Virginia free press. (Charlestown, Va. [W. Va.]) 1832-1916, 1874-01-31
1" Spelling Down" |"

when. IN q solemn manner the schOol-maSter
stepped upon the rostrum, and erasinS all
traces Of the day anthmoIical exercises upon
the blackboard, suag.. out. in voice, cross
between deacons and a heavy tragedians,
our name, coupled with some member Of the
opposite side, as the two upon whom fell the
honor Of choosing sides.
How high we lifted our cowhide boots as we
stepped of to the corner OF the room where tho
liue Of orthographical ba,Ie was TO be formed
OF course the first name called was. .,hat of our
sweetheart, though, lmust We say it p she was
the poorest speller in the school, aud her for
nation Of words would,frighten. the portrait
of old Noah Webster from the title page Of the
FIRST book. She was the handsomest young
Girl in the whole school; her checks were as
red as a Baldwin apple, and her eurs. which
had been elaborately twisted. around hot po-
ker. were natural, and besides that, she had
agreed to so home from all the singing schools
for mouth ahcal with US. So we chose her
at once, aud while she was tripping to her
place at our side, the other leader, as II to seek
revenge aud pay court to Mars instead OF Ne-
nus, selected for bis. FIRST choice the. very best
scholar in the scheol-a girl. who, though
bomely as Barnums Who Is 1t" could 30
through the spelling book like lightning, and
was as much at home among words Of seven
/ syllables as those Of two. The work began
aud the quota Of spelling was soon filled,
though We must confess that our mind became
slightly confused while holding our girls band
aud choosing at. tic. same time, aud our Is'do
was weak mentally compared Nith.tha. OF
/ Bill Jones.
After oricr7was obtaiaed..amons the schol-
ars. "OId jacket. Dusler, our teacher, would
pull out a dogs cared copy Of ' Websters Ele-
meutary" whose ayieayes bad long since as
cended heayeuwarl in The form of " spit. balls.
aud in voice three keys higher than his ordi-
nary tone, proceeded TO put out the words
alternately to the two sides. The contest
waxcd warmer. and down went all the small
lry P" on the simpler words. At last only balf
dozen were LETT on . side. Our girl bad
come near going down on the word Coffee,
she always commeuced.i il with. 81 butwe set
her reh, IN a whisper, though BilllJones saw
iac prompting aud 7woull havo informed tho
teacher bad he no, at the moment. received a
stunuer in the shape Of phthisic," which oe-
eUpicd bis mind to the. exclusion Of oil else,
bat which he would have mastered had not a
wad Of chcwod papor struck him at.that in
staut IN tie mouth, aud so. affected bis utter
auce as to lead the master to think be had
oui,,ed,oue b. and be. sat down. swearing
and ye had tie satisfaction Of seeing bis ears
slapped with piece OF rubber for. bis profani-
ty There were now five on the other side aud
six ON ours, when the. teacher Of the other
school took the floor. aud wc fsaw- that there
was blood ia bis eye the moment he said,
e. We will now proceed t. spell Bible proper
names"
This exercise soon tLiuned our ranks Fonr
of the cuemy and oucof our forces went down
At oue sho. on Nebuchadne2zrr' "Our
girl" LEI 20 Of our band aud wilted on PhA-
raoh before we could inform her whether I.
commenced with or 2 ; aud finally We keeled
over Cd the simple word Isaac, and the cham
pion was a small .boy.of ten years, who was
named after the son Of Abraham, aud the only
word which he coald spell was that wi,h which
be had won that day.
But tie sorrows and troubles Of our youth
ful days never lasted long, and we soon forgot
our defeat 10 tie happiness Of having the rosy
checked girl al 70 ourself in The back end Of
the sleigh, aud three buffalo robes that we had
stolen to conceal our faces and render unintel-
ligiJle the whispered words Of sympathy and
affection that we poured 10 under tho " kiss
me-quicl, hood that covered her curls. Two
miitens hcld our four hands, and the few strong
peppermint drops that we had been boarding
/ lor tLis occasion were dull and tasteless com
pared TO tic condensed cxtrac, Of sweetness
that we danngly snatched from her lips when
crossing the bridge on our way home. Sho
said SIC had forgotten there we're 50 many
bridges on that road, while we-welI, gentle
reader you cannot have forgotten how the old
thing worked in those days before the war
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