Belmont chronicle. [volume] (St. Clairsville, Ohio) 1855-1973, 1878-11-21

lOOlu lIOn SCubOl.
"T-h-r e-s-h-o-l-d," 1 answered.
Good enough" he replied; 'but l
was sure as anything there were two
his in tit sounds so, anyway. Poor
Joe failed on it to-day, and he got down
one. He feels awful bad about it-you
know he's been at the head of the class
ft r two weeks"
.-Oh, pshaw| l answered, would
not feel bad over that don't it's quite
fair to keep at the head all the time,
and not give any one else a chance. Go
down and ask Joe and the rest TO come
up here and l will tell you a story of
something that happened in my school
life that l remembered as well as if it
were but yesterday"
Willie Fisk was one of the very bright
est boys in town, and although he lov-
ed fun as well as any of the rest of his
mates, yet he was very fond of study
ard was never quite contented until he
reached the head of the class in which
he was.
When he was eleven years old he en-
tered the grammar school, and his faith
er said at that time "Willie, if you
ever get to be first one of the class in
the first division-that is to be at the
head of this great SCHOOL, will give
you a gold watch"
1t looked like big job; and 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 l am 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 four weeks together-he began
to see that his watch was a pretty sure
thing, and he 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 seemed
to envy him because he had a rich faith
er, or because he was a good scholar
just as he reached his fourteenth birth
day he entered the highest class in the
school. 1t was now that the watch was
to be worn or lost!
He had not been IN the class a week
before 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 mon
ey, but as their little girl was fine
scholar, they felt that they must send
her to school as long as they could; and
Flossie had often told them that she
meant to be teacher and earn lots 81
money for them"
So you see that, although she did moi
have gold watch to work for, she had
something worth a great deal more.
And this Flossie Lee was the rival
Willie had found; for she very soon
skipped over all the others and 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 out of it,
Quite IN despair, one day, Willie said
to his mamma:
"It's no use trying, tell you, l shall
never get higher than number two
never! Flossie Lee can't fail. But
there's one thing about it; if any one
has got 80 keep me from getting to the
head this year, PG rather it would be
Flossie than anybody else in school, for
| like her first rate" And l guess he
did, for many. fine pear or bunch of
grapes, or luscious orange did Will take
from his own home table, and watch his
chance to put them into Flossie's mod
est little lunch basket that hung under
her sacque in the hall of the school,
''for" as he told his mamma, one day,
"Flossie never seems to have anything
| but crackers or bread and butter for
luncheon, and almost always goes off by
herself to eat it. when all the rest of US
ore having lots of goodies; and l tell
you it's fun. mamma to hide, and watch
her eyes shine when she finds the good
things I've put in! l guess she thinks
it's some good fairy that puts them
there, don't you?'
One day, at recess, as group of
boys and girls were chatting together
about very hard lesson they had just
been reciting, in which every one OF the
class had failed at least once, save Flos
sic, one Of the boys, who was rather
rough in his way called out:
Say, Will Fisk, you can bet on one
thing pretty sure, and that is: You'll
never get that gold watch as long as
FlOssie Lees in the class. Number one
she is and number one she Will stay!
Il know that" said Fanny Huntley,
who never had pelfect lesson in her
life, Il should think you'd be as mad
as fire at her, Willie, instead of doing
what l saw you do to day. Who was
it put that orange into her basket, l
should like to know, eh?''
"'Fore I'd be such telltale. Fan
Huntley," said bright little girl in
the group; ''if you weren't always peek
ing round you wouldn't see so much" !"
81 don't care" answered Willie, II
am not ashamed of it. Yes, did put
an orange into her basket, an wish
had the chance oftener for she's good
and kind, and l like her the best of any
girl in school-so there now" and tuln-
ing on his heel, he called ont:
Come on, boys, let's have game of
hawkey before the bell rings" and in
two minutes he had forgotten all about
it.
Not so with FlOssie, who had heard
every word The children had stood
directly underneath an Open wind NV.