The Arkansaw traveler., 1885-04-25
WHAT JOHN FOUND.
fExchansa.l

| IExcnang&.l
 Recess was nearly over. The boys and girls gathered in the playground outside of the log school-house, but no play was going on. Most of the boys had their books in their hands, and were boring over them as if to make up for all the idle time of their lives; the girls sat on the wood pile. whispering and looking a, the boys with kind of ave.
 The school-house' was built just out side of a mountain village in North Car olina- The hoys were dressed in but ternut, or blue cloth, the girls in a kiud of linsey, all of which thelr mothers had spun and woven.
 Outside oi the fence was gang of lit. tle negroes whom the white children or dered about with an air of authority; for, poor as they we,e, their fathers were all slave owners. There was row of shiny black faces at the top of the fence.
 Gorp! Look at Mas Will l tink he get it."
 "Pshawl G1ong, you Victory! Our Mas Bob's twist as good a scholar. Sec how he's pokin' into dat book"
 The others volunteered no opinions but shouted:
 Hoorayl Which of ye gwine to be 1 de soler? Mas Bob Sevier he gwine Cunnel Bob Sevier! Hooray!"
 Never had there been such a day known iR Uncle Jobs school.
 Bob SevicI, a tair, thin boy, with round blue eyes, sat on the steps, urning over the leaves of his Histo'e Sscre,"
 He lnew every word and line; but he l 2.,~MnA laaf (anv 1Aaf vsifh hta cold shaking fingers.
 When the little negroes shouted for Cunnel Bobi" he felt a lump in his throat choking him. If he should no, win Bob had always been head boy in the school, but during the last month he had worked harder than ever. The cause was this: Judge Peters, who was 1 now congressman from this district, had paid visit to the village few weeks be- fore, and had dropped into the school one morning and made the boys Ii tic speech.
 "l was pupil here" he said. "There is the very desk at which sat. Uocle Job taught me pretty much all l know. My father could not afford to send me to college, and am sure neither can your fathers afford to send you there. But want to give some boy here a chance such as did not have. have the ap- pointment of cadet to West Point, and 1 propose instead of giving it to some rich mans son, that the boy in this school who passes the best examination a month from now shall have it."
 This was the speech. It made the boys as wild as if he had put fire into their brains. Not boy there who did not see himself colonel in full regimen tals, preceded by brass band, riding up the street of the village in triumph. They fell to studying, most of them for the first time in their lives. They never had done anything but lounge about the sunny, hilly highland hamlet, listening to the interminable stories of the hunters, who came in with pel,ry, or playing sisty out with the little negroes.
 John Fremoy, the 'shsbbiest of them all, sat apart from the other boys with his sister Louise.
 "Now, Lou, just hear me this page" and he began: " Charlemagne, other wise Charles the Great, was the son oi vlngian-Carlovingian '-oh, what comes nextS"
 |" Dynasty" prompted Lou.
 "And what's the meaning oi dynasty, I'd like to know? Such rubbish don, understand a word of it There's no use to try, Lou 1!
 Lou's eyes filled and the tears rolled down her flushed cheeks; but John only shut his jaws little 6rmer, and fixed his dark eyes on the ground. They were honest, kind eyes, but dull very differ ent from Bob Sevier's, which glowed like lamps.
 might as we'll give up, Lou. Uncle Job says patience and hard work will take any boy through. But there's differ ence in boys. Now, Bob Sevier don't work half as hard over his books as do but just look at him. reckon he could, go over the Carlovingians, or any other Vingian, like trottin' horse"
 "Oh, yes, l reckon he could" groaned Lou. "But only think of West Point, Jackl You'd be a gentleman and a sol. dier, and see the world. An ef you don't get it, why, then"
 linen Uncle Bill will set me to plow. l ing in the fall. He said only this morn ing he'd wasted enough money on our schoolin', and you and be to go to work to earn our salt"
 John took up the book and went at the lesson with desperate energy, while Lou sat crying silently.
 The children were orphans and lived with their uncle, farmer, on Mount Craggy. He was wrctcaedly poor, like all the other mountaineers, and was, be. side, a coarse, hard-natured man. The school-bell rang.
 "It's coming now," said John, as he got up and shut the book.
 "You're powerful on rithmetic, Johnny, mind that. Jest you keep up," eagerly whispered Lou. running along beside him. The boys crowded into the hot little school-rooEn, and the girls followed, ex cepting Lou, who hung back, and finally went to the woodpile again. She knew she should not be missed, and she could not bear to hear Johns examination.
 The poor little girl had but one friend in the world, her brother. She sat down,