Weekly Chillicothe crisis. (Chillicothe, Livingston Co., Mo.) 1878-19??, 1885-04-09
WITH JUNE ROSES.


The blue sky smiled down lovingly
and brightly as only June skies can
seem; birds twittered and sang in the
treetOps or hopped about on the car
pet of green in search of food for their
young; breczes seemed whispering
among the leaves stories of the now-
cry meadows over which they had
come, while the scholars in the little
brown school house which nestled in
the grove like a brown robin in her
leat-curtained nest looked out of the
windows and wondered if noon would
never come.
81 say, Jim,' whispered one tow
head to another, "see that snowbank
up there?" pointing to u pile of white
fluffy clouds. "NOw if is the little
angel, I'd have n game OF SNOWFALL" y"
NAV ye wouldn't nather,' sail
Jim, shying paper wad at the red
headed girl opposite him. "Yer ma
don't low yc to play in snow, honey"
"Oh, what whopper!" exclaimed
the first speaker.
mo such II thing remarked Jim,
preparing paper for another charge.
"Ye know ye didn't play game last
winter
"Wcll, an what'f | didn't; guess |
had the whoopin' cough last winter.
an ma said her brother'd died cause
he'd caught cold wen he had the
whoopin' cough, and it went to his
lungs an killed him. An" Crack
ey," interrupted Jim. "She nearly
caught me that time. IL say, let's
study our spellin' lesson. I'll just
shoot this one more, an then we'll
study But that one more was the
one too many. 1t hit the ill-naturcd
fellow in the corner on his frecklcd
nose, and he promptly reported on
James, who was thcrcupon assigned
standing room by the teachers desk.
The first towhead left to himself di-
vided his time between the window
near him and the clock, which to him
did not appear TO move at all, "Plcasc,
ma'am,n said he at length, us though
he had just made startling discovery,
"pleasc, teacher, the clock 5 stopped" ="
"NO," said the teacher, with a smile
of sympathy, 81 guess the clock is all
right. But you have stopped study
ing, Billy Towhead manfully wink
cd the tears away and dropped his
spelling book out of the window.
"Teachcr, may | get my book?' he
said. mo, Billy, this makes the
third time you have dropped your
book this week. You may study with
Johny JONES' said the poor, tired
teacher, striving to speak kindly.
"But something will tear my book up
and cant have no more till next
term, pap said"
"What is there out there to disturb
your bookP'
"O," said towhead, after short
pause, "toads N things" then added
more eXcitcdly, amidst the laugh that
greeted this ominous list of destroy
ers: ooh, there's Tom Woodson's
dog, now, m he just hates books -
keep your seat said the teacher
quietly; 81 will get the book for you.
Then you must stand on the floor, so
as not to be tempted to drop ii
again" "
Towhead looked rather blank, but
managed to get him drink while she
was gone for the book. Thus the
forenoon dragged "its weary length
along The scholars restless and
idle, and the teacher almost too weary
and sad to blame them for it. But at
last the clock struck twelve, school
was dismissed for the noon hour, and
the scholars went shouting and Jump
ing away to open their lunch baskets
on the cool, green grass beneath the
trees, and lave their faces in the brook
that flowed near by. The teacher was
left alone. The sad meaning of that
word thrilled her as she turned the
leaves of her registrar, to give Teddy
Mulligan credit for his noon head
mark in the spelling class. Then she
turned to the lunch which the far.
mer's wife with whom she boarded
had "put up" for her. The lunch was
dainty, and nicely arranged, as her
landlady had paid more than usual
care to its preparation, remembering
that this was the little teachers birth
day, and that it was n sad day, too,
for the girl who had on this day, six
years before, turned from the grave
of her mother, her last relative, so fal
as she knew, homeless and alone, tC
find adwclling place among strangers,
and earn her living by teaching
school. Yet tempting as the sugared
berries, with cream, and the flaky
rolls upon which the cook quite prided
herself would have been at a happier
time, the teacher turned from them
with sigh to-day, and catching up q
bunch of roses that one of the
little girls had that morning brought
and placed upon the teachers desk,
she buried her face in their bright
depths and burst into q passion OF
weeping. Round a little home fal
away the roses had clustered thick
and various IN the happy sum.
mers of years that were gone. Little
did the school girl think as she gather.
ed that bunch of roses and as 4 Gift
of love laid it upon the teachers desk
that morning of the many sweet and
precious memories it would bring
about that teachers heart. But as
the roses, crushed by the pressure OF
her face, threw round her their fra
GRANGE the teachers thoughts sped
back through The years dividing to
the home of her childhood and youth.
On such another June day asthis, the
last birthday she had spenein that
home, how happy, oh, how very hap.
py, they had been. Her mother and
father and their three children, Fred,
and Benny and herself. Memory
showed her now her sweet brown
haired mother by an open window,
Just outside of which her father stood
pruning a rose that threatened Ia
throw such thick foliage across the
window as to shut out the light, while
past them through the airy hallway
and out through the yard to the
orchard Fred, her eldest brother, was
driven by the darling of the family,
little Beh., still in frocks, but often
boasting Of the pants hc is to wear
soon,