Washington standard. [volume] (Olympia, Wash. Territory) 1860-1921, 1905-01-06
A DRACONIC LESSON.
HE SEES HIMSELF LAS THEIRS
SEE U.s." IN A DREAM.

Remarkable Experience Of Boy Who Was
Really Very Bright, But Thought He Knew
Everything Beings Surround Him
Took Him to Unheard Of Lands and Talked
About Unknown Things.
Oscar Cooper was the smartest boy
in the village OF Sprops. He was the
best speller and pronouncer and stood
at the head OF all the others in classes
st school. He was never known to
make an error, and even the teachers
sometimes gazed at him with sort of
awe, as if they suspected that he was
more than human, for teachers can
make mistakes as we'll 90 other people.
But they never caught Oscar making
one.
Well, when he at last won the great
prize for spelling and pronouncing,
which was given by the Honorable
Charley Fortner, the richest man in
Sprops, he was SO elated that he
walked home with the prize as if on
air. The prize was a grand one;
nothing lees than gigantic dictionary
foot thick, containing about q mill
lion words and half-million pictures,
and it was all the boy could carry, too.
He was go proud OF his triumph
that he scarcely saw the other boys,
who, OF course, loved him dearly, be.
cause he was 80 clever. He had
"spelled down" the whole school, and
it swelled his little head until he
thought he was a wonder. When he
reached home and displayed the prize
to bis parents they simply held their
breath as they looked at him and he
said:
IL wish they had given me a tele-
scope or an electric battery. for 1
hardly think the prize is exactly
suited to me. Some other boy may
need it far more than I, for really I
think dictionary is not necessity to
q boy that knows as much as I. l
guess I already know every word in
the book, although it is so ponderous.
I apprehend that I'll have but scant
use for it,"
"Oh, there may be q few old.fash.
ioued words in it that you don't know
said the proud father, but not many
II hardly presume co." replied
Oscar, conceitedly. II guess I've got
them all in my cranium. My vocabu-
larry is truly Cyclopean."
at certainly is, exclaimed Mamma
Cooper. II never saw anything like
it in my li:e."
Oscar ate his dinner with the air OF
q college professor At Commend cement
time, and afterward he remained at
home to show all comers tho great
prize, at which all gazed with awe and
astonishment, for it certainly was 90
immense dictionary and cost all of
fifteen dollars.
Then, when he went to bed he car
ried bis treasure upstairs and laid it
on table in his bedroom. One would
suppose that during all this time he
would have opened and examined the
great book, but he was too busy telling
everybody how he had spelled down
all competitors at school 10 even peep
within its covers, and he got into bod
with his head still inflated with his
own marvellous cleverness and soon
went to sleep.
After q time q slight noise in the
room awoke him with q start. The
moon was pouring into the room q
blaze of bright winter light and
showed plainly every object about
him, and as he looked around to see
what had awakened him he saw that
the dictionary was partly open and
something was emerging from between
the thick leather covers. What it was
he could not see.
Then his astonished eye caught
sight Of many tiny figures moving
briskly about ON the floor, and in
another instant be recognized them %
letters.
The whole alphabet was scurrying
about on the floor like ants. The let.
ters were about as tall as one Of his
fingers, and be saw them plainly.
They seemed to be playing some sort
OF game, but he seon saw that they
were rapidly forming words, some
short, some Of immense length, like
boys playing "snap the whip" words
that stretched across the rug beside
the bed, and were partly lost in the
shadows. He spelled "parallelopipe.
don" "eleemosynary" and "encbyri.
dion" quite easily, as they formed
before him like q regiment of soldiers.
He forgot about the shapeless thing
between the dictionary covers until he
raised his eyes and saw . nu mber OF
shadowy forms standing about his bed.
side.
These were most astonishing; there
were some who seemed to be men, but
their nerves, arteries and other organs
we're quite visible, and, besides that,
they were covered from head to foot
with tiny numbers. One mans head
Was marked of like . map in colors,
with a name in each space. One was
all veins and nothing else. and sud.
denly he saw q skeleton with every
bone numbered, but in the air about