The Eaton Democrat. (Eaton, Ohio) 1875-1903, 1884-01-17

fathers and mothers would give us all
the hard words, like 'daguerreotype,"
and 'phthisic' and receipt and those
with silent letters in them, and we
would spell them over and over again.
1.-The offering of that prize set the
whole township in a commotion, and
nothin' else was thought of or talked
about. The Red Haw and Jack Oak
deestrickts let it be known that they
would try for the prize, and they had
some good spoilers in those schools,
'speshly in the Red Haw.
''But none of them had a better rec
ord than Harriet Hepner, and they say
that in those six weeks she studied her
speller night and day.
"Folks who had passed the Hepner
house at midnight declared that
through the winders from the road
they had seen Harriet sitting on a stool
up ag'in the fireplace, leaning her head
against the wall and the squire sitting
in his old hick'ry chair, spellin' book
in hand and a tallow dip in the other.
givin' out words to her-and everybody
else was in bed. No wonder the girl
became thin and peaked.
.'You see the squire fairly hated the
Red Haw deestrickt, and about every
body in it. The Red Haw and ours had
formerly been one deestrickt, and he'd
opposed their being divided; because
he owned lots of land in both deestrickts,
and he knew that if they were divided
there would be an extra tax for a new
school-house, and a new school fund,
and it went nightly against the grain
for him to have to pay extra taxes for a
school that he did not get any good of.
"But al the town-meetin' the Red
Haw folks carried their point against
the old squire, and we're set off as an
independent deestrickt. Always after
that the squire seemed to hate them.
They laughed at him and twitted him
about haVin' extra taxes to pay, so that
the squire really had some cause for
feelin' hurt. But then, there was no
excuse for his bitter spite, and snappy
ways towards everybody.
f'The squire had a sister Twin in the
Red Haw deestrickt, but unnatural and
sinful as it was, he had not spoken to
her for years, and would not allow his
folks to look at or speak to her or her
children.
1.-THE poor woman had. in the first
place, married against the sources
wishes. That angered him. Still he
spoke to her when he met her, though
they did not visit back and forth any.
"Mr. Waitely, the squire's brother
in-law. was the one that first suggested
the dividin' of the deestrickt, and did
more to bring it about than any other
man; which was natural, for the dees-
trickt was so big and the school-house
so far off that the Waitely children
could not go to school in the winter
time.
"But that didn't make the least differ
ence to Squire Hepner. He was furi-
ously angry with Waitely, and on town.
meetin' day he and Waitely had some
dreadful hard words.
.Of course, Mrs. Waitely sided with
her husband, and from that day the
squire turned from his own kin. He
never spoke to them again, and treated
them as if they were the dirt under his
feet; and that, too, after Mr.. Waitely
died.
1.-The poor man got caught under a
fallin' tree and was killed., leavin' his
widow with four children, and nothin'
but a shabby roof over their heads and
three or four acres of scrubby land.
'She had a fearfully hard time
in tryin' to support herself and hel
children, but the squire never
helped her. And there were times
when she and her children would have
been on the county if it had not beer
for her kind-hearted neighbors.
"To make things worse, her oldest
child, little Sam, was a cripple-hump
backed and crippled in one leg-so thai
he had to walk with a crutch. o.
course, he wasn't any help to hi:
mother on the place. But she was try
in to educate him, knowin' that ht
never could do any physical work.
cit kept the poor woman hard a
work night and day, tryin' to buy book!
and clothes for Sam, to keep him il
school all the time. He was a smar
boy and quick to learn, though he wa.
apale-faced, shy. quiet little soul, will
the pitifulest big eyes and the oddes
face for a boy l yer saw.
'sWell the ~spellin'-bee excitemen
became more and more intense, as tn,
time drew near; and when the night a
last came the old Four-Mile school
house was a sight to see.
1.-THE night was one of the clearest
ever remember. The stars shone Xix,
bright lamps in the sky. The sleighin,
was good, and the air sharp enough t.
stir the blood, and if possible still NOR
to stimulate the boys and girls. A 10
of the boys had borrowed apair of sled
runners and put a big wagon-box O.
them. Then plenty of straw was pu
in the box, and about twenty of us
boys and girls, piled in, with lots O
quilts and buffalo robes and warn
shawls.
81 had my first beau that night. Hi
name was Azraiel Whitehead, and c
all awkward boys he was the awkward
est. l think l was the first girl he ha
ever asked to accompany him to an
gatherin'. Anyhow, I know he fell fla
on his back tryin' to help me out of tn
sled, and he let me go head-first into
s~now-bank.
81 remember that his handkerchie
was wet with cinnamon drops, and tina
he gave me ahandful of peppermint an
cloves.
81 remember. too. how we all of u
went up and down hills and throug
long white lanes. singin' and laughir
at the top of our voices. We made tn
old woods and the valleys ring. Ye;
and the sled upset, too, and we were a
thrown out in a ditch.
81 remember how the edge of tn
wagon-box caught my beau's big fee
under it, and [ thought I should CT
from modification when he lay ther
and actually bawled and SMILED.
was so put out about it that L wouldn'
sit by him after we got into the sled, c
speak to him afterwards.
"When we got to the school-hous
we found it packed so full that W
could but just crowd in. Young an
old were there, and some of the visitor
had come as far away as ten mile.
Most everybody had brought a cand]
to stick up on the logs. There wei
four different teachers there, and wei
known spoilers from all over the tow
ship.
"'Lecta Plumb and 1 chose up
got first choice and took Harriet He,
nor Che ny no1a oc 1ao+b 90