Green-Mountain freeman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1844-1884, 1875-04-21
The SchOOl.HOuSe in the Country.

The following picture and the reflections
upon it, by James Russell Lowell. will
touch a responsive chord in many hearts
| Passing through some Massachusetts,
village. perhaps at a di~t,ncr from any
hOuse-it may be in the midst of Il piece of
woods where four roads meet - one may
sometimes even vet see :: small square,
Onc-stOrv building, whose Use would not
be long doubtful. 1t is summer and the
t1ickerlng shadows of fOrc>t-leavcs dapple
the roof of the little porch, whose door
stands wide, and shows hanging ON either
hand, rows of straw hats and bOnnctS that
look rs if they had done COOL service. AS
You pass the open windows. You hear
whole platoons of high pitched voices dis
| charging words of two or three Svllables
with wonderful precision and unanimity.
Then there Is Il pause, and the voice of the
officer in command is heard rrproving
some raw recruit, whose vocal musket
hung fire. Then the drill of the small in
fantry begins anew, but palises ,gain be-
cause some urchin-who agrees with
Voltairc that the superiluous is Il very
necessary thing insists on spelling sub :
traction with an too much.
If You had the good fortune to be born
and bred in the Buy State, Your mind is
thronged with half-sad, half humorous re-
collections. The alb abs of little voices
long since hushed in the mould, or ringing
now in the pulpit, ut the bar, or in the
Senate -clllmhcr, come back to the ear of
memory. You remember the high stool
on which culprit> used to be elevated with
the tall, paper fools'-cHp on their heads.
blu>hing to the ears =; and You think with
wonder how You have seen them since a
men climbing the worlds pcnance-stool>
of ambition without blush, and gladly
giving everything for lle's cap, and bells
And Won have plcasantcr memories of
going af er pond-llirS, of angling for horn
pouts that queer bat among the fishes
of nuttinr, of walking over the creakng
snOw-crust in winter, when the warm
breath of every household was curling up
silently in the keen blue air. Iou wonder
if lif, has any rewards more solid and
permanent than the Spanish dollar tha;
was hung around Your neck to be restored
again next day. and conclude sadly that it
was but TOO true a prophe>v and emblem
of all worldly success.
But Your mOralizng is broken short off
by rattle of feet and the pouring forth OF
the whole swarm-the boys dancing and
~houting-the mere ctfcrvescencc of the
fixed air of Youth and animal spirits un-
corkcd-the sedlter girls in confidential
twos and thrce>. declnting secrets out of
the mouth of one capr-b0nnct into that of
another. Times have changed since the
Jackets and troWSers used to draw up on
one side of the Road. and the patticoatS on
the other. and salute with bow and cour-
tesv the white neck cloth of the plrson or
the squire if it cAancel to pass during in
termlsslun.
Now this lite building. and others like
it, were an original kind of foritication
invented by the founders of New England.
They are the martellotowers that protect
our coast. This was the great discovery
Of our Puritin forcfithtrS. They were the
first lawgivers who saw clearly. and en-
forced practically, the simple moral and
political truth. that knowledge WAS not IN
aims to be dependent on the chance charity
OF private men or the precariou~ plt'anCe
of Il tru>t-fund. bat u sacred debt which
the Commonwealth owed to every one of
her children. The opening of the first
Grammar school was the opening of the
first trench against monopoly in Church
and State; the first row Of trammclS and
pot-hook> which the little Shear ril>hubS
and Elkanlh- blottcd and blubbcred across
their copy-book>, was the preamble to the
Declaration of Independence.