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

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I enjoyed the spelling match in your
70 much of when l was young. I'm
right glad they have spelling matches
again in schools. When [ was a girl
we young folks thought a great deal of
the spellin's we had, and this one of
school-house where / got the little
learnin' 1 have, so that l could shut my
eyes and see it as plain as the day.
''It was placed on a little rise of
ground, right at the edge of a big
grove of hickernut and walnut trees.
Old Squire Hepner gave the ground for
it out of his wood-pastur' lot, and in
summer time the grass grew thick, and
full of flowers down the slope in front
of the house, to the rail fence that shut
of the school ground from the road.
We used to eat our lunches in the fence
corners on spring days.
'sYou can't think how thick the grass
was, nor how bright and green the
moss was we'd find on the old rails.
And all along the edge of the grove,
and peepin' up so shy and sweet and
modest-like, was the violets and daisies
and bluebells and yaller butter-cups for
us to place in u hair and pile on the
teachers table.
'sThen in winter, we'd have such gay
times coastin' down the slope, and
skatin' on the pond jest acrost the road.
Me and my little brothers and sisters
walked two miles to 90 to that log
school-house, and thought nothin' of it.
s'Don't remember well ev'ry one of
those old logs! Think I do! 1t wasn't
such a poor excuse for a house as you
might think, either.
Indeed, sFour-Mile school-house,' as
it was called, was about the best one n
Greenaway township; for it was of
hewed logs, mind you, and had a pine
floor and a plastered ceilin', and most
of the school-houses were of rough logs,
with the bark on, and had dirt floors,
or at best, floors of rough boards.
..Some of the other deestrickts were
Jealous of our school-house. The next
that Joined ours was one of the Jealous
deestrickts, and the folks in it used to
say that they didn't care if we did have
such q fine house, they could spell our
school down any time if we'd only give
them a chance. But, of course, we
knew they couldn't. We believed we
could out-spell them, even if we did
have the best school-house.
''Old Squire Hepner, he always took
a great interest in our school. He was
a peculiar kind of a man; folks would
call him cranky in these days, 1 sup.
pose. He was so gruff and sullen thai
you'd think he'd snap your head off.
"'Eddication' was the old squire's
hobby. He had no learnin' himself
and used to tell us how he felt the need
of it. He thought people could not be
educated, unless they could spell clear
from b-a ba, to 'incommunicability' in
the speller. To know how to spell was
to him the foundation of all knowledge
That was one of his curious notions.
swell, Squire Hepner had heard thai
the Red Haw deestrickt folks was
maxim their boasts that they could
out-spell ours, and it angered him. His
daughter, Harriet, was the best spellel
in our school, and they say her father
offered her the best COW on his place il
she'd spell the Red Haw school down
'tOne Friday afternoon the old squire
came stampin' into the school-houst
when our school was havin' a spellin'
match. He was the director of oul
deestrickt, and the boldest scholar
would be mute and meek enough wher
he appeared. He had two little je
black eyes that seemed to see RICH
through you. He could make almos
any scholar wiggle in his scat by fast
enin' his eyes upon him.
'sThe squire was the richest man il
Fodr Mile, but he never gave an,
money away, and that made it all tn,
more surprisin' when, just before tn
school let out that night, he got up AM
in his short, jerky, gruff way said:
"tYou've spelt pretty well this aft
ernoon. scholars, and I'm glad of ii
for, to my thinkin', spellin's the mos
important thing a body can Farm
In fact, it STAINS to reason tina
you've got to be good speller
fore you can be good readers, or rea
good in anythin'. It's all well enoug
to know how to figger correctly, and
reckon grammar's well enough, tho
never TUX much stock in it. Geog
raphy and algebray and history and a
that is good enough in its place, but
'cordin' to my notion, spellin' beats 'er
all.
".And now to 'ncourage you in bein
good spoilers, and to stop the braggin
of some deestrickts not fer from here
I'm goin' to make it an objeck fer 20
to study your spoilers like sixty fe
the next six weeks.
".In six weeks from tonight we'l
have a speliin' match in this house; an
want it cirkilated round that air
school in this township is free to com
in and spell fer the prize TIl Offer
which is twenty-five dollars in cash I
the one that spells down everybody.
NOW, take your spoilers home to
night and do something else with 'er
besides a-chawin' the corners off, An
with that the Squire made one of hi