The Worthington advance. [volume] (Worthington, Minn.) 1874-1908, 1889-09-19

"Jehu. but she's gittin' hot" he said
aloud. Them fellers t know her
afore did must We filled her ehock
full of hick'ry."
Then he pushed the front slide in,
shutting oil the pleasant roar, and
watched the hectic flush on the dull
red iron face away as slowly as it had
come. A fresh bucket of water would
be needed. he reflected, but he would
wait for that until some of the other
boys should arrive and afford him CON-
pany to the spring, good quarter of
mile away, at the bottom Of high
bank on Beaver Run.
Il haint afeerd It go It the spring
alone" he thought to himself, "but
feller'd as well have company. an this
ere school-house oughtn't be- left alone
no ways"
The atmosphere of the small room
was of more than tropical warmth
when the voices of the first corners we're
heard outside and the red cheeks and
radiant eyes of half dozen boys and
girls burst noisily through the door.
They camo rapidly now and the scene
was one of boisterous merrhnent as
candle after candle was lighted and
hung in the wooden candlesticks round
the room.
The teacher, Lyman Frost, came in
with the well-to-do Douglass families,
whose farms adjoined. and in whose
joint households were several nice
young women. A few of the youngish-
old men of the district sat sedately
round the stove. cracking the limited
supply of well-seasoned jokes anew.
while the young people were hilarious
outside at games of tag or ''black-
man."
When it was thought time to begin
the teacher raped on the window
frame with his ruler, hats were re-
moved, and the loud talk gradually
subsidized to a buzz, and at length died
away to furtive whispers and sup
pressed filters. The rollicl:ing young
men and women came in with abandon,
shutting off their loud talk at the door.
but occasionally projecting parts of
unfinished sentences into the interior
stiffness with an homogeneous effect
that awoke renewed tittering. When
comparative silence had been obtained
the master announced:
''Albert Swope and Polly Pringle
have been selected to choose up. They
will now take their places
There were more filters and craning
of necks as the boy and girl, with
modest sheepishness, made their way
to the far end of the room, where they
stood side by side, the ,blushing cap
tains of prospective companies. To
decide who should have first choice
the teacher held up his closed hand
and asked:
Odd or even?'
"Odd," said Albert, and "even" said
Polly, seeing that she had but Hobson's
choice.
The teachers outspread palm dis
closed q single coin. ''Albert has first
choice" he declared, and with the
promptness of performed decision,
Albert called out:
Louisa Larcom."
With an assumed reluctance to ac-
cept the wholly expected honor the
blushing Louisa tripped with deter
mined air to the front.
James Pritchard," was Polly's
equally prompt and emphatic second
choice, and the choosing went on with
an animation which tagged in proper
ton as the best spoilers were exhausted,
and certain dumb sympathy for those
left to the last as kind of undesirable
rubbish managed to make itself felt
though unworded. Some of the middle
aged men had excused themselves and
remained sitting round the stove. spec
tators and critics of the performance.
The teacher took a candle in one hand
and spelling book in the other and
gave OUT the words, beginning with
"baker.' Any one missing sat down
until all were disabled.
At the end of half hour the teacher
invited Deacon Albright to- relieve
him. The Deacon. after making a
polite but expectedly vain pretence of
wishing to be excused, apologized:
My way of pernouncin' may not be
quite up to what you've been used to,
scholars" with significant recognition
of tho more cultivated style of the law
student from Briggsville, ''but I'll due
the best kin, an if you don't under
stand any word all you hat to due is
not to tackle it ontil you due, an don't
be any ways bashful beout havin' il
give out agin.''
In half an hour more the curious
words which the Deacon had managed
to find secreted in old McGuffey had
thinned the ranks until but single
speller remained on each side. Soon
one of these, in the excitement of the
contest, interjected superfluous ''h''
into .'exorbitant' and sank into shame
faced obscurity with the instant dis
covery of her mistake. a -E5,
The second spell down after recess
was held more important than the first
in that the capacity Of the contestants
had been somewhat tested and they
could be more evenly matched. Mr..
Joel Douglass, himself an ex-teacher.
..gave oLt'' for awhile, leaving the
teacher 10 charge the honor Of the
closing. There was an evident tensity
Of feeling as the coatest deepened that
M not observable tstoro rsesss. Each