Shepherdstown register. [volume] (Shepherdstown, Va. [W. Va.]) 1849-1955, 1897-06-03

Written for the Register.
The Old Log SchooI-House in the Grove.

BY W. VI. ID.
Beside the winding country road,
And meath the leafy wood,
ershadowed by the waving boughS,
The district school-house stood.
1t walls of rough-hewn logs repose,
All weather-boarde DER,
And smoothly plastered. too, within
1t had one batten door.
And battened shutters, too, were seen
AT every window space;
And each, when closed, by hooks was
held
Securely in its place.
Around the walls the desks were ranged,
OF solid oak were they,
AT which the larger girls and boys
Were seated day by day.
The boys and girls who had not learned
To write and cipher too,
Were seated on two high-backed forms,
Nllnln the master view.
The forms were placed on either side,
And opposite the door,
Between them, stood template stove
Upon the school-house floor.
Its sides long since Of doors despoiled,
Its furnace huge and square,
Emitted generous warmth to those
Whom fate had seated near.
High up the walls, on every side,
Were pegs in lieu of hooks,
On which were hung our hats and states
And satchels filed with books.
The master near one corner sat
Upon cushioned stool;
A stern though kindly man was he,
And qualified to rule.
His watchful eye was on us all,
The rules each one must mind,
And to enforce them, DER his head,
On pegs, the rod reclined.
That long elastic hickory rod,
Can anyone forget?
Its powers our conduct to reform
DwellS in my memory yet.
Just over there sat one bright girl,
Black eyed, sweet-tempered, true;
And there another fair-haired one,
Her eyes like azure-blue.
And there sat Ton, and Jake and Joe,
Who played us many a trick;
And there were George, and Bob, and
Jack.
And there sat slippery Dick"
A hundred others might be named,
Who were our comrades there:
Our hopes were high, our hearts were
light,
Unburdened, free from care.
We studied, wrote, recited tasks,
Enjoyed the noon-time plays,
And gathering nuts, and fruits, and
HOWeTS,
We passed our childhood days,
We had our little trials, true,
But when our tasks were done,
And we upon the play ground met,
We had lust lots of fun.
The years have passed. and change has
come.
Our world is not the same;
We oft have found that friends were false
And friendship but name.
But now as memory brings again
The days of ''Auld Lang Syne,
May | remember naught except
The joys that then were mine.
A modest brick now marks the spot
Where the log school-house stood;
Strange forms are seen within its walls,
And meath the leafy wood.
The grey-haired master sleeps the sleep
That knows no Weakening here,
And many of his girls and boys
Are with him ''Over there.
And many more who used to meet,
And study side by side,
Within the old log gSchool-house walls,
Are scattered far and wide
Their steps are not so lithesome now:
-
They soon will lay the burden down
Which they have borne so long.
And when they, too, are called to go,
Across deaths surging tide,
May all our school, both girls and boys,
Stand by their masters side.
And there with that vast blood-washed
throng,
Who taste those higher joys,
May our old master enter in,
With all his girls and boys.
The Union school-house at Unionville,
(now Uvilla) Jefferson county, w. Va.
Mr.. John Hess taught the Uuionville
school for over twenty-five years.