The Somerset herald. [volume] (Somerset, Pa.) 1870-1936, 1884-02-13
You've spelt pretty well this af-

lers before you can be good readers
or real good in anything. It's all
well enough TO know how to figure
correctly, and | reckon grammar's
well enough, though | never took
much stock in it. Geography and
algebry and history and all that is
good enough in its place, but accord
ing to nay notion, spelling beats 'em
all.
And now to encourage you in
being good spoilers, and to stop the
braggin' of some deestrickts not far
from here, I'm goin' to make it on
object fer you to study your spoilers
like sixty for the next six weeks.
''Ip six weeks from tonight well
have spellin' match in this house,
and | want it cirkilated round that
airy school in this township is free
TO come in amd spell for the prize
I'll offer, which is twenty-five dol
lars in cash, to the one that spells
down everybody.
Now, take your spoilers home to-
night and do something else with
them besides a chawin' the corners
off" And with that the Squire made
one of his stiff bows to the teacher
and walked out.
II tell you, twenty-five dollars
was large sum of money in those
davs, and when it was known that
the prize had been offered, there was
more studyin' of our old blue back
ed spoilers than there ever had been
before. We used to take them home
every night, and our 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.
The offering of the 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 thew
had some good spoilers in those
schools, specially in the Red Haw
school.
"But none of them had a better
record than Harriet Hepner, and
they say that in those six weeks
she studied her speller night and
day.
Folks who had passed the Hep
ner house at midnight declared that
through the winderS from the road
they had seen Harriet sitting on
stool up again 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 others, givin out
words to her-and everybody else
was in bed. No wonder the girl be-
came thin and peaked.
you see the Squire fairly hated
the Red Haw deestrict. and about
every body in it. The Red Haw and
ours had formerly been one deestrict
and he opposed their being divided,
because he owned lots of land in
both deestrickts, and be knew that
if they we're divided there would be
an extra tax for a new school house
and new school fund, and it went
against the grain for him
to have to pay extra taxes for a
school that he did not get any good
of.
But at the town meetin the Red
Haw folks carried their point against
the old Squire, and were set off as
an independentIdee Always |
after that the Squire seemed to hate
them. They laughed at him and |
twitted him about havin' extra tax
es to pay, so that the Squire really /
had some cause for feelin hurt. But |
then there was no excuse for his bit
Ter spite. and snappy ways toward
everybody.
The Squire had a sister living
n the Red Haw deestrickt, but un-
natural and sinful as it was, he had
lot spoken to her for years, and
would not allow his folks to look at
Ter or speak to her or her children.
The poor woman had, in the first
place, married against the 'Squire's
wishes. That angered him. Still he
poke to her when he met her
hough they didn't visit back and
Orth any.
Mr. Waitely, the 'Squire's broth
r-iA-law, was the one that first sug-
ested the dividin of the deestrickt,
nd did more to bring it about than
ny other man. which was natural,
Or the deestrickt was so big and the
chool house so far off that the
Vaitely children could not 90 to
chool in winter
But that didn't make the least :
Inference to Squire Hepner. He
ras furiously angry with Waitely.
nd on town meetin' day he and
Vaitely had some dreadful hard
lords.
"Of course, Mrs. Waitely sided
nth her husband, and from that
ay the Squire turned from his own
in. He never spoke to them again,
nd treated them as if they were the {
irt under his feet, and that, too, af- L,
er Mr.. Waitely died '
'The poor man got caught under
fallin' tree and was killed, leavin
widow and four children, and |
othin' but shabby roof over their !
cad and three or four acres of scrub 5
Y land.
''She had fearfully hard time of
in irwin to support herself and t
but the Squire never help
her. And there were times when /
be and her children would have v
cen on the county if it had not t
cen for the kind hearted neigh c
ors. I
TO make things worse, her oldest
hid, little Sam, was cripple
and crippled in one '
.g-se that he had to walk with a ,
rutch. OF course he wasn't any s
clip to bis mother on the place. But
be was trying to educate him, know
lg that he never could do any phys
al work. t
1T kept the poor woman hard at /