The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1890-05-03

| by hill or tree.
1t was shabby, implanted and unin-
viting little wooden house, built mostly
by the farmers whose small and unat-
tractive homes dotted the prairie for
miles around it.
We had but four months school a CHI
year, beginning usually the first of No
vember, so that the entire session was
held during tho coolest and snowiest
season of the year. when the thirty-five
or forty boys and girls who made up the
school were not needed on tho farms.
| Miss Dodge lived alone in little log
and-framo house. She and an elderly
brother had come to the West number
of years before my story opens. The
brother died year or two later, and
Miss Rebecca was left alone.
She hired a man during the summer
months, but from October until April
she had q solitary life.
She fed and cared for her horses and
COWS and pigs herself, and did so much
other outdoor work properly belonging
| to q mans duties, that she could not
help appearing masculine in her man.
ner
Miss Rebecca did not like it when the
school-house was built so close to her
own.
II jist know how it'll be, with q pas
sci of boys and girls whoopin' and yellin'
around all the time like a pack of wild
Injuns, and dom all they can to poster
the life out of body!
81 lived in the house highest to the
school-houSc once, back East, and the chill
dren was perfect torment the hull en-
doorin' time. They'd hook my flowers and
fruit, and break my winders with their
balls, and come racin' all over my prim-
roses every day till had three or four OF
'em took up for committin' trespass:
and even after that they was dretful
noosance, with all their racket and car
ryin' ont"
The pupils all knew low Miss Dodge
felt toward them, and it did not tend to
an increase of affection for her on their
part
The first day of every term brought
Miss Rebecca to the school-house for the
purpose of giving the teacher his or her
orders" regarding the pupils conduct
while on the playground.
II jist come over to say" she would
begin, standing grim and erect before
US, that l want you to make these
young ones keep their place on the play
ground, and not let 'em come round to
poster me. I don't want one of 'cm to
set foot on my place unless they come
over fcra pail of water; and don't think
there's any use of 'em drinkin' water
doorin' school hours, anyhow. It's only
a habit they've got into. Boys and girls
didn't do so in n'y day. But l want 'em
to know that amt goin' to be bothered
by en-
And out Miss Rebecca would stalk,
arrayed, it might be, in one of her
brothers old coats, worn over her short
and skinny skirts. and with mans
hat set back on her iron-gray hair, which
she always wore short, to save her
self the trouble of ''doin' it up" as she
said.
Sometimes, when we were playing ball
on the playground, a more vigorous
stroke than usual on the part of some of
tho boys would send the ball into Miss
Dodge's yard and woe to the boy who
climbed over the fence after it, if Miss
Rebecca saw him.
''Hi, you there" she would scream,
in her highest and most shrill notes.
'What you doin' on my primiscs? Git
yourself right back there to where you
belong, or I'll make you wish you had;
and don't you ever dGSt to set foot on
my ground again.
And one dreadful day, Tom Green
wood, a big, fat but cowardly boy, gave
the ball such a whack with the ball club
that it went flying over tho fence and
crashing through pane of glass in one
of Miss Rebecca's little windows. Tho
teachers bell rang at that moment, and
we ran into tho school-house, with Miss
Dodge in swift pursuit.
81 know who done it know!' she
cried, as we ran to our seats. ut was
you, Tom Greenwood! l see you, and /
b'lieve you done it a-purpose! But
you've got it to pay fer, sir-indeed you
haver'
Tom bowed his head and wept before
such wrath as Miss Dodge exhibited.
But she seemed merciless, and, as she
4ClG Viz oCuOOl-FOOul, SuO Wdlhcu ny
TOMS desk and gave him ringing
slap on the ear
After that tho breach between Miss
Dodge and the school grew wider, al
though our teacher-a pretty young
girl from the East, teaching her first
term-talked long and earnestly to US
about our duty toward Miss Rebecca, as
a woman who was growing old, and
whose life had been embittered by many
sorrows and misfortunes.
But we were not always kind and just
to Miss Rebccca. We said and did things
which we ought not to have said or
done. Sometimes we did annoying
things thoughtlessly, but, again, our
mischief.was premeditated and mex
cusable, as was the case when some of
the boys slyly opened the door of her
pig-pen, and allowed the fifteen head of
hogs she was fattening for market to
rush out into the highway; and some of
them went so far before poor Miss Re-
becca could overtake them all that she
spent most of the day getting them
homo again.
l remember now how pale and tired