The Indiana State sentinel. [volume] (Indianapolis) 1868-1895, 1881-03-09

81 his babyship, he greeted Us
With merry shout OF glee.
We asked our darling what pleased him
He replied with a face aglOw
Mamma. I'm going to be man.
I've planted myself 20 grow
How Some BOys Kept School without 3
Teacher.
Grandfather Ezekiel was shaking with
laughter. He bodied his head against the
back Of the chair and brought his hands
down on his knees with resOunding smacks.
He took of his spectacles and rubbed them
with his red handkerchief He stopped
suddenly screwed up his face, grosned "Oh"
and put his hand TO his back.
"What is the mstter?" exclaimed the
children; 'Just look at grsndpaps; what
can De the matter with him."
ats the rheumatism said grandfather
Ezekiel becoming calm; 81 laughed so
hard that ] fetched up the rascally witches;
but couldn't help it-these newspapers do
carry on so. Here's one that says this is the
coolest weather since the Revolution. Why,
this isn'ta circumstance to one winter day
when the Oak Township boys held school In
the red school house without teacher.
This is nothing"
its pretty cold out" said Nellie, sand,
grandpspa, you've been mere by the fire all
the week"
Grandfather Ezekiel, who had limped
over to the window 20 take a look
at the snow, didn't notice Nellies defense of
modern weather. Indeed, Grandfather
Ezekiel was deaf every now and then.
''Please tell us about the school with no
teacher" added Nellie.
The other children chimed in with the
same request, but Grandfather Ezekiel didn't
Il, ! L.
chair and as he put coal of fire into his
pipe he began:
sWen, children, that was when I was
somewhere about twelve years old, and it
was few days after New Year. That
morning my father took his three boys to
the school house in a sled drawn by oxen,
Tor the snow was too deep for horses. We
All had extra coats but it was terribly cold,
and when father left US at the school house.
which was in the woods mile from any
dwelling. we were almost frozen. Almost
sll the boys were late that morning and not
a single girl came Well, we waited until
o'clock ana then until 10, expecting the
the teacher every minute. We kept the
stove red not, chopping TIE wovd ourselves
and piling it in without stint. We had y
iolly time all the morning and at noon ate
our dinners, which we had brought with us
n baskets, with great relish. None of Us
could 20 home until the teams should come
sfter US, and having given up expecting the
teacher we cast about for something 10 pass
away the afternoon. One Of the boys, Jack
Shelton, proposed d spelling contest and we
all agreed. Jack said he would be one of
the captains, and Sam Nye, who was Jacks
equal IN spelling, said be would be the other.
30 they tossed up for the first choice. When
the sides had been chosen Jack
had thirteen and Sam thirteen,
and VIII Knight who, though
aineee years old, was the poorest speller
n school, was left out. Will didn't mind
The slight. for he was a good-natured boy,
and SAID he guessed he would give the words
out for US. l was little shaver compared
with the others, but ! was pretty good in
the spelling book, and so was chosen sixth
on Jacks list The first word given out
was 'Odontology, and sam spelled it with
out trouble. The next was 'skein,' and Jack
put the proper letters in shape in a twink
ling. And so the words passed on down
the line until ghost was given out to one Of
Sans spoilers, and the boy whose word it
was spelled it 'gohst. Then there WAS some
excitement, and when our next boy spelled
it right we hurrshed and Sans boys Kissed.
The boy who missed stepped out and we
were one ahead. As the spelling continued
and as the spoilers dropped out one by one
the excitement increased. Finally the lines
were reduced to Sam and Jack, the best
spoilers, and they had it hot and heavy tor
quarter of an hour. After while Will
came across the word phthisic' and hurled
tat Jacks head. Jack hemmed and hawed
and tagged at bis topknot, and finally said
It wasn't fair. Then Sans boys shouted
that il was all right and one of them, who
mad a speller in his hand, slipped over to
Sam and whispered how to spell the word.
He thought we didn't see him, but we did,
and most Of us jumped up on our desks,
shouting: Cheat 'Cheatp Cheat tell
you what none of US were cold then. though
Il was regular zero weather out Of doors.
Jack and Tim Henry were "a red in the face
as tie sides of the stove, and bye-and-bye |
saw there was going 10 be big light. Be-
fore I could get down off the desk Tim
threw bis slate az Sans head and it struck
poor Will on the nose, making the nose
bleed and breaking the slate into little bits
In a moment the bigger boys-some of them
were eighteen and ninteen-pitched into
one another The desks were smashed, the
blackboard was knocked down, the map;
were torn from the walls and meanwhile
every boy was shrieking and bowling at the
top Of his voice.
The struggle got hotter and hotter anc
after q while over went the stove, scattering
big red Goals everywhere. | tried to shove
ND the Goals, out one Of the boys fell on TOT
Of me and / was badly burned-there's thu
scar on my neck now. Well, about tha
time things began to sober down, for th'
room was on fire in several places and th'
boys turned to for the purpose Of saying tn
bnilding. Il wasn't any use, though. Tn
house wss built Of heart pine and i burn
like 90 much finder. We ran out into tn
snOW. barely Taying our books ana OvercOats
and tell you we didn't feel good as we stool
tferc and saw the old red school house gou
in th, smoke. Nor did we feel good wheI
we realized that we must break our wa,
through the snow clear home. 1t was abou
5 o'clock when party of Us who were al
going in one direction started up the road
sam was in our party, aAd he looked terribly
He hung his head and said nothing all tn
way. / never came so near freezing in m
life, and if we had not stopped at the frs
dwelling 10 wait for father with the team
an sure ali Of us would have been frozen Z
death. Did we get scolding when we go
home? Well, should think so, and we so