Mineral Point tribune. (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1869-1938, 1885-04-16
WITH JUNE ROSES.
BY F. F.

and brightly as only June skies can
seem; birds twittered and sang in the
treetops or hoped about on the car
pet of green in search of food for their
Young; breezes seemed whispering
among the leaves stories of the flow
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
leaf-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's" pointing to a pile of white
fluffy cloads. ''Now if is the little
angel, I'd have a game of SNOWFALL
Nav We wouldn't, nather," said
Jim, shying paper wad at the red
headed girl opposite hlm Eyer ma
don't low ye to play in snow,
honey"
80, what whopperm exclaimed
the first speaker
mo such a thing remarked jim,
preparing paper for another charge.
"Ye know ye didn't play a game last
winter
''Well, an what'f l didn't; guess
had the whoopin cough last winter,
an ma said her brother'd died cause
he'd caught cold when he had the
whoopin' cough, and it went to his
lungs an killed him. An" Crack
ey,n interrupted Jim. 'Shc nearly
caught me that time II 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-natured
fellow IN the corner on his freckled
nose, and he promptly reported on
James, who was thereupon assigned
standing room by the teachers desk.
The first towhead LETT to himself di-
vded his time between the window
did not appear to move at all. please,
ma'am, said he at length, as though
he had just made startling diseov-
cry, "please, teacher, the clocks stop.
ped" mo, said the teacher, with
smile of sympathy, 81 guess the clock
is all right. But YOU have stopped
studying, Billy" Towhead manfully
winked the tears away, and propped
his spelling book out of the window.
Teacher, may get my book2" he
said. ''No, Billy, this makes the third
time you have dropped your book
this week. You may study with
Johnny Jones, said the poor, tired
teacher, striving TO speak kindly.
"But something will tear my book up,
and | can't have no more till next
term, pap said"
What is there out there to disturb
your book2"
co." said towhead, after a short
pause, "toads N things" then added
more excitedly, amid the laugh that
greeted this ominous list of destroy
ers: 20, there's Tom Woodson's dog,
now. N he Just hates books"
"Keep your seat, said the teacher
quietly Il will get the book for you.
Then you must stand on the floor, So
as not to be tempted to drop it again.
Towhead looked rather bla nix, but
managed TO get him drink while she
was gone for the book. Thus the fore
noon 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 register 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 the
landlady had paid more than usual
care to its preparation. remembering
that this was the little teachers birth
day, and that it was a sad day, too,
for the girl, who had on this day, six
years before, turned from the grave of
her mother, her last relative, 50 far as
she knew, homeless and alone, to find
a dwelling-place among strangers,
and earn living By teaching school.
Yet, tempting as the sugared berries,
with cream, and the hsky rolls upon
which the cook quite prlded herself
would have been at happier time,
the teacher turned from them with a
sigh TO day. and, catching up bunch
of roses that one OF the lutte girls had
that morning brought and placed up
on the teachers desk, she buried her
face in their bright depths and burst
into passion of weeping.
Round a little home far away the
roses had clustered thick and various
the happy summers of years that
were gone. Little did the school girl
think as she gathered the bunch Of
roses and as a 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 fragrance the teachers
thoughts sped back through the years
Iirfd,,o. - 4I,o bc,,aa Of her chilli hood