Waterbury evening Democrat., 1906-05-19
CHAPTER XVII.

OOu. GNCTy uOIuc III lAC NoACy anu up Cedar hill rang with loud declama- tons. The impassioned utterances of James Otis, Daniel Webster and Pat rick Henry were heard in house and field and stable. Every evening wom- en were busy making costumes for a play, while the young rehearsed their parts. Polly Vaughn, editor of paper to be read that evening, searched the countryside for literary talent. She found a young married woman who had spent a year in the State Normal school and who put her learning at the service of Polly in a composition treat ing the subject of intemperance. Miss Betsey Leech sent in what she called esa piece" entitled Home" Polly her Self wrote an editorial on' Our Teach or" and there was hemming and haw- ing when she read 1t, declaring they all had learned much, even to love him. Her mother helped her with the Alphabetical rhymes, each couplet of sentimental history, as, for example: A is for Alison. jolly young man;
 He'll marry Miss Betsey. they say, if he
 can.
 They trimmed the httle schoolhouse with evergreen and erected small stage where the teachers desk had been. Sheets were hung for curtains on ten foot rod.
 A while after dark one could hear a ocund of sleighbells in the distance. Away on drifted pike and crossroad the bells began to fling their music. It seemed to come in rippling streams of sound through the still air, each with its own voice. Tn half an hour count less echoes filled the space between them and all were as one chorus, where In, as 1t came near, one could distin- guish song and laughter
 Young people from afar came in cut ters and by the sleigh load; those who lived near, afoot with Ia anternss- They were merry company, crowding the schoolhouse, laughing and whispering as they waited for the fist exhibit. Trove called them to order and made a few remarks.
 Remember" said he, this is not our exhibition It is only sort of preparation for one we have planned. In about twenty years the Linley school Is to give an exhibition worth seeing. It will be, believe, an exhibition of happiness, ability and success on the great stage of the world Then I hope te have on the programme speeches in Congress, in the pulpit and at the bar You shall see in that play, if mistake not, homes full of love and honor. men and women of fair fame. It may be you shall see, then, some whose names are known and honored of all men,"
 Each performer quaked with fear. and both sympathy and approval were in the applause. Miss Polly Vaughn was rare picture of rustic beauty, her cheeks as red as her ribbons. her voice low and sweet Trove came out in the audience for look at her as she read Ringing salvos of laughter greeted the play and stirred the sleigh bells on the startled horses beyond the door. The programme over, somebody called for Squire Town, local petti- logger, who flung his soul and body in- to every cause. He often sored his knuckles on the court table and racked his frame with the violence of his rhet- eric. He had a stock of impassioned remarks ready for all occasions.
 He rose. walked to the center of the stage. looked sternly at the people and addressed them as fellow citizens" He belabored the small table; he rose on tiptoe and fell upon his heels; often he seemed to fling his words with a rapid jerk of his right arm as one hurls pebble. It was all in praise of his young friend" the teacher. and the high talent of Linley school
 The exhibition ended with this rare exhibit of eloquence. Trove announced the organization of singing school for Monday evening of the next week, and then suppressed emotion burst into noise. The Linley schoolhouse had be- come as a fount of merry sound in the still night: then the loud chorus of the bells. diminishing as they went away and breaking into streams of music and dying faint in the far woodland.
 One Nelson Cartright--a jack of all trades they called him-was the singing master. He was noted far and wide for song and penmanship. Every year his intricate fourishes in black and white were on exhibition at the county fair.
 "waal, sir" men used to say thought fully, "ye wouldn't think he knew beans. Why. he's got a fist bigger'n a ham. But I tel ye. let him take a pen. sir. and he'll draw a deer so nat'ral. sir. ye'd swear he could jump over a six rail fence. Why. 1t is wonderful-'
 Every winter he taught the arts of song and penmanship in the four dis xficts from Jericho to Cedar hill He sang a roaring bass and beat the time with dignity and precision. For weeks se drilled the class on a bit of lyric melody. of which a passage is here given.
 -One, two. three. ready. sing he gould say. his ruler cutting the air, and all began:
 Listen to the bird and the maid and ths
 hmbiebee.
 Ira Ia Ia Ia Ia tra- Ia Ia Ia Ia.
 JcyfuIiy we'll -izg the gizdsons melody.
 Ira Ia Ia Ia la
 The singing school added little to the knowledge CT the eheerfulness of that neizhborhood IL came to an end the last day of the winter term. As usual Trove went home with Folly. It was rS,if ni~s.r arrf ss inc crowd eff them