Spirit of Jefferson. [volume] (Charles Town, Va. [W. Va.]) 1844-1948, 1878-04-02
MIS- ScELLA N E GUS.
THE HEAD OF THE GLASS.

"NoOW do you spell threshold. Aun.
9S Katy ?" asked Hal as he camo to my
room just from school.
..r>h-r,Gs h>0>l-d," | answered
Good enough" he replied "but was
sure as anything there was two his in tit
sounds So any way. Poor Joe failed in it
to. day, aud he got down one. lie feels aw
full bad about it-yOu know he's been at the
head Of the class for two weeks"
"Oh, psi aw - answered, II wouldn't feel
bad over that 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 Joe
and the rest to come up here and | will tell
you story of something that happened in
my school life that | remember we'll as if
it were but yesterday"
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 no
was very fond Of study, and was never quite
contented until he reached tho head of the
class in which he was.
When he was eleven years old he entered
tho grammar school, and his fnther said at
that time, "W;ilie, if you ever get to be tho
fist one of the first class in the first division
- tina, is. to he at the head of this great
schonI-1 will give You gold watch"
II looked like big job; but Willie was
quite reaGy To undertake it, answered:
"AIl right, papa you can just make up
your mind to hand over the watch by the
time I'm fourteen years old"
lie went to work very much in earnest,
and as he passed from time to time through
the different classes, and succeeded in keep
ing at the head of thcm-often for weeks to-
gether-he began to see that the watch was
1I. hntu
grand he should feel TO take it out and "tell
the fellers the time of day."
Willie was a very generous boy, and was
never so hnpry as when sharing some good
thing with others He always defended the
smaller boys. and if any one was in trouble
he was on hand at once to hel p them ont of
j.. OF course he was great favorite with
10th the boys and girls. and one ever
seemed to envy him because he had rich
father OF because he was so good a scholar.
Ju,t "a he reached his fourteenth birthday
he entered the highest class in the school.
It was now that the watch was to be won or
lost
He had not been in the class a week be-
fore he found that he had a riVal-a sweet
little girl, named Flossie Lee. She had just
come into the school. as her parents had only
recently moved to our village from a distant
city, and Flossie. after an examination. had
been placed in the same class with Willie.
Her parents did not have much money.
but as their little girl vas fne scholar,
they felt that they must send her to school
as long as they could and FIossie had often
told them that she ''meant to be teacher
and earn lots OF money for them"
So you see that, although she did not
have gold watch TO work for, she had some
thing worth great deal more.
And that FIossie Lee was the rival Willie
had found for she very soon skipped over
all the others ADD took her place at the head
of the class; and it looked as though it was
going to be a pretty hard task to get her ont
of.
Quite in despair, one day, Willie said to
his mamma:
Its no use trying. tell you, shall never
gss higher than number swo-sevsr Fioesie