St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1877-11-30
The Head of the Glass.

/ AaVJ dShcu I1di, dS lie came TO nv
room just from school.
'"T-h-r-e-s-h-o-l-d,n / answered.
"Good enough !" he replied "but
was sure as anything there were two his
in it,-it sounds so, anyway. Poor 10
failed in it to-day, and got down one.
He feels awful bad about it-you know
he's been at the head of the class for
two weeks.
"Oh, pshaw!" answered, 81 wouldn't
feel bad over that,-I don't think it's
quite fair to keep at the head all the
time, and not give any one else chance.
Go down and ask Jo and the others to
come up here and will tell you story
of something that happened in my
school life that | remember as well as
if it were but yesterday"
THE STORY.
Willie Fiske was one of the very
brightest boys in town, and although
he loved fun as well as any of the rest
of his mates, yet he was very fond of
study, and was never quite contented
until he reached the head of the class
in which he was.
When he was eleven years old, he
entered the grammar school, and his
father said to him at that time, 'WilIie,
if you ever get to be the first one of the
first class in the first division,-that is,
to be at the head of this great school,
l will give you gold watch"
1t looked like pretty big job but
Willie was quite ready to undertake it,
and answered =
''All right, papa you can just make
up your mind to hand over the watch
by the time Pm fourteen years old"
He went to work very much in earn
est, and as he passed from time to time
through the different classes, and sue
ceeded in keeping at the head of them,
often for weeks tOgether,-he began
to feel that the watch was pretty sure
thing, and would imagine how grand he
should feel to take it out and tell the
fellers the time of day.
Willie was very generous boy, and
was never so happy as when sharing
some good thing with Others. He al
ways defended the smaller boys, and il
any one was in trouble he was on hand
at once to help them out of it. OF
course he was great favorite with both
the boys and girls, and no one ever
seemed to envy him, because he had a
rich father, or because he was so good a
. scholar.
Just as he reached his fourteenth
birthday he entered the highest class in
D the school. 1t was now that the watch
was to be won or lost!
He had not been in the class week
' before he found that he had a rival, "a
very sweet little girl, named FlOssie
Lee. She had just come into the school
as her parents had only recently moved
to our village, from distant city, and
FlOssie, afteI an examination, had beer
placed in the same class with Willie.
= OF course she was stranger to us all
but there was something so pleasant il
Z. her face, and her manner was so gentle
L that if she had chosen she could have
had hosts of friends, but she seemed t6
prefer to keep IA good deal by herself
Her simple dresses, with the neat ruf1e'
> in the neck and sleeves, with her frest
white aprons that never seemed to get
IA spot on them, looked very plain be-
side the stylish suits of the other girls
: Perhaps she felt this, and SO kept apaI
from them. But one thing was sure
Flossie was at that school to get he
education, and she knew that she mus
= make the most of her time. Her pa
rents did not have a great deal o.
money but as their little girl was
|
send her to school as long as they could
and Flossie had often told them tha
she meant to be teacher and earn lot
of money for them.'
So you see that, although she didn'
have a gold watch to work for, she hat
something worth "A great deal more.
And this Flossie Lee was the riva
Willie had found for she very soOI
= skipped over all the Others, and tool
her place at the head of the class an(
it looked as though it was going to b
a pretty hard task to get her out of it
Quite in despair, one day, Willie salt
to his mamma -
sIt's no use trying, l tell you, / shal
II never get higher than number twO,-
= neuer! Flossie Lee can't fail. But there
one thing about it; if any one has go
to keep me from getting to the hea'
= this year, I'd rather it would be Flossi
than anybody else in school, for l lik
e her first rate" And 1 guess he did, TO
many fine pear or bunch of grapes, o
= delicious orange, did Willie take from
his own home table, and watch hi
chance to put them into FlOssie's modes
little lunch basket that hung under he
sacuue in the hall of the school, for a
st he told his mamma, one day, 'Flossl
never seems to have anything but crack
ers, or bread and butter, for luncheon
and she almost always goes off by hel
self to eat it, when all the rest of us ar
8. having lots of goodies and tell yo
it's fun, mamma, to hide, and waite
y, her ewes shine when she finds the thing
I've put in /! l guess she thinks 1T
some good fairy that puts them there
don't you p
One day at recess, as group OF ooy
= and girls were chatting together abor
{! a very hard lesson they had just finish
he ed reciting, in which every one OF tn
an class had failed at least once, save Flo'
P: sic. one of the boys who was ratht
Ice Ice rough in his way called out:
"Say, Will Fiske you can bet on OF
= thing pretty sure, and that Is: you
9 never get that gold watch as long
Flossie Lees in the class. Number OF
in she is, and number one she'll stay p
lis lis 81 know that" said Fanny Huntie.
wy who never had perfect lesson IN h'
rs av- life, 81 should think you'd be as mad
srs fire at her, Willie, instead of doing wh
to- l saw you do to-day. Who was 1t p
that orange into her basket, l shon
. like to know, eh 7"
rFore I'd be such tell-tale, II
MT. Huntley,n said bright girl in the grou
sed s.if you weren't always peeking roun
ms you wouldn't see SO much"