Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1897-08-13
A GREAT GAME OF CHECKERS.

play checkers. schoomaster.
"Oh yes, ! play checkers
The tone BETRAYED the rash confidence of
youth but the old farmer met it with a Sc
rene smile, born of the memory of many
victories
Hattie. bring that checkerboard " hat
kind of a game do you play Teacher, side
or centre
81 don't understand your terms. re
piled the schoolmaster but play the reg
ular openings, and then gauge my play ac-
cording to my opponents play
"Well, TIL be switched exclaimed the
farmer 81 always thought checkers was
checkers the world over, but ] never heard
of openings nor gauges nuther'
Il see your board Is not numbered said
the teacher. do you object to my mark
ing the numbers with a pencil
Mark all you want TO. Schoolmaster, "
replied the hilarious farmer Put a sum
in mental rithmetic in the middle, an al
zebra round the edges Turn the board
over. IN write out some examples in bot'uy
an histrv on the back of er. Can't hurt
the board any. Ernest, git some of that
cider.
After the farmer had won four games in
succession. he said to his son Here. Err
nest, YOU come an play with the School
master This amt exciting enough for
me I'll go an set 10y the fire an think '
len minutes later Ernest said "N ell.
father, FMS may he fun for YOU. but 1t S
rather monotonous for me. You'd better
play with Hattie, Nchoolmaster. You may
get a game occasionally if she's good ma
tured
So the teacher and his oldest pupil played
together But the memory of certain
caustic remarks anent the afternoons al
zebra recitation ranked in the young girls
bosom, and she srowed him no mercy. She
forced his pieces into Improbable corners;
she coaxed him after apparently unprotect-
ed single men, only to slaughter the
pursuer, and at last, in completing an in
nocent-ooking combination, swept the
board time and again.
Looking up in the midst of the fifth game
he became conscious that their normal con
ditions were reversed He knew that his
face was flushed, and his brows in a tan
gle, while she was watching him with
cool. amused smile.
What are you thinking Of he asked,
suddenly.
Il am thinking of algebra" she an
swered, demurely. 1T does seem'-she
gave him imam las though checkers
she gave him two more--"was SO much
easier, and she swept the board
When the teacher retired that night he
registered a vow that he would beat that
girl at checkers, even if he had TO give up
his school and devote his whole time to
studying the game He Law awake a long
time gazing at the bare rafters above his
bed, silver gray in the moonlight that
streamed through his uncurtaned window,
and thinking of this remarkable checker
playing family He remembered the iovial
old mans way of pretending to be in ex-
IRENE fear and how he would calculate
''Ah. now you We got me- "Look at that,
now. / never expected that. "Now YOU
have got me, etc, and the way MS knotty
hand would hover over the board IN simu-
lated uncertainty.
lie remembered Ernest keeping up
laughing conversation with his mother and
apparently not paying any attention to the
game He remembered Hattie, always
watching him with that keen, amused
smile, and moving her pieces with the swift,
sliding touch of a slim, white hand Then
he wondered why he had never noticed her
hands before Also, he remembered a GER
tain vivid color IN her cheeks and wondered
If II showed the same by daylight
IL may have been a week after this even
ing that Edna Bristol, Hattie's pretty but
dull seat-mate, found the day too short for
her lessons and had to stay after school
Hattie obtained permission to wait for
her, and after every one else had gone she
said 10 the teacher:
n think YOU have checkerboard here
Mr. Field. Won't you show me how to
play by numbers
The schoolmaster rather shamefacedly
got out his board and books "Rudiments
Of Dtaughts, Spayth, and Robertson,
and they played games and variations by
the dozen. And pretty Edna seemed TO find
the atmosphere conducive TO study, for she
mastered the refractory grammar lesson
thoroughly.
The next day Edna SAID.
Teacher, can study after school bet
ter than any other time May l stay to-
night" And so the program was indef-
nitely extended.
Now young man cannot play checkers
with pretty girl night after night without
coming to give fully as much attention to
her as 10 the game; consequently the school
master felt as though a great blank spot
had moved into his life one afternoon when
Hattie, without looking at him, left the
house Immediately at the close of school.
The following afternoon a bic, fresh
faced young fellow, whom the schoolmas-
ter had never before seen, called fer Hat
tie, and took her driving in a very dashing
eduipage Edna volunteered an explana-
ton after school. That's Bill Keller"
she said Hes Hattie's beau, and he
wants her to get married His mother has
promised to give him the farm if he'll get a
wife before Christmas.
This news threw the schoolmaster into
the suks The young farmer visited the
school, being received with bashful cor
diality by the big boys and girls, and with
cold civility by the teacher. He took Hat
tie to the Thursday evening singing school,
and was driving with her and Edna every
day.
This week was one Of misery for the
schoelmaster, though his checkerboard was
some consolation. But sitting alone in the
darkening schoolroom, while the snow
whirled high around the windows, he would
imagine that vivid face, lit by great, lu-