The Louisiana Democrat. [volume] (Alexandria, La.) 1845-1918, 1889-09-25


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 a 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 It know her
afore l did must We filled 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 AMI afford him COM
pany to the spring, good quarter of a
mile away, at the bottom of high
bank on Beaver Run.
II haint afeerd It go It the spring
alone" he thought to himself, "but a
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 were
heard outside and the red checks 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 caudlesticks 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 begir
the teacher raped on the window
frame with his ruler, hats were re
moved, and the loud talk gradually
subsidized to buzz, and at length diet
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 o
unfinished sentences into the interio
stiffness with an incongruous etfec
that awoke renewed tittering. Whe,
comparative silence had been obtained
the master announced:
"Albert Swope and Polly Pringl
have been selected to choose up. The,
will now take their places
There were more filters and cranin
of necks as the boy and girl, wit
modest sheepishness, made their wa
to the far end of the room, where the
stood side by side, the blushing cap
tains of prospective companies. L
decide who should have first choic
the teacher held up his closed han
and asked:
"Odd or even?"
"Odd," said Albert, and "even' sal
Polly. seeing that she had but Hobson'
choice.
The teachers outspread palm dis
closed a single coin. ALBERT has frs
choice" he declared. and with tn
promptness of performed decision
Albert called out:
Louisa Larcom."
With an assumed reluctance to az
cept the wholly expected honor tn
blushing Louisa tripped with deter
mined air to the front.
James Pritchard,' was Polly
equally prompt and emphatic secon
choice, and the choosing went on wit
an animation which tagged in propol
tion as the best spoilers were exhausted
and certain dumb sympathy for thos
left to the last as kind of undesirabl
rubbish managed to make itself fe
though unworded. Some of the middle
aged men had excused themselves an
remained sitting round the stove, spec
tators and critic. of the performance
The teacher took a candle in one han
and spelling book in the other an
gave out" the words, beginning wit
"baker." Any one missing sat dow
until all were disabled.
At the end or half hour the teache
invited Deacon Albright to relies
him. The Deacon, after making
polite but expectedly vain pretence
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