McCook weekly tribune. (McCook, Neb.) 188?-1886, 1884-03-13
HE BROKE UP LIE SCHOOL.

"That is the new school house is it?'
inquired Miss Alice Ray, the 'sneW
teacher" as the farmers team passed
by little white house standing end.
wise to the road, inclosed in a rather
dilapidated fence.
ayes, that's where you II hold forth, .
remarked Uncle Zeke WOODBURY., ssbut
I'm Altered you won't hold out long,
for we've got the toughest set of boys In
the state," and Uncle Zeke gave kind
of cackling little laugh as he thought
of the timid, demure little damsel at
his side controlling the boys of Bear
Creek school.
"But don't the directors expel them
when they are beyond the control OF
the teacher?" asked Alice, her heart
beginning to sink at the prospect be-
fore her.
Expel 'em! no, we never expel no.
body; if teacher can't boss the school
we just let it boss him it amt our fight
an the school here generally bosses the
teacher, an thar's been some pretty
good men licked in that school house
by the boys"
ssI did not know the school was so
unruly," said poor Alice, wishing heart
lily that she had hired out as washer
woman instead of trying to teach the
savages of Bear Greek.
s'Oh, well mebbe it won't be so bad
this winter; thar's Jim Turner, he's
one of the toughest of 'em; he'll be 81
in a month, and you'll get rid of him /;
but thar's the Brindley boys, they're
mighty nigh as bad"
Poor Alice listened with sinking
heart. The cold, hard duties before
her were dreary enought at the best !;
but to 90 alone and unknown into a
strange neighborhood to teach her first
school, and 10 be met at the outset by
such dark prophesies, made her feel
homeless indeed. She was naturally a
timid, shrinking little thing, and if she
had possessed anywhere on the whole
broad earth roof to shelter her she
would have turned back from Bear
Creek school even then. But she had
no home. Her mother had died when
she was IA, and she had kept house for
her father two years, when he died,
leaving her all alone. Before he died
he advised her to expend the little sum
he would be able to leave her in fitting
herself for teacher, and Alice had full
filled his directions so literally that
when she had completed her course of
study at the normal school she had
hardly $40 left, and when she paid
Uncle Zeke for hauling her and her
little trunk from the nearest railroad
town to the district where she was to
teach, she had but $5 left.
On Monday morning as she started
for the school house she felt as if she
was going to the scaffold. Her course
of pedagogics in the normal institute
had included no such problem as this
school promised to be, and if it were
not for very shame she would have
given her single $5 bill to anyone to
take her back to the railroad and pay
her fare to L., the town where she had
attended school.
When she arrived at the school house
about twenty o. thirty scholars were
grouped around talking, but spell of
silence fell upon them as she walked
up and saluted them with ssgood
morning" which was more like the
chirp of frightened bird than any
thing else. As she unlocked the door
and entered what she had already be.
gun to regard as a chamber of torture,
two or three slowly followed her into
the room, and depositing their books
upon the whitfield desks, took seats,
and fixed their eyes upon her with a
stare that did not help to strengthen
her nerves.
All the rules and regulations of her
ssTheory and Practice of Opening
School Upon the First Day" seemed to
vanish and leave her head whirling in