Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1901-07-27
CHAPTER TWO.

CHAPTER TWO.
Young Pierre Croteau, six years old
was on his way to school for the first
time. He had watched the children of
the farms passing to the mystic place
many times and had longed for the
time when he too could swing his din
ner basket by his side as he trudged
among them down the dusty road.
There were nine children in the dis
trict school that summer. The teacher
was young girl from Augusta who
had come to the village and had been
hired by the school committee because
she could write a handsome. fine old
hand. the writing that was fashionable
in those days She was only sixteen
years old. Her oldest pupil was ff-
teen. She carried her dinner like the
rest. At noon all sat around the fiat
rock in the school yard and ate their
dinners together.
Marie CrOteau had kissed little
Pierre tenderly and proudly that morn
ing as she sent him off to school. He
didn't like the kissing. because. as he
said, it made him feel like baby
She didn't kiss the hired man when she
sent him to the store for groceries.
AS the little fellow walked along he
dragged his feet through the deep sand
and let it trickle through his toes. He
wore pair of blue overalls with straps
over the shoulders and calico shirt.
Beneath this shirt. and tied by a
strong string around his neck. was
mis- scapular. This was a mystery "a
the boys of the neighborhood. They
had no idea what it was. That Pierre
wouldn't tell them made it all the more
interesting. His face was round, full
and deeply burned. Freckles. the
universal heritage of every boy born
in Maine. covered his face. His eyes
We're brown and full of velvety lights
that danced when he laughed. But
though he laughed much. he was still
a serious minded child. He came
into the world with his bump OF
curiosity much enlarged. and it had
been all that Marie and Grandma Wey-
mouth could do to answer his thou
sand questions during the first six
years of his life 1t was on account
of these questions and the labor Of
finding answers for them that his
father who had an inherent horror OF
free public schools finally allowed him
to attend the country school in the
neighborhood. The previous winter the
big boys of the neighborhod had
thrown the teacher out the school win
Cow and ducked him in a snow bank.
This had almost decided Marie that
little Pierre should never go to school.
but the appearance of the blue-eyed
slip of a girl who came out to teach
the summer term changed her mind.
Pierre had now reached the brook at
the foot of the hill. on the top of the
next hill he could see the little CABIN
like schoolhouse, reddish brown and
dirty looking He paused to look at ms
reflection in the water under the great
fiat rocks that composed the cuiVert'
and saw a fat trout dart out or slght
under the roadbed. In minute ne
had forgotten his school. his dinner
basket with the hardboiled eggs ana
tho great slices of brown bread ana
ve,low butter. He was Scooching down
in the shade of the elderberry business
excitedly unwinding Irvine hsnilne
from a ball he had drawn from MS
nocket. To attach it to a short stick
catch a grasshopper, stick him on tne
hook. and drop the squirming oa''
upon the foam-fecked surface OF the
brook was the work of minute. Inc
little fellow had learned fishing from
his father. During the last year ne
had added many splendid dinners 10
the family dining table. for little
brook trickled through the valley
uhere the Croteau house stood
The hook with it's green bait fioated
only a minute upon the water ana theh
suddenly disappeared.
"Sacre." exclaimed the boy IN as
gust as he snapped out the hook minus
the grasshopper. But he caush'
another and dropped it in the same
Mace This time it was his turn anu
ont came a great trout, slapping the
GRASS with its tail and Topping ABOUT
in , lively manner. Pierre picked up
h;s dinner basket in an absent mindeo
E. shion and walked up the brook
little distance. dropping his NOOK
,ero and there in the darkest eddies'
No loft the road and the open helos
yyare soon far DeHilu Hih''
entered the beech wood ana was
climbing up over slippery green stones
down which the water slid in silent
h,,ck sheets or broke in noisy roam
into the eddies.
10 was having good luck. and the
stick on which his fish were STRUNG
was becoming heavy. At last ne was
high up among the hills, and the fo .ss,
,ras very lovely. The hot sun tha'
noe making hay for the farmers III
tho valley below only pierced tht
thick foliage here and there. Close os
= areat messy stone he sat down u
r.st Then he thought of his luncn
and taxing out the napkin in which ms
a ambitious mother had wrapped tne
food for his first lunch at school. ne a'e
With great enjoyment the eggs ana
MIC Rut it was a large lunch ana ne
,ras q small boy. and too. he was tireo
Tho sun shone through a great open
inc overhead and warmed him as ne
Ia = on the moss. Very soon he was
80. osIean and the squirrels ana