Abilene weekly reflector. [volume] (Abilene, Kan.) 1888-1935, 1889-09-12

the boy now TOOK a survey OF Jne room
to see what was needed to put it in
order for the evenings entertainment.
The work of the interlOper was at
once manifest. Several of the desks
were piled on top of one another in the
middle OF the room, the whole sur
mounted with the water bucket. The
drinking cup was nowhere to be seen.
The blackboard was covered with out
landish caricatures of the master and
some of the more prominent pupils,
with coarse comments in rude scrawls
above and beneath them. Many of
the books were removed from inside
the desks and carried to distant parts
of the room.
When Abe had righted all these dis
cordant elements he sat down on one
of the long benches by the stove and
watched the red spot on its side grow
to brighter red and gradually spread
beyond the gaping crack in the rusty
iron from which the ashes sifted at
times.
"Jehu, but she's gittin' hot" he said
aloud. Them fellers t know her
afore 1 did must We filed her chock
full of hick'ry."
Then he pushed the front slide in,
shutting off the pleasant roar, and
watched the hectic flush on the dull
red iron fade 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 COM
pany to the spring, a good quarter OF
mile away, at the bottom of a high
bank on Beaver Run.
II haint afeerd t go t the spring
alone" he thought to himself, but a
feller'd as well have company, an this
ere schooI-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 were
heard outside and the red cheeks and
radiant eyes of half dozen boys and
girls burst noisily through the door.
They came rapidly now and the scene
was one of boisterous merriment 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 rollicking 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 incongruous 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 seven" 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 a 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.
flames 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 a 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 a spelling book in the other and
''gave out" the words, beginning with
s.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: