The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1900-03-11
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Excelsior

Excelsior "
Sydney rose at his desk held the book
close to his face, for he was near-sighted
opened his eyes wide. and frightened.
dropped his lower lip, and very slowly
rend
The shads of nigt were falling Fat,
When thog an All Pine villag paced
yowt who bore mid snow and ice
banner with the strong device Ex-
Excellent
Very excellent" said Miss Green. but
I'm agfraid not excellent enough for you
TO get an extra in reading
When sgd. sat down he was In tears,
Z but that did not cause the singers and
miles of his classmates to subsde, nor
lid Miss Greene make any attempt to
stop the scholars.
Little sgd. fet Inundated and hardly
knew what happened the rest of the day.
, lie was kept in for an hour and had TO
read that verse out loud nifty times and
then write it twenty-five times.
Il was late in the afternoon when he
inally left school and started for home.
His way DAY along the seashore, and he
shufiied through the damp sand. half
wishing that a big wave would come and
bear him away to a land where there
was no such thing as school
Il wish | could learn. l don't want to
grow up a Ounce" he said to himself
but everything Is SO hard, and Miss
| Greene doesn't think l can do anything.
and then | can't read that verse all
right to grandma, but she kept stroking
my hair and that made the words look
easier"
So he talked out loud to himself and
shufied along until his foot unearthed.
or rather unsanded, bronze jar of a
very curious shape. Little sgd. had
never read any fairy stories, of course.
Reading was too hard thing for him
to do more in IL thsn he had to do
And his grandmother, although a love-
" old lady and devoted to her little
grandson 0he only one left of a large
family of children and grandchildren). was
no believer in fairy tales. ITS waste
| OF time" she had said to a caller, who
| had asked her whether she read alice
| in Wonderland" TO sydney IN all seems
| very Ronsenscal TO me- What is the use
| of filling the poor boys brain with stories
| that are not only untrue. but are silly?
II isn't easy for him to learn, SO l be-
| lieve in reading only those things that
| will do him good
Yes" the visitor had said but If you
| don't exercise his imagination YOU are
| going 10 give him a cherries old age"
BUT grandma had laughed in her CHEEKY
way and had said; well, I'm old enough,
conscience knows. and I've had enough to
cry me. but find life pleasant and that
So the caller had changed the subject.
You see, therefore, that Sydney did NOT
Immediately wonder an imaginative
boy would have wondered what the jar
was good for and whether IL was one of
the kind tod about in the arabian
Nights"
But it is a peculiar thing about fairies
and their ways that il doesn't make a
Bit of difference to them whether you be
lieve in them or not If they think that
you need them they will come to you and
force you 10 believe in them.
AS soon as Sydney kicked the jar he
stopped and picked il up and began rub
bng the sand from It, and 10 and be
hold! beautiful fairy came out of 1t and
flew before him like butterfly, talking as
she few.
What do you want of me, my dear?"
She said in the sweetest voice Ina ginable
But Sydney only stared in amazement.
you called me, my dear. and here
am / can do anything for you that you
wish done. Make you rich, make you
wise, make you good"
Now there are number of boys In the
Malburn school who would have said: ION,
make me rich" but dear little sgd. hardly
ever thought of money. He did want 10
know some things, so he said:
IT wish that / could learn easily"
You see, he didn't even ask to know
everything without study; he merely want
ed 10 learn easily dtl0 dS iS haA aShN1
so he received.
The fairy flutered up to him and kissed
him on each cheek, and he told me after
ward that 1t was as If a warm snowflake
had touched him, which was not bad
idea for a fellow like Sydney.
Then the fairy and the jar vanished, but
Sydney walked home happy as if he
had never been bothered at school. He
had his school books under his arm, for
he had determined to have good lessons
next day if 1t took him all night TO learn
them.
l think that he fancied his grandmother
would not believe that he had met fairy,
so he said nothing TO her about 1t, but
eager TO test his new power he sat down
at the center table in the sitting room
and began to study his history lesson. The
boys had studies far beyond their ages
in that school. Sydney was only 10, and
as you have seen he could hardly read,
and yet he had history, geography, SPELL
ing arithmetic, grammar and physiology.
Well. the history lesson for the next day
was about the battle of Concord and sgd
ney began TO read il out loud, as was his
habit and to his great astonishment he
read it as glibly as Bob Addoms. and to
his greater establishment he remembered
every word of it, and when he had shut
the book up he found himself repeating
the whole chapter, word for word, ana
with as much expression as Lorimer Hal
stead put into his reading, and Lorimer
was the star "elocutionist of the school.
Grandma came into the room just as he
was finishing his recitation, and she was
astonished enough. why, my boy, you
are improving a great deal / always
said you had 1t in you. Your dear father
was as smart as a steel trap and / knew
you'd inherit some of his smartness That's
an interesting part Of history. My grand
father was at the battle of Concord. He
was a cousin of Paul Revere's Do you
know about Paul Revere? There are some
very pretty verses about him by Longfel-