The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1889-05-02
BILL ARP.
Arp Speaks of the Time When he Attended
School.
Atlanta Constitution.

| Arp Speaks OF the Time when he Attended
School.
atlanta Constitution.
When lively, restless boy comes home
from school about four o'clock in the
afternoon, the first thing is to 60 to the
pantry and eat up something. The chill.
dren don't come home to dinner, and
their cold lunch is not very Inviting, and
so they fill up as soon as they get homes
for their mother never forgets them.
What delicious memories cluster around
the dinner basket of fifty years ago-the
time when it was no hardship to walk two
miles to school and stay all day, and get
back about sundown! That basket was q
treasure then, with its fried chicken and
hard boiled eggs and home made sausage
| and turnover peach pies and beat biscuit
and little bottle of molasses to wind up
| on. Wouldn't it be splendid to 60 back
and live that life over again for awhile,
and play town ball at recess, and run foot
races, and play tag and mad dog on the
way home, and about this time of the
year, when the sap is rising in che chestnut
and hickory bushes, to make whistles and
plait whips, and gather honeysuckles and
sweetshrpbs, and watch out for birds
nests, and run the Lizards and ground
squirrels along the old rail fences, and
dam up the branch, and give some school
boy sass to most everybody we met on the
road. haven't seen a striped back
ground squirrel in forty years-the
squirrel that will skin along the bottom
rails Of fence for a hundred yards and
disappear in hole with no dirt around
the top. The old darkies used to tell US
they dug their holes by beginning at the
bottom and carrying the dirt the other
way, but it was a great mystery to me. l
believe tits good thing for children to
have a good long walk to~achool. I
know those two miles by heart. Every
hill and branch and chestnut tree and
'simmon tree. Every sand bed and ditch
and every half hidden stone and root
against which I stumped my big toe that
was already sore from having been
stumped before. What hurts q boy worse
than to stump a sore toe and see the
black blood ooze from under che nail
How comforting is mothers sympathy
as she tenderly ties it up with some sugar
and turpentine in the rag. Those two
miles are sweetly linked with my school
days and I'm sorry for the boys and girls
who have only square or two to walk in
a town OF city, and have to eat dinner at
home every day. They are not having
their share of fun in this world. | am
sorry for a town boy when he comes home
from school and don't know what to do
with himself the rest of the day-no
fields or woods or branches; no colt to
ride or bull calf to break no snakes to
shoot at as they hang on the bushes on the
bank Of the creek; 1t is right sad TO hear
the boy say, "Papa, what can | do this
evening"" I take pity on mine and some
times let them help me dig in the garden
by way of variety and come times I play
marbles With them, for I have not forgot.
ten the old fashioned rule of roundance
and kicks and fat sud go last and vence
your back yillanee, hut can't plump the
middle rnan out from law like used to.
1t is good idea to let town boy have
a few fue chickens to pet and raise from,
and make his own coops and nest and do
his own feeding and fuss at everybody
who interferes with them while he is at
school. Or he might have square or
tw, in the garden for melons and straw.
berries, and he ought to have some good,
honest story books to read, and 80 acquire
a love for reading, for there is no pleasure
so cheap OF so lasting. Parents should
find time to read to the children at night
read something that will interest and
instruct them. something from Goldsmith
or Hood or Washington Irving or Oliver
Holmes, or some other bright and cheer
full author. / wish that I had done more
of it in my family. Last night I read to
them the original story of Rip Van Win
kle by Washington Irving, and they were
delighted, and when they hear and see
Joe Jefferson act it they will enjoy it all
the more. It is much harder to entertain
boys than girls. Boys will get tired Of
slipg.shots and marbles and tops and
balls, but girls never get tired of dolls.
Their love of these little limitations is
instructive, and according to nasnre and
necessity. 1t is training school from
the cotton and sawdust filling to those of
flesh and blood. But the girls should
have some variety, too, for their spare
time from the household duties. Some
flowers and vines to grow aud to watch as
they bud and bloom into beauty-some-
thing that will be b$sT than reclining
half bent over sentimental, love.sick
romance that pictures an unreal life that
never happened and never will. 1t is a
perplexing care to raise up these children
and keep them happy and satisfied with
uomo. Some will go astray and grieve
Us in spite of all that we can do, and some
will comfort US in our old age. There is
no patent on this business, neither for
saint or sinner, but we must all do the
very best We can, and trust the rest to
Providence. The blessings of life are
pretty equally divided, anyhow. The
poor man in this country does not have
as much anxiety about his children as the
rich man in town. The working country
boys do not get much education, nor
much polish, but they grow up with hab.
a. L. i. L.