The Colfax chronicle. [volume] (Colfax, Grant Parish, La.) 1877-1981, 1911-05-06
CoLFAx, PARISH, La, SATURDAY, MAY g. 1911


II 17-.year-old girl and IA young man
walked behind him. Amt that
Mason kid beaui?' she said to her
companion. 'Wouldn you like To
have that patch for n saddleblanket?'
and the two laughed all the way
home. The little chap cried himself
to sleep that night, aud although he
was soundly thrashed every morn
ing for "a month, he refused to go
back to school.
1T was three years before he went
again. He had learned to read and
had begun to dream of being great
man. He was hungry and thirsty
for knowledge, and because he had
learned to read he thought he could
learn. His clothes were about the
same, except that the patches Were
larger and more numerous. The girl
who had laughed ut him that first
day was now teacher, but he went
anyway.
she had to begin at the first of
everything except the reader.
"You ought to be ashamed of
yourself" she said, SO loud that the
whole school could hear. a boy as
big rs you to be SO green
"He never got over that hurt, but
he stayed on. When he Numbered
she mimicked him and the class
laughed. When she wanted to pun
ish some one as an example she pick
ed out the boy, for his father had no
influence in the district, and the boy
had no friends in the school. Still
the boy bore it and did his best, for
he was starving for knowledge.
Zone evening his father told him
that he must shuck load of corn
before he went to school next day.
He went to the field at 4 O'Clock and
began husking the frosted ears by
moonlight. When he finished it was
nearly school time, and he hurried
off without his breakfast. He was
twenty minutes late. She did not
ask for an excuse, but kept him in
at noon. The boys dinner was al
ways SO poor that he slipped away
to eat it. That day he ate nothing.
"She gave him work that he had
not learned, and when he had failed
called him Ounce, numb-skull, ,
'block-head.' He began to believe
that he could not learn, still he
struggled on for three months.
"The boy came to school one day
with his shirt pinned with a thorn.
As he marched i'm he lost the thorn.
He did not notice it, but the school
did, and when the teacher discovered
the cause of the laughter she said
with "a sneer, "A fine mother you
must have to send you to school like
thnt.' The mother WAS i'll. The boy
remembered that for weeks she had
tried to sit up in bed long enough to
mend his clothes, but at last her
tired hands bad failed.
':He gathered up his books and
walked out of the schoolroom. not
to return.
"The boy decided to give it up, and
it was not until four years later that
he discovered by accident, or Provi-
dence, that he could really learn.
81 um that boy and you are that
teacher"
| She did not stir nor speak.
Heaven alone knows how many
pupils have been blighted by your
tongue. Now you understand why
| refuse to grant your certificate"
81 don't care so much for myself,
but what will become of my poor sis
ter Mary?" She was crying hysterl.
/ cally. 1T is all We have to live on
81 have granted Mary certificate,
and she will teach your school" said
the, Commissi0ner.-Valley Weekly.
According to the statements OF
a number of our esteemed con-