St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1899-04-26
docs it show much ?"

The least candid of them was obliged
to admit that it did; but George, still
sangulne of escaping detection, hoped
that latter it stopped smarting it would
look BETTER"
When the doctor returned from his dis.
tant call that evening, however, he found
a patient awaiting him at home; and in
the quiet seclusion of the two or three
days following the adventure the future
admiral had leisure in which to concoct
new plans for the entertainment of him
self and his young friends.
During the Mexican war he was an
ardent worshiper at the shrine OF Cen
eral Taylor, who clicked the enemy every
time"
He never tired of looking at picture
of him which hung in his own home;
and when the boys, catching the mill
tary spirit which pervaded the air,
fought sham battles, he always insisted
upon impersonating "Old Zach" assign
ing the part of Santa Anna to someone
else, an apportionment of characters
sometimes resulting in mutiny.
One of the younger set, then "six-
year-old," and not allowed to 60 with
the big boys, recalls the fascination
which his society had for him, and the
hair.erecting stories of the yellow-back
variety with which he sometimes RECALLED
him. On certain memorable evening
the smaller boy, stealing away from
home at dusk, joined young Dewey and
two of his associates, and accompanied
them up deep ravine and to an old
fashioned sawmill, which they set in
motion, the double object thus accom-
plished being the seeing Of "the old thing
shake itself to pieces" and the securing
of days holiday for their friend, the
miller's son, by the suspension of opera
tions consequent upon draining the pond.
The immense amount of snow which
falls in the mountains and valleys Of
New England and the large deposits of
breaking up of winter in that far North
ern climate a period to which every boy
endowed with a spirit of adventure
looks eagerly forward.
Two small rivers, the Winooski and
the Onion, come together in Montpelier
in such way as to form the letter T,
and around this letter the town is built.
In the spring, when these streams are
swollen by the melting SHOWS, and pieces
of ice are hurried along by the current,
the boy who gets upon the smallest
"cake" which will bear his weight
standing often in water four or five
inches deep-and succeeds in effecting a
landing upon the mass of pulverized ice,
interspersed with hugh end.wise and
crss-cross blocks, which lodges six miles
| IL 4 to La,- SC +t,a 1A,,~
On such occasions young Dewey was
in his element, leading the way in every
daring enterprise and acquiring that
hardihood and utter disregard OF dan
ger of which the victory at Manila was
the glorious outcome. 1t was while
guiding his ice raft past bridges and
piers, over cross currents formed by the
influx of lesser tributaries and around
quick bends i'll the river that he learned
his first lesson in the science of naviga.
ton.
What man has done man can do,
was the motto which formed the propel.
ling power of his young life, carrying
him through every boyish undertaking
Who knows but that it may have in
spired his later achievements as well
vi MS cApSIlcHCC dl TIC washington
County Grammar School in Montpelier
the first educational institution which he
attended, much has already been writ
ten. Its pupils, taught by first one
teacher and then another, had acquired
the reputation of being rather difficult
subjects, and Dewey is said to have taker
an active part in the iniatory hazing to
which each new principal was subjected
and to have been the ringleader IN the
revolts which marked the remainder O.
his connection with the school.
When Hon. Zabina K. Pangborn, ex
mayor of Jersey City, and now the edi
tor and proprietor of the Jersey City
Evening Journal, consented to taxi
charge of these refractory young people
at salary of $6.25 week, it was will
the determination to establish system
of discipline among them to which they
were strangers. Dewey, being the frs
to rebel was made an example, and it il
said that, meeting MAJOR Pangborn il
Washington two years ago, the admira
told him that all that was worthy o
consideration in his character had its be
ginning on that day.