Juniata sentinel and Republican. [volume] (Mifflintown, Juniata County, Pa.) 1873-1955, 1890-02-19
QUEEN 'LIZBETH.


Forty years ago the present Meadow
avenue" of Van Buren was the ''Old
Back Road. 1t skirted broad stretch
OF marsh which was covered in summer
with a clumpy growth of ruslIes -aud
coarse grass, except where little prom
ontaries OF partial upland jutted ag-
gressively out into the marsh, and held
the position with tangled defenseS OF
swamp maple, black alder and cat
brier.
a dozen or fifteen acres of such dis
pu ed territory inclosed the old
''Swamp College" on three sides, and
was the only play ground provided for
the young people who availed them
selves OF the disadvantages which the
scho u ed-disadvantages so OBJ
| vious that the name, Swamp College,
having been once ironically applied TO
it, WAS reGaId ded as such a happy hit
that il became the ordinary name
the school.
When l was matriculated at the in
stitution, Mr.. Eliphalet Gibbs was It's
president and faculty. He had been
old and queer when he assumed the po-
sition, and he was twenty-five years
older and twenty-five times as queer
when he relinquished it and entered an
Ins titutiou for the aged and infrm.
regret that have not space to de-
JcTibe Mr.. Gibbs, nor his methods of
teaching, nor the old school-house, that
was so suitable a setting for so rare AN
educator, that my younger readers may
compare their own school advantages
with those Of their parents.
Ny chum at the college-of course
d. hot N
child's school Tom McKelway,
Farmer Simpsons hired boy. Tom s
wages were board, clothing and days
schooling now and then, aud his duti S
were those of man, woman and boy
all together. He was awkward, plain,
badly dressed even for those days, and
so Mrs. Simpson sIid-'resl back
ward in his laruin',' In which opinion
lIer judgment was better than her
grammar, for Tom was backward, alb
! solutely and relatively, too, compared
with even Swamp College standards
had beed so unfortunate as 10 enter
Mr.. Gibbs Institution of learning with
out garments mllar 10 those of the
other pupils I wore store clothes, ,
and l suppose hope, at any Iae-
that | wore some of the mann-rs or
CIVILIZED society. 1Jr my gentle mother,
until her death, short time before
T-ame to live with my uncle at Van
,Buren. had been my teacher. Perhaps
she bad guarded me too carefully, for |
Was a thoroughly surprised boy when L
found myself surrounded by Mr.. Gibbs
collect Oh OF hI man animals, all I'M
Gagged aud untetheIed.
They made grimaces at me; they
"a led me Dandy aud Miss Nancy,
aud would probably have laid violent
hands upon me had not Tom come u
my lie cue
'Lsok 'erel' he said. The feller as
goes to huntin' o. this ere little gTeeny
Rfore he larns to hoe his own row I'll
hzve me to handle,' and after that
was unmolested.
There WAS no reason for Toms
, championship of me except that | was
stranger and smaller than my tor
mentors. and Tom VAS born a defender
of the feeble In those days no weak
and I eedy thing cane into Ills way that
lac did not befrlenI II. lie would stop
| in the midst of the most exciting game
to lift a turtle out of a wagon-rut and
head il towards the swamps and Sd. ETY.,
and he seemed to do such things with
nut thinking as naturally as he bTeathed.
~
Sally Skillet. This ,ady owned a large
and various stock of poultry, whit Ia
the encouraged to open-air exercise
quite TO the disadvantage of the school
children. She had learned to her cost
that tresspassers upon the upland were
summarIly dealt with, and, accordingly,
she sedulously headed off her featherel
family whenever they turned their bills
in that direction
But the oad and the swamp she coI-
dered as theirs, and defended their
rights to the last wag Of her wicked
tongGe.
OF course she regarded the children
as interlopers. If they played in the
road, she took the view that they were
appropriately the sand-baths of her
ch ckens; if they splasned through the
swamp, that they were tresspassing
upon the hunting grounds of he. ducks.
Singularly enough, the children, de-
spite her many unjust accusations,
were not disposed 10 be cious- IN
deed, 1t never occurred to US that We
had any rights where ducks or geese or
chickens were concerned, and the mas
ter's course, WHEN Mrs. Skilletr made
complaint against us, was calculated to
confirm us in our humility. For when
the Skillet complained, some one Was
whipped forthwith, without trial or
hearing.
Still he was not very cruel man,
this funny d master Of ours He be-
labored his pupils for the sake OF CON-
ciliating Mrs. Skillet, of whom he
was even more afraid than we were,
perhaps because, unlike US, he was not
built for speed.
Tom found me one day trying to set
snare to catch a rabbit. This We
used to do by bending a sapling AMI
fastening its top to the ground, and
then attaching to it kind OF noosr
through which an animal must put Its
he d in order to get at the bat. The
nibble of the game sprung the trap, aid
the tree reboundsd to it's position,
carrying with it the victim hanged
b gh in air.
You won't catch one, Max said
Tom Them chaps from New York
hez been combin' this place with a pack
" hounds fur a week an more
Well, it'll do no harm TO set the
sEare, anyway. Hold down the tree.
can't you. while 1 ix the string.'
Il vow, Max, If there was any chance
y your ketcnin' rabbit, wouldn't
help yeh,' said he, settling upon one
knee and bending to the work. 'Ef