The Mason County journal. [volume] (Shelton, W.T.) 1886-1927, 1890-06-13

We had but four months school ca CHI
year, beginning usually the first of No
vember, so that the entire session was
held during the 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 the farms.
Miss Dodge lived alone in little log
andframe house. She and an elderly
brother had come to the West a nun Der
of years before my story opens. The
brother died a 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 solitary life.
She fed and cared for her horses and
COWS and pigs herself and did SO much
other outdoor work properly belonging
to a 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.
81 jist know how it'll be, with pas
sci of boys and girls whoopin' and yellin'
around all the time like pack of wild
Injuns, and dom all they can to poster
the life out of a body!
II lived in the house highest to the
school-house once, back East and the chill
dren was a 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' on!''
The pupils all knew how 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. | don't want one of 'em to
set foot on my place unless they come
over fer a pail of water; and don't think
there's any use of 'em drinkin' water
doorin' school hours, anyhow. It's only
habit they've got into. Boys and girls
didn't do so in ing day. But 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 a mans
hat set back on her irongray 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, more vigorous
stroke than usual on the part of some of
the 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.
eli, you thereW she would scream,
In her highest and most shrill notes.
what you DOM on my primises? Git
yourself right back there to where you
belong, or I'll make you wish you had;
and don't you ever daSt to set foot on
my ground again.
And one dreadful day, Tom Green
wood, big, fat but cowardly boy, gave
the ball such whack with the ball club
that it went flying over the fence and
crashing through pane of glass in one
nf Micc pahaoa,,o
teachers bell rang at that moment, and
we ran into the school-house, with Miss
Dodge in swift pursuit
81 know who done i'll knowI, she
cried, as we ran to our seats. cit was
you, Tom Greenwood! l see you, and
b'lleve you done it a-purposel But
you've got 1T to pay fer, sir-indeed you
havev'
Tom bowed his head and wept before
sch wrath as Miss Dodge exhibited.
But she seemed merciless, and, as she
left the school-room, she walked by
Toms desk and gave him a ringing
slap on the ear.
After that the 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 Rebecca. 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
home again.
l remember now how pale and tired
abe looked as she came up the lane,
driving the last of the rebellious pork.
ers before her.
And while she was gone the bows had
made an onslaught on her flock of geese
with icy snowballs, and one old gander
lay dead by the roadside, while another
had broken wing.
1t had been wonderfully bright and
warm day in January; the air was as
balmy as April, and the sky blue and
cloudless. We had had the four win.
dows OF our little school-room open, but
cold wave of wind came sweeping in
suddenly in the middle of the afternoon,
and the teacher had hastily lowered the