The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1883-01-27
CARRYING OUT THE SCHOOL,
.. MASTER.


.'He don't know hawk from hand
SAW said Jad Day. ''lf he did, he
wouldn't come here.
But Wen teach him soft 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, "Cuffy" Wyman and Nat Durfee.
These were some of the Kaidger boys.
They were lounging about the school
house waiting for the new master to
come. The winters school was to be-
gin that morning.
40, you think yer smart, retorted
Sally Briggs. Talk about consate He
may take the consate out of you. It'll
be pity if he DON'T
who's that just spoke up and said
nothin'P'' sneered Jote, looking round
with mock seriousness.
The others laughed and Sally was
silenced, but she determined not to for
get the insult.
'EThey say he wears store cloes," said
Ziby. II s'pose he thinks we never saw
any here. ''Won't he feel honored,
though, when he hears us all salute him
when he comes imp"
''Here he comes, fellers, Just round
the turn out by the alders thar" cried
Nat. ''Be ready now to yell when he
comes in. Bray and whinny Just yer
prettiest soon's he shows his head in the
door,
The boys at "Kaidger Hill," We're
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,
one family with another. The year be-
fore my story opens there had been loud
contention concerning the school-house,
the old one having mysteriously taken
lire and burned. Some of the towns
people wished to build new one, but
the majority thought it best to occupy
for school purposes 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 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 strong struct-
ure, twenty-four by twenty feet on the
ground. At a distance of twenty-five
feet from the house there was low, but
strong, log cow-barn, fifteen feet by
twelve, with roof of large ''splits''
covered with turf
The house had 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
/ have said, there was door opening
out of the school-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
cOw-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 "hasps" and staples, as is common
in such pioneer structures. From this
rather peculiar arrangement of the
wood-house it bore, among the boys,
the nickname of the trap"
l have frequently noticed that where
the parents in a good school district are
ut 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.
lad Day, dCuffy' 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 q thick-set, found-headed
boy, with the little twinkling eyes of an
arrant rogue; while Jote was more
thin specimen of backwoods aggressive
ness, nearly or quite six feet tall Nat,
Ziby and Cufy Wyman We're less pecu-
liar in appearance, but not whit be-
hind in their aptitude for making trouble
al school.
For the last three years there had not