Eagle River review. [volume] (Eagle River, Wis.) 1890-1927, 1890-08-02
In the SchooihOuse Loft.

In the SchOOlhOuSe l4Olr.
1t was cold and dark outside one
wlntry evening in January, 1913, but the
schoolhouse was warm, and the roaring
hardwood fire sent out flashes OF hight
through the cracks in the sides Of the
old stove and the square hole which
had been broken in the stove door.
The light shone over the rough walls
and wooden benches, and even flickered
family through the windows, reaching
out into the darkness.
The stove stood in the center of the
room, midway between the door and
the teachers desk, which was on a little
platform at the end opposite the door.
Two long rows of implanted desks and
benches extended along each side of
the room, those of the boys side facing
the girls side opposite.
In the ceiling over the teachers desk
was trap-door, through which the
bows might-and often did-crawl up
ward into the open space between the
ceiling and the foursided roof. The
opening was made when the house
was built, years before, possibly with
Il vague purpose of assisting Ventlla-
ton.
1t was an unusual thing for fire to
& O'Clock in the evening, two hours aft
er school was dismissed; but on the
previous Sunday notice had been given
in the village Westinghouse, three
miles away, of meeting to be held,
Wednesday evening at early candle
light, in the Schoolhouse of District
Number Seven.
Each remote school district In town
was favored with two or three OF these
evening appointments during the WIN
ter, the good parson driving about from
district to district to minister to the
scattered members of his flock.
1t was the custom for nearly all the
grown people of the district to attend
these meetings. Soon the farmers and
their wives would be coming over the
windy hills and along the snowy roads,
the men going ahead with their barn
lanterns to light the way, the women
bringing oil lamps and tallow candles to
light the school-room before the parson
came.
So the teacher, who boarded near by,
had prepared the fire of hard dry knots,
and left the schoolhouse door unlocked,
ready for the worshipers.
The faint light, Pickering through the
window, caught the attention of boy
who was plodding YEARLY along the
road He turned into the narrow path
which led up the little hill on which
the schoolhouse stood. He tried the
door, and, somewhat to his sur
prise, finding it unlocked passed in.
Crossing through the narrow entry,
he entered the school-room. He drew
the teachers chair in front of the fire,
and sat down to warm his hands and
feet.
He was about Is years old, and
nd
boots were broken by long travelling;
his clothes were sadly in need of mend
ing, and there was 4 worn, hungry look
in his thin face.
He looked about the school-room as if
the homely room were familiar; and SO
it had been. One year before, and for
several previous winters, he had been a
pupil there The second seat from the
platform had been his. His name,
cut with jack-knife, struggled in awll
ward capitals across the top of the desk
john Edward Day.
He had tired of the restraint of the
school-room. He hated the routine
work of the farm. He had thought his
father stern, and his elder brother over
bearing; so he had run away from home,
planning his flight SO that he would not
be traced and brought back.
OF course, like all runaway boys, he
expected to find fortune in the city.
and TO return home in a few years with
plenty of money, to be admired by the
other boys, and respected by the older
folk
He had learned hard lesson. Little
work was to be had, and less pay, but
much of cold, hunger, dirt, discomfort,
with wandering by day and hard fare at
night. This had been the luck of the
boy whose mother used TO tuck him
carefully into warm wooden sheets on a
winter night-the boy who had thought
a few barn chores III the morning a
grievous hardship
Still he did not mean to go home
He could not go home in this plight
lie would try harder for works
and at least earn some decent clothes
He would willingly take the place of
farm boy" now. He had learned, in
humbling disappointment and sorrow,
how hard il was for green, friendless
country lad to obtain employment in
the city-even enough to earn his
daily food-for the times were hard
But he had gradually travelled nearer