Nevada County picayune., 1888-11-14
Going To School.
BY ROBERT l. BtRDETTE

Dear little man, so you are back il school, and you don't like it pretty we'll, l think? Well, that's nat ural and boylike, but it isn't right Going to school is great fun, after yot are too old to % any more. which vii be when you are old enough to die
 and then l suppose you will go to an.
 other school. When I was your agS
 l don't think liked going to schoo
 a little bit, but that was because
 didn't have very much sense when
 was young. I only worked and stud,
 jed about six or seven hours a day
 then, and had but three teachers to obey. l was the gladdest boy you ever knew, when got out of school
 and you never knew me. Since then
 l have been at work all the time. and have to obey more people than ever ! r. The editor says if | don't have my composition ready by Friday night he won't have it at all. the foreman says he must have it in hand Friday morning or it won't % in. the proof reader says If he doesn't get the proof Thursday night they will have to read themselves, and the compos- | itors-there are seventy-iive or eighty of them-declare they will strike if l
 don't write more plainly. and punct- uate properly. and spell better
 When was a boy the teacher cor l rected me in the presence of the class but now the critic, a terrible fellow
 he is, corrects me right out in print before everybody, and when l don't say my lesson to suit him doesn't he dust my jacket. though: The way
 he makes the lint fly is caution, and the worst of it is l doesn't "holler"
 and so get over it; that would only
 make him worse and besides every body would laugh at me. and cry. give him some more in the samc place." He can--and does-say just as nice things as he does rough ones, but vou have to dot your is and cross your t's to earn his approval.
 Then l have to work for my landlord,
 and the grocery man, and the tax collector and the shoemaker and l don't know how many other people. | have to buy oil for the marching
 club of my party, and have to march i in the dust or the mud, and listen to long speeches, and make some longer ones myself. l have to say ''plcase' and "thank vou' and say sir when speak to the governor. daren't go Tn my bare feet, and I've only been fishing once this year, and then didn't stay long, and didn't catch
 anything; at the table, nomatter how hungry l am, l have to serve every body else before get a bite to eat myself, and am always the last one waited on a man down in Bogus Hollow says he is going to lick me for shooting his dog-and he looks like . man of his word. too-whcu every
 body knows Pm afraid of q gun and couldn't hit flock of barns, anyhow, on rest, and with globe sights; an- other man threatens to put me in jail if l don't pay a bill that l have three receipts for, and poor widow wo- man in Rag ally, who takes in wash
 ing and gin, is going to sue me if
 don't pay her ten dollars because my COW tore up her garden, when she has no garden, and never owned a COW
 in my life. cant follow the circus procession, l cant stay home when
 have the toothache, cant got ex- cused when the fish are biting; some of the boys in this great big school are bullies. and some of them are fools, and some of them are toadies, and some of them are sneaks, and some are liars, and some of them are
 great, bighearted, loving fellows, that you want to be with all the time, but they're so busy you can only snatch word with them once in long while
 It isn't so very much different from your school, after all, only the discip- line is more severe, and the teacher is strict, while he is loving and gen tie. But every time you break 8 rule you smart for it. don't wonder that some of thr older pupils are glad glad, when their lessons arc all said, and the plotted hooks are put away, and they are called up into the higher room, where they will be closer to the Master, and all the hard places iu the old lessons will he explained away so lovingly and clearly that never a sigh will pmnctMale the recitation. ana