The Prince George's enquirer and southern Maryland advertiser. (Upper Marlborough, Md.) 1882-1925, 1904-11-25

going to have my certificate II hav
to sue you for it. "Incompetent.
You don't know anything about me-
and you wouldn't know what compe
tent was if you met it in the road.
told you I have taught for fftee'
years, and I'm going to have my
certificate"
"Sit down, said he calmly.
She obeyed.
"Miss Morrison, don't you recog
nize me-"
81 should think l do" she said will
a sneer. You're Mason the Great.
"Did you ever see me before yot
came to the country?'
"No," she snapped.
"Then, Miss Morrison, l will tel
you story that perhaps will helE
you to understand.
"About sixteen years ago tow
headed boy of seven started to school
in the Oak Grove district in Stone
county He wore patched trousers
torn hat, a cotton shirt, and carried
q badly worn first reader under bis
arm.
Gas he went home that first day, a
seventeen-year-old girl and young
man walked behind him. 'Ain't that
Mason kid beauty?' she said to her.
companion. Wouldn't you like to
have that patch for saddleblanket!
and the two laughed all the way
home. The little chap cried him.
self TO sleep that night, and although
he was soundly thrashed every morn:
ing for a month he refused to 60 back
to school.
"It was three years before he went
again. He had learned to read and
had begun to dream Of being a great
man. He was hungry and thirsty for
knowledge, and because he had learned
to read he thought be could learn. His
clothes were about the same, except
that the patches we're larger and
more numerous. The girl who bad
laughed at him that first day was now
teacher, but he went anyway.
He had to begin at the first OF every
thing except the reader.
"You ought to be ashamed OF
YOURSELF she said, so loud that the
whole school could hear. "A boy as
big as you to be so green
"He never got over that hurt, but
be stayed on. When he blundered
she mimicked him and the class
laughed. When she wanted to pun
ish some one as an example she picked
out the boy, for his father had no in
fluence in the district, and the boy
had no friends in the school. Still the
boy bore it and did his best, for be
was starving for knowledge.
zone evening his father told him
that he must shuck load of corn be-
fore he went to school next day. He
went to tue field at / o'clock and be
gan husking the frosted ears by moon
light. When he finished it was nearly
school time and he hurried off without
his breakfast. He was twenty min
utes late. She did not ask him for an
excuse, but kept him in at noon. The
boys dinner was always so poor that
he slipped away to eat it. That day
he ate nothing.
"She gave him work that he had
not learned and when he failed called
him Ounce numb SKULL block head.
He began to believe that he could not
learn, still he struggled ON for three
months
"The boy came to school one day
with his shirt pinned with a thorn.
As be marched in he lost it.. He did
not notice it, but the school did, and
when the teacher discovered the cause
of the laughter she said with a sneer:
"A fine mother you must have to
send you to school like that The
mother was i'll. The boy remembered
that for weeks she had tried to sit up
in bed long enough to mend his clothes
but at last her tired hands had fail.
ed.
"He gathered up his books aid
walked out of the school room, rot to
return.
"The boy decided to give it up and
it was not until four years later that
he discovered by accident, or. Provi
dence, that he could really learn
81 am that boy and you are that
teacher"
She did not STIR nor speak.
"Heaven alone knows how many
pupils have been bl,ghted by you,
tongue. Now YOU understand why