly confident that
Callie would do well, and called on her
the very first one:
"Callie Kenney, if one yard of ribbon
cost seven cents how much will nine
yards costy"
Just what she was afraid of--nine
times seven--nine times seven-oh, dear !!
All the girls knew how hard she had
worked, and were watching anxiously to
see how she would get through. The
committee man looked straight at her
Papa and mamma looked away so as not
to confuse her A mist seemed to come be-
fore her eyes; she hid her face in her
hands and sat dewn and wished she
could drop right through the floor. Flor
ence sat just behind her; she stepped for
ward and put her arm around her neck.
"No teilingp said the committee man.
mo, sir, wouldn't do such thing
said Florence. Think minute, Callie;
don't be frightened, you know it just as
well as do" said she.
begin it, DEAR" said Miss Woodford,
1T will come to you, lam sure"
Callie got up desperately. IF one
ward of ribbon cost nine-no, seven
cents, seven--nine yards will cost nine
times seven cents, which is'-all at once
she knew it," sixty-three cents-there-
fore nine yards of ribbon at seven cents
yard will cost sixty-three centsp
livery good, Callie,' said her teacher.
Everybody was glad, and Callie felt as
if she could answer every question in
the book; she did answer several. Then
the committee man asked her:
"If have three nuts in one hand and
three apples in the other, how many have
/ in both?"
"Three nuts and three apples, sir"
said Callie, and he laughed and said she
was smart little girl. He expected she
would say, six" and then he was GO
Ian IN aak her "Siy grbaf Yn