The Vancouver independent. (Vancouver, W.T. [Wash.]) 1875-1910, 1881-08-11
SHUTTING OUT THE SCHOOLMASTER.


of it. 1t is a custom more honored in
the breach than in the observance. Per-
haps it never was the custom here in
Massachusetts,, but this happened among
the hills of northern New Hampshire,
where, the saying is, the people look up
the chimney to see if the cows are COM
ing home.
I was little fellow, not more than
so, of course, I took no part in it, but
I was there and saw the whole transac-
ton; and scared enough L was, 1 can
assure you.
Seth McMarsters was the leader in
the affair. He was six feet tall, and
strong as a giant, and at that time he
seemed to me quite old, though he
could not have been past nineteen.
Then there were the Christie boys,
Zach and David, and Eph Murray and
Steve Wilson, and good many more
of the "great boys" as we called them,
all ready to follow Seth's lead.
wonder now that the seiectmen Of
the town did not put stop to such an
outrage. Perhaps they thought it would
not be consistent to forbid acts in the
rising generation that they INDUCED in
when they were young, and shutting
out the master on New Years Day had
been custom in that town since the
very first school house was built.
In fact, come to think of it, the school
house of which I am speaking was the
first, for before that was put up, they
used the old log garrison house for
meeting house, town house and school
house.
1t was small square building painted
red, and stood so close against Il hill
that, in summer, the sheep grazing there
could easily look in the window. l re-
member often thinking how pleasant it
must be to be sheep with nothing to
do but wander about under the summer
sun, instead of little boy sitting on a
hard bench studying.
On the New Years Day of which am
going to tell you, we all collected at the
school house long before nine o'clock.
There was no waiting for the masters
bell that morning. The weather was
cold and clustering, but St.Fe Wilson
had made glowing fret was his week
to build it-and the way the flames vent
roaring up the chimney would have as
tonished some of you, who never saw n
real old-fashioned fireplace on its best
behavior.
The boys having fastened the door of
the school house and closed the wooden
shutters of the back windows, sat down
to watch for the master. He was not q
favorite, and most of us had made fam
liar acq uaintance with his ferrule. But
besides this, he had boosted that the
scholars "never could shut him out of the
Il. Il Irr,fr 10
human nature to want to do it.
Perhaps l ought to tell you here that
the floor of the school was an inclined
plane. If you dropped an apple from
one of the back seats, it would not stop
rolling till it reached the teachers desk.
1 have seen it tried good many times.
So, although the front windows were
very high from the ground outside of the
house, they were not very high from the
floor.
How could the back seats be under
the front windows, do you ask? Oh,
easily enough; back being used with
reference to the teachers desk, and front
with reference to the street.
Soon the cry was heard from the watch
ers, 1.-THE masters coming! The masters
coming!"
Yes, there he was, his ieng legs
ploughing through the snow, his long
nose projecting beyond the visor Of his
fur cap, and his long fingers clutching at
the cloak with which the wind was doing
its best to carry off over the tops of the
houses.
BE quiet! Heads down." said Seth
McMarsters. So when the master reach
ed the schoolhouse all was as still as
death. There wasn't a face to be seen at
the windows. He fumbled at the latch
few minutes, and then threw himself
against the door like battering-r ram.
"He'll burst the lock-" said one of the
Christie boys.
"Come on; we'll fix him" said Seth.
SO they got great beech log ont of the
wood-pile and set one end against the
door, and the other against the wall.
The master pounded at the door u few
times after this, all the time ordering the
scholars to open it. He then threatened
them with o fogging if they did not, but
they only laughed in reply. Presently
finding that neither his orders nor his
threatenings were needed, he stopped
both pounding and talking.
Then all was so still that We thought
he must have gone home. Suddenly his
head appeared at one of the windows.
He had gone round to the shed and got
the saw-horse and a few sticks OF wood,
which he piled together and mounted.