Hopkinsville Kentuckian. [volume] (Hopkinsville, Ky.) 1889-1918, 1889-12-06


whipping worse than this
Suffice It TO say could hardly make
my way to the house with my smarting
body and my sense of the wrong dono
me, for realized that father thought
had deceived mother.
II could not utter n word, had not
shed a toar-I just stood at tho door
looking at mother, as she said, 'as
pale as ghost till father came and
pushed me in. He told mother what
he had seen and done, and then com
manded me to say my letters quick.
l remember mother grew pale and
spoke low. Jacob, you've wronged
Douglass that is all l remember for
| several days. -.s.- -.-----...,.'
"At the end OF two weeks l was up
again. and before long tended the
baby and helped about the house.
Still father watched mo with distrust,
and / can't tell how dcsolate felt.
Tho last three months Of the term l
W ent to school, ard the whole OF the
next term OF eight months.
The next year we had little, fiery
tempered man for our teacher, who,
iancied, took dislike TO me the min
ute he saw my red head and freckled
face. Before the second week was
over he sent me home with note TO
father, stating that he would call on
him that evening, TO counsel with re-
gard to his son Douglass. 1t so hap
pened that father was away from home
for few days, and the noto fell into
mothers hands,
1.-THE teacher came, and learning OF
fathers absence, proceeded to discuss
the nadvisability of sending me to
school any moro. He firmly believed
eternity would find me no more book
learned than now was
Mother stoutly held that could
and would conquer all difficulties.
But he sneered at her having lost
his self-control entirely, that II | did 1t
would be after the poarly gates closed
Lehind mo- -r
while he was bowing himself out
the door, / ran up stairs, and with the
aid OF chair and box wen. up still
higher to the dark loft above, there 10
hide my grief from mortal ken. How
long l lay there. stretched across the
bare joists, ! can't tell, but presently
| heard some one come up stairs.
at was mother. l watched her
through the cracks in the ceiling. She
seemed to look for some one-me,
supposed. Then she fell on her knees
by her bedside and prayed earnestly,
tearfully, beseechingly, that she might
know how to help me. her own, dear
boy'-and that | might be able to fix
the names OF the letters and the sounds
they represent
Il slept little that night; In the
morning rose. started fire and went
out about the barn chores before any
one else was stirring. After breakfast
mother said: Douglass, I'll need you
about the work to-day l understood
her kind way OF saying l must stay at
home.
after Dru and Phil had gone to
school, she said: Now we're going to
learn the letters very determincdly,
and we're going to try a new plan.
She got me her old slate and pencil,
now print a. | held the pencil in
position. and before thought, ! asked
the old question. which Onep She
showed me how TO make 1t, then said:
Now make me that one letter and don't
make any other and every time you
make it, say A. No difference where
you are-if you make it with stick
on the ground-Sdy a.
II printed Il, wrote A, and said A,
and dreamed A. At the end OF a week
/ had IT, Then l took another letter,
and another, till l had all, but was
eleven years old before / had the al
phabot BY this time 1 could torite
any number correctly. The conquer
ing OF the alphabet was the hardest
work of my life. / want to say to ev
cry parent II you have dull scholar,
have faith in him any way, and hold
on to him."
When he was through talking, the
widow was weeping. and several 9TH
ers wero wiping their eyes-I think /
was among them. | have been to q
number of school meetings, but to
none other where the discussion was
30 foreign TO the work in hand, neither
haveI ever seen SO much harmony
come out OF an open discussion, for
before we left the house, the treasurer
had begged pardon Of tho widow, and
we three rode abreast over the prairie
us far MS our road lay together When
the house was completed Neighbor
Seelig brought his nephew over Ito
show him TO the Doctor" as
bo told mother while father
and the young man woro conversing.
Father remarked, as he introduced mo
to the stranger, that l had hoard him
at the school meeting OF mo. TO-" He
blushed like a maiden. and said he bo-
lieved he had never said so much about
himself before in his life.
told him that in my work as a
teacher, his talk had done me more
good than could tell.
Douglass Is still his mothers town.
dear boy" and am his wife. was
won at tho school meeting. Agnes, In
Womnn's Magazine
"A Camden justice received fec Of
fnrtv-fva cants In ranniea for mnrrv.l