Frostburg mining journal. [volume] (Frostburg, Md.) 1871-1913, 1884-07-26
SELECT STORY.
He BrokeUp the School.

:
'"That is the new school house, is
it3 inquired Miss Alice Ray, then
teacher, as the farmers plodding lit
tie team passed by a small white
house, standing endwise TO the road,
inclosed in a rather dilapidated
fence. ...., .r .,.. ..3o- r.'.
Yes, that is where you'll hold
FORTH" remarked Uncle Zeke Wood
burn, "but Pm afeerd 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 lit
tie laugh, as he thought of the timid,
demure little damsel at his side con-
trolling the boys of the Bear Greek
school. - -r
'But don't the directors expel
them when they are beyond the con-
troll of the teacher ?" asked Alice, her
heart beginning to sink at the pros
pect before her.
"Expel them! no; we never expel
nobody here; if teacher can't boss
the school, we just let it boss /; it amt
our fight and the school here gen.
orally bosses the teacher, and thar's
been some pretty good men licked in
that school house by the boys
II did not know the school was so
unruly," said poor Alice, wishing
heartily that she had hired out as a
washerwoman, instead of trying
to teach the savages of Bear Creek.
"Oh, we'll, mebbe it won't be 80
bad this winter; thar's Jim Turner,
he's one of the toughest of 'em; he'll
be II in a month, and then you'll
get rid of him; but thar's the Brad
ley boys, they're mighty nigh as
bad
Poor Alice listened with sinking
heart. The cold, hard duties before
her We're dreary enough at best; but
to go alone and unknown into a
strange neighborhood to teach her
first school, and to be met at the out
set by such dark prophecies, made her
feel homeless indeed. She was nat
uraIly a timid, shrinking little thin e,
and if she had possessed on the whole
broad earth q 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 but IA and she had
kept house for her father 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 fulfilled his directions
so literally that when she had COM
pleted her course Of study at the
normal school, she had hardly SIC
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 start
ed for the school house, she felt as
if she was going to the scaffold. Hel
course of pedagogics in the normal
institute had included no such prob,
lem as this school promised to be
and if it were not for very shame
she would have given her single $t
bill to any one to take her back tt
the railroad, and pay her fare to L..
the town where she had attended
school.
When she arrived at the school
house, about twenty or thirty pupils
were grouped around talking, but a
spell of silence fell upon them as she
walked up and saluted them with q
'good morning" which was more
like the chirp Of frightened bird
than anything else. AS she unlock
ed the door and entered what she
had already begun to regard as &
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. "a. 80 -ss e. ....i.t.
All the .rnles and regulations OF
her "Theory and Practice of Opening
SchoolUpon theyFirst Day." seemed
to vanish and leave her head whirling
irrdizzy. helplessness. She, tried to
think of q cheerful remarks but her
brain refused to form the thouh ct,
and her tongue Glove to the roof of
her month. She could see in the