The Eaton Democrat. (Eaton, Ohio) 1875-1903, 1883-01-25
CARRYING OUT THE SCHOOL.
- MASTER

CARRYING OUT THE SCHOOL,
ssHe don't know a hawk from a hand
sawr' said Jad Day. eff he did, he
wouldn't come here.
"But we'll teach him so't he'll know
afore we git through with him. He'll
git the consate taken out of him."
laughed Jote Yates.
Won't he thought" chorused Ziby
Swan, .sCuffy" Wyman and Nat Durfee.
These were some of the Kaidger boys.
They were lounging about the school
house waiting for the new master to
gin that morning.
20, you think yer smart" retorted
Sally Briggs. 'sTalk about consate! He
may take the consate out of you. It'll
be a pity if he don't"
who's that just spoke up and said
nothin' 2"i sneered Jote, looking round
with mock seriousness.
The others laughed and Sally was
silenced, but she determined not to for
get the insult.
ssThey say he ear store cloes," said
Ziby. 81 s'pose he thinks we eve saw
any here. won't he feel honored,
though, when he hears us all salute him
when he comes IMP"
s.Here he comes. fellers, Just round
the turn out by the alders thar" cried
Nat. .sBe ready now to veil when he
comes in. Bray and whfnny just yer
prettiest soon's he shows his head in the
door,
The boys at "Kaidger HILL" were a
rough set. as the reader has already
seen. They had the reputation of being
the worst in the country; at least in the
town of Gainsboro', where the Kaidger
Hill school-district was located. Since
the town was first settled, there had
been trouble in school here nearly every
winter.
1t was not wholly the fault of the boys.
The parents were constantly quarrelling,
n family with another. The year be-
fore my story opens there had been loud
contention concerning the school-house,
the old one having m~ysteriouslv taken
fire and burned. Some of the towns
people wished to build a new one, but
the majority thought it best to occupy
for school purposes a recently erected
log house, which a young settler had
built, intending to make his home in
the district, but who had suddenly
changed his mind and departed for an
other State.
Rumor said that this young settlers
prospective wife had changed her mind,
which accounted for the change in his.
Grieved and disappointed, he had turned
his back on the place forever and gone
to seek a truer love and to start anew in
a distant State.
1t Happened, therefore, that after much
wrangling the log house was taken for
a school-house. 1t was a strong struct-
ure, t~wenty-four by twenty feet on the
ground. At a distance of twenty-five
feet fromAthe house there was a low, but
strong, log cow-barn, fifteen feet by
twelve, with a roof of large .splits''
covered with turf.
The house had a front door and four
windows, also an end door opening into
a covered way, or portico, connecting
with the cow-barn.
But few alterations were made; the
cow-barn with its connecting covered
walk, being used for a wood-house. As
l have said, there was a door opening
out of the sehool-room into the covered
walk, and there was also another door
where this walk connected with the
wood-house.
The other outside door of the former
eow-barn was now nailed up, so that
the only way into the present wood
house was from the school room. The
doors were each provided with strong
iron clasps" and staples, as is common
In such pioneer structures. From this
rather peculiar arrangement of the
wood-house it bore, among the boys,
Che nickname of the ''trap."
L have frequently noticed that where
the parents in a good school district are
at variance, that district is noted for i'll
behavior and rebellion in the school
room. The Kaidger-Hill district was
an extreme case of the truth of this
statement.
Jad Day, "Cuffy'' Wyman, Jote
Yates, Nat Durfee and Ziby Swan were
rough youngsters, from seventeen to
nineteen years old, not lacking in bone.
or Drawn, boastful of their powers at
rough and tumble, and correspondingly
deficient in intellectual gifts.
Jad was a thick-set, round-headed
boy. with the little twinkling eyes of an
arrant rogue; while Jote was q more
thin specimen of backwoods aggressive
ness, nearly or quite six feet tail. Nat,
Ziby and Cuffy Wyman were less pecu-
liar in appearance, but not a whit be-
hind in their aptitude for making trouble
at school.
For the last three years there had not
been a complete winter term of school
in the district. Four "masters'' had
been 'tearried OUT by the ''boys'' and
they declared that they would carry out
every master that the agent could hire
to come there.
Their mode of doing the carrying
out" was commonly to rush upon the
unfortunate pedagogue and carry him
out of doors, willy-nilly. and throw him
into a snow-drift, or else to put him into
the strap and keep him there during
the rest of the day.
Usually the luckless victim was glad
to depart-as soon as he could-from
the school-house and the district. One,
however, young theological student
mastering courage to return to his post
the next morning after being carried out,
was taken to the top of the long hill,
which had given the district its name,
and lashed fast 10 a hand-sled and set
going, Mazeppa-like, out of the district
The young rascals left him tho free
use of his feet to steer with, a favor the
unfortunate man was no doubt duly
grateful for before he reached the bot
tom of the hill, after wild ride of nearly
a mile. He did not return even for his
hat. which flew off his head midway of
the hill.
A still more atrocious trick was played
on the next master, an itinerant minister
of the Methodist Church. who had been
induced to take the school, and whose
plan was to combine RELIGIOUS with