The Newtown bee., 1906-11-30
THE HOME CIRCLE.
 ROBINS ROAD. WRITTEN BY REUBEN HAzEN SMITH.

ROBINS ROAD. WRITTEN BY REUBEN HAzEN SMITH.
 CHATTER II.
 My life should be unique. It should be an aims, battle. conquest. medicine.-tEm- Drson.
 :el, Vi .iisa imp. H1.a % Child.
 VI: :siii saaassd' OsioSsS. %sss: ssSs::ss so,t
 How and when, Robin learned to read, tradition saith not, but, like most bright minds, 1t was probably from Che blocks, lettered with the pictorial alphabet, which combine instruction with amu6ement,-unCOnS hand- maidens of strength and grace. Ger tain 1t iB that his first visit to the Amington school at the village four corners found him master of DOCKS enough to be set at once at the mas tery of simple geography. Geogra, fn school, for, lying prone upon his stomach on the floor of the Rev Rich ard Souths study, Robin pored over the geOgraphies and atlaSeS which came to the father from publishing houses, because of his place and in- fluence on the local school board. No knowledRe is Sweeter, more satisfying, than that self sought and won in mo- ments of leisure and 1t is the use of odd moments that makes the scholar or the ignOramuS.
 These were the days of the Webster spelling book, that blue-covered treas ure that made such hne sPelleI or toed a crack in the floor and, having mastered the sentences of one syllable, began with baker to pronounce each syllable by itself, adding 1t to those zone before until the end of the word. In, in, com, com, 1ncom, p-r-e, pre-, Incompre, hen, hen, 1ncomprehen, s-i, si, Incomprehensi, bill, bil, h. comprehensibil, 1, IncOmprehensibili, t-y, ty,-Incomprehensibility. Woe to the scholar who forgot to pronounce each individual syllable and add 1t properly to the growing word, for any slip in the scheme was as fatal a 8 to spell the word awry. The brightest scholar went of head, taking the foot of the class, next morning. Robin, spurred by a premium offered by Rev Richard for each time that he stood
 first ct night, became 8 crack speller and, in . contest with another school, when each scholar lined up on it's own side of the school room, contested with the brightest girl of the school for the pre-eminence. Scorn 1t as those may who dub 1t the house-that-Jack- built system, 1t bred mastery of the language and memory for correct spelling that have never been sur passed. No one could know how to to sPsa snS "0ie s aRG When speed as is the case with less successful mod efn. methods. It bred that blue Web stef spelling book, with it's million copies, generations of spoilers, the last of whom are passing from memory to life or death.
 Figures were equally amepable to Robin and, at 13 years, 'he lstudted Greenleaf with young men Ofl8 and l9 in their last winter of school life.
 "There are few things" 1t has been we'll said, "that test man more than his treatment of those who are depend. enJ upon him." Judged by this stand ard, Arlington loOmed large and gen. erous, for 1t had surrounded it's village university, to which Rev Richard winning his way, by ample grounds, protected by wooden rails supported by stone posts Inside this fence was . hedge of evergreen and, on either side the school, trees in great varie- ty, forming the most fragrant and grateful recesseS for childish play. Favorite of all was an oak into whose spreading trunk brick had grown not far from the ground, under whose shade rude playhouses of stone and mud were built, mimic cities dear to childhoOd's 8 heart.
 Just in front of the schoolhouse it. triangle set with two or three elms. It was on this triangle, slOping to the highway, that Robins passion produc- cd penalty. The larger boys were fond of nicknaming Robin as Spurgeon, which stirred his ready ire and, hay ing irritated his temper by united malice, he was turned loose, red hot and still heating, upon playmate. Such infuriate rage as both combat ants worked to frenzy tore hair and until the fighters, cut loose from further mutual injury, Robin was turned over to his father. Rev Richard, accepting the artful account of those who had purposely started and urged on the war, visited dire l penalty on Robin, who smarted at O0C0 uUU0I lDJuSVlCC 0uu 0VI1pO0. hO | Illustrated afresh what John Nichol | says in his life of Carlyle that every l child finds the life of a | public school one long misery.
 The past is inSensibly but sure. | y the yeast of to-day and to-morrow's bread. Books are but the past living | ,n in miniature, in germs that per oetuate good or i'll, according as the l original spirit was in communion with | Sod or with the devil. "A book of De E'oe's called an Essay on Projects, md another of Dr Mather's called Essays to do Good gave me a urn of thinking that had ID influence on some of the principal uture events of my life," writes Ben- amin Franklin, Americas inventive ,enius and philosopher-statesmau. ,o Robin found the key note of his fife in John Jacob Abbott's ROllO looks, given by the father when the ad began to develop his early vOra- iousi appetite for reading. It was he little volume called "Work" that impressed Robin. MT Aolli- lay showed Rollo that work was not but an acquired habit, 8 hab- t of working while you werk and play ng while you play, with no attempt t mixing work and play to the dam ge of both; especially the thought hat habits of industry must be ac- uired by sticking to task till fin lhed and not yielding to any sudden m n,,1oo fo dron if for ann othinO mOro