The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1905-08-20

men. But needing neither man nor
elements Uncle Johnnie and his an
tagonist struck and spared. Appa-
rently that combat was on till Gabriel
blew, but lightning took hand. A
flash and crash shivered the largest
oak in the grove. The horses broke
loose and dashed wildly through the
crowd which had been seated outdoors
near the school house. Men, women
and children dashed for refuge in the
school house, thrusting apart the two
disputants and bearing them onward
like chips In a freshet. The dogs
sprang for the dinner table and the
razor backs were not far behind them.
Pandemonium reigned. All except
the few who could crowd into the
small school house got soaking wet.
For it proved the worst storm ever
known, and was long remembered and
called Uncle Johnnie Fuller's storm.
Whether even such a storm succeeded
in breaking the old man Of his argu-
mentativeness or not I never heard.
but I opine not.
But which OF US can stand the or
deal Of being viewed solely from our
weakest side? / have viewed Uncle
Johnnie too long and too steadily from
this side If we view him more SYM
pathetically we find mucn to love and
even admire in him. He was Jealous
and conscientious teacher, and as
amiable as one could be expected 20
be who spent his days in striving to
get knowledge into inhospitable heads.
1t was not his fault that he was a
slight caricature Of the type Of the old
field school teacher, q type at which
most fun has been poked, but to whom
we owe much as the sewers of the
seed which is now spinning into such
bOunteous educational harvest.
Uncle Johnnie was, l verify believe,
the politest man in the world. LORD
Chesterfield could have been nowhere.
And this politeness he strove to insil
In all of his scholars, big and little.
When any one CHANGED to pass his
log school house he always bowed az
them through the door--the window
made by simply saving out a section
of a log, were too narrow even to bow
through. When the footing of the
stage coach drivers horn announced
his approach the whole school Was
hurried out and drawn up on the
roadside, and at a respectful distance.
to bow at the stage as it swept by
whether it was full or empty. When
the cars supplanted the stage the
school was twice a day marched down
quarter of a mile and lined up on
the railroad to bow more profoundly
still. For important as stage coach
more important still.
1 might fill many columns with
Uncle Johnnie's whims and oddities
and then not exhaust the subject.
though 1 might your readers. SO
gently, alphabetically and with grail
tude in our hearts we will restore
him to the bosom of oblivion, that
important and not unkind mother,
whose soft arms are even now reach
ing out for all we humble folk.
So. farewell Uncle Johnnie, this Is
the first hour we have spent together
in many a long, heavily burdened
year. Farewell to your kind face,
your brow, matched with white hair
and wrinkled as If perpetually con-
tending with some Obtruse sum In rule
of three; your spare form bent as il
eager to dive deeper and ever deeper
into Noah Webster and Lindley Muir
ray; your shuttle and your green
broadcloth coat (once black, your
begun hat Con Sundays, once new.
but how remotely! May eternity if it
has anything in store for US not for
get you. May she provide you with
full school Of scholars who are never
absent, never late and all apt: schol-
ars who will not white benches, nor
lose their thumb-papers, nor shoot
chewed paper balls. nor commit any or
the heinous sins which kept the old
time teacher from being happy. For
with these surroundings and no other
can / imagine you happy.
o. w. BLACKNALL.