St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1880-02-20
A Rhyme of the District School.
BY NORMAN c. PERKINS.


BY NORMAN C. PERKINS.
Tread at the third annual banquet of the Sons of
Vermont at Chicago Jan. 16, 1ss0.I
The small square schOohouse with its sloping she'd
With clap boards covered, always painted red,
Stood like Fame's temple that did overlook
The Hill of knowledge in the spelling book
Twas Learning's cheap and ever free abode
And public, for it stood right in the road.
Its play-ground stretched, with many guide board
sign,
From Massachusetts up to Derby Line.
Within, the teachers throne stood at the end L.
Two rows of desks on each side did ascend,
With seats in front for little victims, where
Their feet hung useless, dangling in the air.
A mighty stove down in the middle stood
And roared all day with heaps of maple wood.
There may have been a blackboard, and perhaps
There hung a set of Mitchell's Outline Maps
This was the school of forty years ago;
We DON remember it ourselves, you know,
For we are boys yet, and we do but seem
Gray.headed patriarchs, walking in a dream.
Our hair is falsel and where the bald spots rise
They do but show how thin is the disguise!
Once more see that troop of little girls
With shining hair, all innocent of curls,
imprisoned close IN Hbllo Sllkth ueIs,
Barefooted, and with calico pantalets
All vending school-wards on the Summers day
Now stopping to pick berries by the way
Now standing all arrow, with glances shy,
To make their manners to the passer-by!
The school.ma am sits there as of old she did
Her watch ticks loudly, in her bosom hid,
AS to the little pupil at her knee
She points the letters out, from to q,
With that sharp penknife which she always had
| To cut off children's ears when they were bad
Once more through open windows comes the tone
Of murmurng bees-the harvest-bugs long drone-
The hammers sound comes from the distant shop
The swallows twitter in the chimney-top,
And children read, with many drOwsy nod.
That mo man may put of the law ofGod"
What house could hold that crew of bOsterous boys
Whose sex and presence were made known by nois'
AS of winter morning they rushed in
| With caps of fur, and dinner pals of tin,
With trousers legs tied down with bits of twine,
| With rosy cheeks that evermore did shine
With healths own luster; with the melting tracks
Of snow balls sticking still upon their backs,
And Stood in coats that their own mothers wove,
To thaw their aching fingers at the stove2
There stands the youngster, with quivering lip,
Who was the snapper" when they snapped tn
whip"
And whose short length end over end did go
And stuck head foremost in a drift of snow.
Here stand the big boys, who for mornings play
Have taken a run good half mile away
And slid down hiIl-there was no "coasting" then
And drawn their sleds with patience back again.
Soon order came; each racked his little pate
Der dire subtractiOns on his tiny slate,
And learned that maxim, dear to many men,
when you are short, you always borrow ten.
Some playful wight perchance doomed to sit
Between two girls, retribution fit
For his great crimes; and so he learned cen then
> The truth that comes in time to all young men
'Tis more than twice as hard for Adams son
To sit with two girls as to sit with one!
Behold that spelling class, with eager look
With hands beside them-fnger in the book
No looking sideways. and no looking back
Heads up, and every toe upon the crack
Ranged in long line like soldiers as they stand,
: Ready to bow and "curchy" at commando
The times have changed boys still can make
bow,
But where's the girl can make ''curchy now .
Now here tonight. before school is done,
, Wen read once more the Fable Number One:
IAN old man found a rude boy in his tree,
A-stealing apples;" from which fact we
The scene is laid not in Vermont-nO but
Down in New Hampshire, or Connecticut.
''The old man desired him to come down with VIII;
he'd got;
t But the young sauce-box told him plainly he wou
| not"
Now every boy that we knew at our school
Always came down, and with hiS pockets full !
80, won't you,' said the old man then 1 wi
fetch you DOWN."
Who ever heard such language in Vernon
q town2
$50 he pulled up some tufts of grass and threw
him,
Which made the youngster laugh, up on that lin
Well, well, said the old man, if kind words ar
grass won't do"
3 Just see how wicked this bad old man grew =
"I'll try what virtue now there is in stOnes;'
And pelted him heartily"-may be broke b
bones
e (which made the young chap hasten down fro
the tree
And beg the old mans pardon."-No we
This stOry's meant for children very small,
And is nothing but a fable, after ALL
1 The Moral of this tale each schoolboy Obvio
Il fOund:-
always steal apples when the old man isn't round