Five Mile Beach weekly journal., 1908-11-27

- 1890 $3.50 01O ~ N0O4
all the best spoilers were out on both
sides, and only Harriet Hepner and
five or six others were left. -Four of
them missed .micaceous,' and Harriet
was just going to spell 1t when Mis-
Waitely, in a scared, timid voice that
could Just be heard, said:
"'If you please, teacher, Sammy
hasn't spelled yet
Sammy stood down at the end of
the line, and they had overlooked him.
But the teacher replied:
"'Oh. indeedl l thought he was done
long ago.
81 thought he said it sneeringly, and
he gave Sammy the word in a tone
that said plainly, You can't spell it
anyway
"But what did Sammy do but spell
it correctly without the slightest hest
tation.
'"Then the others who were standing
missed 'dromedary,' and that left Har-
riet and Sammy alone. l tell you, you
might have heard a pin drop then. Ev-
erybody was half crazy with excite
ment.
"Old Squire Hepner did not move a
muscle. He had the money, five gold
five dollar pieces, and a fancy purse
and was to give them himself to the
winner.
at seemed to me that that poor
crippled boy got help from ON high
that night. l never saw anything like
it. At first he vas so shy that his
voice almost trembled, but when he
and the cousin he had never spoken
to stood up there alone and his fierce
old uncle glared so contemptuOusly at
him the little fellow raised himself to
his full height and from that moment
never f1inched.
Ills large eyes glistened. and he
threw back his head and looked boldly
at his uncle and spelled the words in
a loud, clear tone that fairly took peo-
pies breath away.
"His mother had quietly slipped
through the crowd and taken her seat
behind him, and those that sat neal
and held it, while the tears streamed
down her face.
"The two spelled against each other
for a full half hour, and all the time
poor Harriet was as white as a sheet,
and l could see that she was trem-
bling from head rs root.
"At last the teacher gave the word
UNANIMOUSLY Harriet spelled the first
syllable. then stopped and stammered,
looked imploringly at her father and
then tremblingly went On and spelled
it with one m
GLOW did you spell it. Harriet?
Did you have only
esquire Hepner had been looking OH
a spelling book too. Now he turned
sharply round to the master and in
his hardest, coolest voice said:
"'She missed it, sir. Pass it to the
next
sam spelled it without hesitating an
instant.
You could have heard a pin drop in
that room. 1t was still as death. Har-
riet dropped into her seat and buried
her face in her hands. Squire Hepner's
face never changed. Without a word
he rose, reached out his long arm, beck
oned to Sam to come to him and hen
dropped into the lads outstretched
hand the purse. Turning and facing
the breathless people. he said:
- want you all to know that ! think
this has been a fair and square match,
and my nephew deserves the prize
without further words he took his
hat and marched out of the house.
well. the Red IIaw people actually
carried Sam home on their shoulders.
with Mis- Waitely close behind, crying
as if her heart would break with joy
and -rvousne But she had on a
long. warm. plaid shawl that l saw
Mis- Squire Hepner throw over her as
she stepped out of the door.
lone of my sisters went home with
the Hepners that night. and she said
Harriet cried all the way home and
was in mortal terror at the thought of
meeting her father. She stopped on the
doorstep a long while. and when she
did finally step into the room, trem-
bling and fairly mourning. her father,
who was sitting with his head between
his hands before the fire. got up and
walked over to her and actually kissed
her there before them all. Then he
went off to bed without a word.
"But what followed was better still.
Christmas day the squire took his big
sled, put in lots of hay and blankets
and drove off like Nimshi himself to
his sisters. No one ever knew what
happened there, but it ended in Mis-
Waitely and all the children goine
home with the squire. And a big
Christmas day they had, folks said.
1.-THE squire declared it was an honor
to know a boy who could spell like
Sam. They say he had that boy spell
the dintionnru hnlf fhrnnph fhnt win