The Press., 1890-05-15
TRIXY's PRIZE POEM,


 TRIXY'S PRIZE POEM.
 When Miss Fairlie, the teacher in the A | room, requested the pupils to remain after | school was dismissed, all the children in t the class wondered what it could possibly ' mean. Had some one done wrong, and | was he to be exposed to his fellow class \ mates? Each of the younger boys, with | one accord, began to review his record | mentally, to see if it could be he. Tom | De Peyster, who had pulled the wings of poor little fly that day, and the boys who sat near him and had laughed tthe antics of the tortured insect as it plunged wildly over the desk, began to look sober.
 Flossy Marx, who sat near the open window, and had spent good deal of time scraping up the white, cherry blossoms that drifted in with every breath of south wind, and made believe it was little dolls bed on which she laid doll, fash toned from her tiny lace- trimmed handker- chief, looked very serious, and wondered If Miss Fairlie had seen her playing after all ar But the expression on Miss Fairlie's face was not one of reproof. Members of the Loyal Temperance Legion will please rise to their feet" commanded the teacher.
 Forty bobbing heads-black, brown, white and yellow-were up in a'twinkling, and forty pairs of eyes-black, blue, brown and gray-began to sparkle. When Miss Fairlie planned anything for the Loyal Temperance Legion it was sure to be something good. ss$
 ssWe are going to have one of our chil- drens dime aociables for the benefit of the Loyal Temperance Legion" said Miss Fairlie, "but have thought it best to have something new by way of variety. We will have hyming contest, and the I boy or girl who composes the best poem of not less than eight lines on the subject of temperance will receive $5 in gold for a prize. All can compete who wish to do SO, and the prize will be awarded by con- mittee of three, chosen from the audience by the children themselves. You have ljust week in which to prepare your lines, and all who are willing to compete may raise their hands,"
 Up flew the hands in every direction. though when they came to be counted only twenty five had the courage to pledge themselves
 'If there isn't Trixy Winslow," whis- pered Fanny Brayton, the largest girl in school, to her little cousin, Flossy Marx. "Wonder if she is really going to try for
 
 poor little Trixy as sheispoke.
 But Trixy, bright and jolly, spite of her rags and patches, and quite unconscious of any intentional offense, returned Fan. ny's severe glance with. e gay smile that showed all her white teeth, and stood, hel hands clasped in sort of rapture. Rhyming was Trixy's one gift. The children at home, ragged and noisy, might chamber about her, with clamorous ap peals for this or that, for Trixy was gen eral nurse to the rollicking brood that fill ed the house all day long with turmoil an6 confusion, but Trixy, with a stubby leai pencil, would pursue her beloved pastim. of scribbling rhymes all over everything in the most prodigal fashion, on margini of newspapers, on the blank leavesI O , books, even on bits of clean shingles whel , nothing better offered itself.
 Only one thing could rob Trixy of al enjoyment ill her rhymes, and that was tt see her father come reeling down the lane his hat askew on his tumbled, frowsy hair his eyes bleared and red, and his word wild and incoherent. Then she woult put down the fat, heavy baby on the floor and hide away in the orchard behind tn, house or the kitchen garrett, anywhere, tt escape the sight that filled her with dead ly terror that she could not conquer, ana only increased as the days went by, an( the repuisiye spectacle grew more ant more frequent.
 !, Her mother, toiling at the sewing ma chine day after day to earn the scanty sun that barely kept them from starvation knew nothing of Trixy's scribbling. Sh. was a sad, abstracted woman, weighed down by the weight of her grief and care loving mother, but 80 absorbed in pro viding for the physic,l needs of her famil, that she had little thought for anything else. So, down in the orchard. where tn, grass grew thick and tall amid the noddin, crims on clover blossoms, or sitting besid the creek in the maple woods just beyont the orchard, with bare feet hanging in tn gurgling stream, Trixy dreamed her child ish dreams, and wove them full of her owl bright fancies. .....s -.... ....
 ''If I could only get the prize for moth er," she thought 10 herself, ssthen the bab, could have pair of new shoes, and moth CT the shawl she nee ds so much, ard-oh ever so many things, for $5 is such lot o money!" f' 2t ff''rsF r-
 From the day of ifs announcement tn prize became the all-absorbing topic o conversation among the pupils in Mis- Fairlie's room. Notwithstanding her re quest that no time or thought should b. given to the subject school hours, many bright head was bent low over the desl after the recitations were over, while tn owner slyly pored overed a slate crosse, and recrossed with many lines, or scanne. suspicious looking bits of paper.
 Tlixy became careless of the baby, an, even ran away from the other childrel once or twice, to hide in the orchard an, rack her poor little brain with thought that had DO rightful place in the mind of chill. She forgot to whistle an answer t the oriole that was building it's nest o1 the swinging branch of tall elm in MT Brayton's meadow across the road, an, his loud, mellow whistle passed nnheeded so intent was she on the verses that sh hoped would win the prize.
 * s :A The contest was to be held in the tow 7 hall. and the larger members of the clas |. had taken great pains to decorate it fo : the occasion in becoming manner. Grea