Montgomery County sentinel. [volume] (Rockville, Md.) 1855-1974, 1875-06-04
Our Spellin' Bee.
" Rocky RIDGE May 81. ]

Rocky RIDGE" May 81, 1875
Mr.. EprToR My dorter julie come runnin'
into the house last week and she says, says
she, Pop, we is goin' to have spellin' bee
down to scool" got little mad for thot
she were tryin' to poke fun al me and | said,
''Look here, julie, don't YOU fool with me in
in that way, If amt got no eddication lest
ways | know how to spell and rs jist got
sense enuH to know that no bee can larn to do
it, and il sumbody has fooled you by telin'
YOU theys goin' to bring spelin' bee 10 scool
you can't fool me- But when she told me
that bee ment a mache | seed the whull
thing but how itcould meme that, can see,
and there is lots of things " hat they is gettin'
new names, for what nobody understands.
When | seed what the thing was was ms
much in for it as julie, for knowed there was
gon' to be lots of fun. Well, you see the
scoomaster was to give out the words and
the scolers was to spell EN-, and if one spells
more words than all the rest then that one
was TO git dixonary.
And that schoolmaster is darned good
one, too, and people says there ain no better
in the country, ana knowed if any of 'em
missed word he'd see it at onst. There is
one Teller bin hangin' round here what's bin
tryin' to git the scoo from the marster for
hsself. But be DON ware good close like the
uarster and be don't ware shinin' buttius in
bis shirt what he pays dollar for and he's so
much Older than the marster, that he wouldn't
take SO much panes with the little girls, and
play kissin games with 'em, and of corse they
wouldn't like him like they do the marster.
Well knowed he didn't know nothin', SO
thot I'd take him down to the spellin bee
and git him 10 spell for the dixonary, AND
make him show how had be spelled Well,
tux him down, and put him in the class, and
every body round the country was there TO
hear him. The fust word the marster axed
him was selry, and how do you think he
spelled i'll Why, he said said be, ''c-e-l-e-r-y''
and everybody LATED, and the marster saws,
says he, that aim right" and so he stepped
down.
They kept on spelin', and tell YOU they
spelled hard for that dixonary, but at last there
want none left, except julie and nuther Teller,
and they kept spellin' Till thot neither one
would beet, but at last he Civ out pertater and
This Teller, he says, says he, ''p-o-t-a-t-o.
WE'LL | thot would bust, for | tried TO keep
from latin as he had spelled SO good before,
and the teacher says, 'that amt right"
Then he Civ it to julie, and julie stopped and
thot, and ! was so afeard she was going to
miss it that | said low so nobody but her
could hear me. ] says, "Jule p-e-r-t-a-t-e-r,n
and she spelled it that way and got the dix
onarv, and my want she proud of it? She
coulGn'ta bin no prouder it she had a new
bonnet, and everybody in church was lookin
at it,
and believe all the children would grow up
and know nothin' If 'twant for him. He
knows how to teach French, too, and he wont
let julie say nothin' to him less she talks
French, and they's always talkin' French, but
don't know nothin' about il, but I guess be
] ont talk about nothin' but scool matters,
aid they must have darned lot Of scool mat