The San Francisco call., 1897-02-28

that can be designed and all sorts OF books
and apparatus 10 help you along the road
of learning. You would, 1 shouldn't
wonder, turn up your nice little noses at
the idea of entering such queer little
shanty as the one 1 shall tell you about.
But l hope you will be polite and keep
them straight.
1t stands on a broad fat which is en-
| tirely surrounded by hills; dry plain
with no irrgating bitches, but green now
with the soft new grass of early spring.
The nearer hills are low, covered with
sandstone rocks and scrubby pines and
| jumpers. Back of them the tall noun
tains rise high and higher, until their
tops are crowned with everlasting snow.
Across the fiat four miles away is the
railroad and town. where rises a brick
| schoolhouse with bell, but that is not
the one l mean. 1t is on one side of the
/ fat close to some of the little rocky hills,
and it is so small and low you might skip
! 1t with your eye like very small comma
with its tail rubbed out.
! Imagine little ca bin about thirty feet
! square made Of rough pine boards. 1t has
! four windows and door at each emo.
/ There is no ceiling and there are so many
; cracks and craDnies that little birds fly in
and then fly out. 1t is not plastered.
! Bits OF shingle are nailed over cracks in
| the side, and then newspapers are pasted
on. The desks are heavy, all wood and
| second hand. l cannot tell you how old
they are, but sat in one of them twenty
years ago in another school, and they
were not new then. The teacher has a
! table and chair, and there is a bench for
! the pail and basin and q stove. How is
/ that for a welI-furrished room?
! Twelve children go there every day, big
! children and little, with books just like
! those you have, and if you think they do
not study, just you come and peep through
! a crack and watch them.
| These twelve pupils never think their
! school is dingy. or that they need any
pity. Nor do l. One small man in the
Revised Second Reader expressed my SEN
! timents exactly when he said: ~ can get
as many perfect marks in this house as in
any, can't 1, Miss Mp
| When the weather is fine, the children
! climb the hill at recess and bring back all
| sorts of leaves and moss TO trim the house;
and when i: storms, the little ones spread
buggy-ro be on the floor IN one corner
and play softly while their older brothers
and sisters finish their long problems in
the advanced arithmetic.
Nearly every year one pupil goes from
the queer little house to the elegant High
School in the town, and the professors
there say they are among their best pupils.
! So l think they learn as much in the old
house IS you do in your new ones.
| Don'ty you think it is the boy that counts
more than the house2 l do not believe
J Ia -
| bending closely over the little reader any
! buster or wiser or better. And l think it
is all girl and not bit house that makes
! the "big class" dig so hard over profit and
loss.
! They are very independent, because
when they need things they go right TO
work and make them. They have home
made checker-boards. balls. bats, scrap
books, money, stamps and all sorts of
things. And they can choose sides and
| play a game Of ball that would make you
wink Nor is there a bird or animal on
the fat they cannot tell you more about
than you can learn in a dozen books.
Altogether they are an active, hardy little
band, and their vertical writing is the
pride of the teachers heart.
l do not mean that nice house and
everything 10 work with are not pleasant,
but l do think they are far less important
than nice boys and good determination to
work with.
Work is the only thing that lasts.
When the little man that gets perfect
marks grows to be big man he may
stand side by side with man who studied
in palace, and who will care a straw
about it? The question Will be, not
"What kind of a house was il?" but
"W at kind OF man is hep Don't YOU
thlnK so? OLIVE HEYDEN.