The free press. (Poplarville, Miss.) 1890-19??, 1902-03-13

Hail, gentle spring" But she didn't
hgil-she only sleeted-ald they say
that old winter is lingering in her lap
the old rascal. He ought to be
Ashamed of himself. My best relief
and comfort is to play with the grand
children. Our little girl of five has
had her little feelings hurt, and Is very
indignant at what her Cousin VIII
said. She told me about it; Grand
pa, | told Cousin Will that when he
got to be a man and l got to be a
young lady he must marry me, and
what do you think he said?" Il don't
know. What did he say?" why, he
said he would see about it, Wasn't
that mean? He ought to be glad to
marry me. If he don't mind l will
marry my Cousin Ralph; and then
reckon he won't see about it. He's
mean, amt he, grandpa?" Another
other night and prayed for God to
bless grandma and grandpa and Aunt
Mary and Cousin John and several
others, and then he said: That all
Lord. Amt that all, papa?" mo, you
didn't pray for your Cousin Jenny"
mo, papa, won't pray for her; she's
mean; l wish God would send a COW
to butt her over" All of our little
ones are going to school now, ard feel
their consequence. I'm taking more
interest in our public school than l
ever did. Our 12-year-old, who lives
with US, is absorbed in her studies and
loves her books and her teacher, and
is proud when she gets marked per
feet or away up in the nineties. OF
course l help her with her sums every
night, for some of them are very
hard and sorter strain my old mind.
There are fifty-three pupils in her
grade (the SIXTH, and yesterday forty
six of them had the sums done cor
rectly, and when the teacher asked
those who had no help to hold their
hands up, not a hand was held up.
They all had help. That makes forty
seven teachers for one grade, and |
am pleased to be one Of them. | wish
that the school teachers of these chill
dren could realize how much influence
they have over their pupils. The
teacher can make the school life of
pupil pleasant or miserable, and | am
glad to believe that our teachers are
kind and conscientious. have sever
al grandchildren there, and l take
note of their progress. The days of
old Isham are past. The old man was
stern and a rigid disciplinarian. He
wore slippers in the school room, and
sometimes would slip up behind boy
who was making horses or dogs on his
slate and would suddenly mash the
boys face down on the slate and rub
the pictures out with his nose. He
used to have fights with the big boys,
and loved to maui obedience into their
rebellious souls. And there was Be-
man and Judge Warner and my faith
er and William H. Seward, all yam
KEGS, who had to subdue the big boys
by hard fighting, and if a teacher
couldn't whip a boy and subdue him
he was turned OIL as incompetent. MY
opinion is that l got most too much
whipping when l was school boy.
| still remember how John Norton was
a good teacher, and he had hard
time with Jim Wilson and Jim Craig
and Jim Wardlaw and my brother Jim
and Jim Alexander, the doctor who
died last fall in Atlanta, and several
other Jims. l never knew a boy
named Jim who wasn't devilish at
school. Verify there is something in
a name, and now Jim Smith is going
to run for governor. Better not tell a
lie on him; he would jump over forty
desks to whip man.-Bill Arp, in At
lanta Constitution.