Connecticut western news., 1877-07-06
YOUTHS COLUMN.

A Country Schoot.-When I was 9 a very ittie house The fiittle lady herself lived in another little house, which was divided from the little school house only by little garden. did not know then how little the houses, and the garden, and my schOOl-teacher were. Miss Garoline seemed large and powerful tome; and as for her ferule, it looked HiggeE to me than the big trees trees of fs Sesed sa RH %ep ahen saT went Back, Erdwh Ioman, to my old home, and walked past Miss Caroline's cottage and the little old school-house hardly could believe my eyes, every thing was so tiny; and I could have picked Miss Caroline up under my arm. ,ag .
 The Schoo}-house had, been a shoe makers shop once, and some of the shoe-maker's furniture had been left in it. There was the bench on which he used to sit and work; this had 8 little open box at one end, where he used to keep his tools; this bench stood in the middle of the room, in Front of sat on it to recite their lessons. The end which had the open box on 1t was called the "head" of the class. Once l kept up 'at the head" in spelling. a whole week, and grew so used to hav- ing hold of. the edge of the box, and slipping my fingers back and forth on it, that when lost my place, and had 8 boy orgifl on my left side, had hard work notto keep all the time talk ing hold of their arm S, instead of the box. There used to be 5also 8 little drawer under the bench, at this end: but Miss Caroline had that taken off, after she found out that it was there Ned Spoford hid the "spit-balls" he used to fire up and down all the classes he recited in. Oh, what bad boy Ned Spofford was! But how we all did like him! Even Miss Caroline herself, 1 think, liked him better than any other scholar in all the school; and yet he gave her twice as much trouble as all the other scholars put, together. But he was so good -natured and affection ate that nobody could help loving hlna, in spite of his mischief. He never re-, sisted nor struggled when she had to punish him. 1 really think he got fer uled as often as once 8 week; but he used to hold out hls hand the minute she told him to, and look straight into her eyes while she struck him. Some- times he would bite his lips, and the tears would come Into ms eyes, but he never cried, nor begged of, as the rest of us did. He was as brave Sas mis- chievous. Even when he had to sit on the dunce- stool for twenty minutes with his mouth wide open and a piece of scorn-cob set firmly between his teeth, he never cried. This was Miss Caroline's worst punishment. I think if she herself had tried it once. to see how much it hurt. she never would have had the heart to intiict it on us. At first, when she wedged in~the piece of cob, you felt like laughing that any body should think such a thing as that could be much of 8 punishment; but pretty soon your jaws began to ache, and then the back of your neck ached and ithen, sthea,pain reached up in to the back of your head, and into your ears, and it became real torture; there was not a single boy in school that could bear it without the tears stream ing down his cheeks, except Ned Spof- ford. Miss Caroline very rarely did it to girls; think no one but Sarah Kel- logg and I ever had 1t. We were the worst girls in school; we two and Ned Spofford were the three black sheep in Miss Caroline's little fiock.-St. Niclto- Jas.