River Falls journal. [volume] (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1872-2019, 1876-11-23
BACK 70 BoYHooD.

A recent reunion of old school
mates at Window, OHIO. at which our
fellow townsman, Samuel Wales. was
present, suggests the following re-
Elections by one of the number
Childhood again - So we say
when people grow old and demented,
but not SO now. \ company, little
past middle life, some Of them with
cuTls and boards sprinkled with gray,
dark, once schOol-children together,
now gathered from distant states to
visit the old Fairgrounds. and to act
as nearly rs possible as they did when
at school, and talk of the personal pc
culiarities of the many teachers, of
the various and numerous floggings
they got, or should have got.
How naturally things come up, long
forgotten, of the weary moments the
large class stood up to read or spell,
when some spawned youth would lop
on one leg, or turn his feet and stand
on the edges, while the other spelled
out letter by letter the words until he
supposed he had mastered. shrieking
out, in both meaning and pronuncia-
ton. English unaccOmtable. Sudden
ly some unhappy wight, deficient in
bone and muscle, would settle into a
heap, when the teacher would right
him up and select a line upon the floor
to which to bring the toes, or relieve
the book pressed upon the breast or
parted by the pressure of the little
dirty thumb of the reader.
But when play-spell came, how
changed became the whole face of
things They shouted, ran and wres-
tied, slid down the hill or on the ice,
making sundry summersaults, or in
summer, sailed OH the slabs below the
mill, much more useful than when
used for backless benches. But a
great trial of patience and skill was
in trying to corner the minnows--
about equal to spectators trying to
corner the markets. With bare feet
the little operators would step into
the stream ripping down through the
stones, putting their little hands to-
gether and spreading the fingers just
a little TO let the water escape, and so
driving the fish into the shallow wa.
ter. But the sagacious little imps
would dart through some unfortunate
space and vanish. After repeated
failures the patience of some one
would give way, and he would begin
TO fret at something or some one of
his comrades, and they not being i'm a
serene mood, the affair would end in
shower of epithets if not blows
But this part of the play the old schol-
airs did not care to rehearSe, but
chose to run and jump, us best they
could, cross and re-cross the brook,
''skitter" the smooth fiat stones over
the pools of water, gather hemlock
and winter-green, look into the caves
or go through the gorges of the rocks,
drink from the pure spring. making
caps of the large leaves, never think
ing of, or fearing, the school-ma am s
rule, or that ''nOon-spell'' was ont.
They were, however, compelled to re-
gard stern mistress, Necessity. Their
limbs grew weary; enthusiasm burned
DINNER and burned out, and the rosy
pink of the soft smooth cheek did not
return with pure air and exercise, and
the hopeful bright eye returned per-
haps for a moment, soon to assume the
careful, thoughtful expression, loving
too well to carry its accustomed bur-
dens of anxiety and care, realizing the
proverb that ''beauty is vain and favor
deceitful, but home may be the place
of peace and rest.