The Grenada gazette. (Grenada, Miss.) 1885-18??, 1889-11-01

VINO knew me would ever see m
h again, and though / felt cheercd b
O. mothers words, the gloom Of tn
last clause OF my resolution settlet
is down on me. ! went out behind III,
m matched stables, and with a piece o
r, yellow keel in my hand, sat down by
long board, and as | thought, | print
ed. Before ! knew it | had all the let
T. tiers in a long column. | stood up ant
looked at my work and was vel
d pleased with it. This broughtto mind
o mothers words OF the night before
stood there smiling when all at once
y felt a heavy hand on my shoulder, and
= as | looked behind me TO see whose il
was. father said: You young rascal
g Is this the way you've been f~oOling
mother all this time?' and shaking me
4 energctically, III teach you to play
the Ounce
T He led me by tie shoulder into the
stable TO where there hung a long
rtrap, and said: Why didn't you tell
: that you knew every letter. and he
laid tho strap on me heavy and hard
till thought | should die, hen he
said: Now go and say your letters to
your mother or I'll give you another
whipping worse than this
Suffice it to say | could hardly make
my way 10 the house with my smarting
body and my sense OF the wrong done
ne, for | realized that father thought
h,-l avCvl'otI iuV.uct.
Il could not utter a " I'd. | had not
shed a trar--I just stood at the door
looking at mother, as she said. as
pale a. a ghost till father came and
pushed me in. He told mother what
he had seen and done. and then COM
mandcd me to say my letters quick
remember mother grew pale and
spoke low. Jacob, you've wronged
Douglass that is all | remember for
several days.
AT the end OF two weeks | was ND
again, and before long | tended the
baby and helped about the house.
SlilI father watched me with distrust,
and can't tell how d~esolate ! felt.
The last three months OF the term |
" cnt 10 school. ard the whole of the
next term OF eight months.
The next year We had a little, fiery
tempered man for our teacher, who.
fancicd, took a dislike 10 Inc the min
Ut" he saw my red head and frcckled
face. Before tie second week was
over he sent me home with a note TO
father, stating that he would call on
hln that evening, TO counsel with re-
gard to his son Douglass. 1t 50 hap
pcnCd that father was away from home
for "A few days, and the note fell into
mothers hands.
THE teacher came, and learning of
fathers absence, proceeded to discuss
InadVisability Of sending mo to
any more. He firmly believed
eternity would find me no more book s
learned than | now was {
"Moth"r stoutly held that | couM I
and wo"1H conquer all difficulties.
But he meered at her, having lost ,
hi9 s~cIt-control entirely, that i'll did it
would be after the pcarly gates closed
me
'Whi)n ne was hnwing himself ont :
n" door, ! ran up stairs, and with the ,
'id OF Il chair and box went up still :
10 the dark loft above, there to !
lide my grief from mortal ken. How :,
ong lay there, stretched across the !
Joieta, | can't tell, but presently IL
heard some one come up stairs. "
ut was mother. l watched her :,
through the cracks in the ceiling. She !
ecm"d to look for some one-me, r
opposed. Then she fell on her knees :
y her bedside and prayed earnestly, =,
earthly, bcscochingly, that she might =,
now how to help me, her own, dear -
that | might be able to fix r.
names Of the letters and the sounds y.
l"r represent. :,
Il slept little that night; in tho a
| rose, started a fire and went h
hbon, The barn chores before n N
els" was stirring. After breakfast o,
said: Douglass, I'll need you 81
bout the work to-day | understood &c
en- kind way Of saying | must stay at
After Dru and Phil had gone to
'hool, she said: Now we're going to
arm the letters very determinedly. NJ
ma we re going to try a new plan.' III
he got me her old slate and a pencil. III
low print A. | held the pencil in "
and before | thought, | asked V
le Old question, which one?' She ot
lowed me how TO make it, then said: III
'ow make me that one letter and don't u
axe any other, and every time you al
axe it. say 4. No difference where &c
III are-if you make it with a stick DC
the g~round-Say A. yo
81 printed A, / wrote A, and said 4, "
I'd dreamed 4. At the end Of a week III
had it. Then | took another letter. VI
I'd another, till had all. but | was oo
even years old before | had the al III
BY this time ! could write IN
" n"m6er correctly. The conquer &c
G of the alphabet was the hardest NJ
ork OF my life. | want to say to ev. WI
y parent, il you have a dull scholar, y,
We faith in him any way, and hold WI
to him" an
When he was through talking, the ~,
dow was weeping, and several 9TH ="
: were wiping their eyes-1 think |
IS among them. | have been to o
mber of school meetings, but to
other where the discussion was {
foreign to the work in hand, neither pa,
eyer seen 40 nrch hnrmn.n 60.