The Laurens advertiser. (Laurens, S.C.) 1885-1973, 1915-11-03
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SCHOOL DAYS.

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SCHOOL DAYS. y
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Now since the schools have opened,
and suggestion Of autumn gotten
into the atmosphere, find myself in
voluntarily barking back in memory,
to many treasured schools IN the diff
ferent townships, l have taught.
Scores Of friends and pupils come
causes the heart to yearn.
Will it be good to write little
about how my thoughts hallow back
to the past and to the great and no
men, which made it a thing to be
treasured.
Is there anything in the chirrup of
the cricket, in the dying grass, in the
autumn, that goes to ones soul and
brings back the past, with the detail
Of circumstances and place and en-
vclopcd it with meaning which
seems 10 hallow it? And when the
summer heat gives place TO the cool
nights and morning in October, and
clouds come rolling across the heavens
from the southwest, and the echoes OF
field and forest take OH a cheerful and
special distinctness, how my heart
goes back to the school-rOom. Oh!
Yes, what is it that speaks to the
soul, and sends it on an excursion in
to the past, seeking out and cnvclop-
ing with a halo many an event which
had been swallowed up in the rush Of
the days work. | do not know at all
But SO it is, and SO the Lord has
made us. These, and a hundred other
things in nature, have the power OF
stirring up our souls emotions, which
whisper of Il life for it, broader in
scope, than the one which it lives in
the body, one in which it's experiences
shall not be hcdged and bound by
place and time.
Every boy and girl, as they go to
school, and hears the wind sing
among the boughs Of the adjoining
forest, these autumn days, feel tug
ging at their hearts the things ! mean,
however, dumb he or she may be
about them, but there is not much sen
tmcnt that is pcrccptiblc about school
girls and boys.
But like feeling have gotten hold Of
nc this morning and there comes up
swectly in memory incidents of twcn-
ty-cight years Of hard work in the
schools OF I.aurenS county. MI come
up cOnluscdly, but still gives each in
cidcnt Il clcarncSS and setting Of its
many homes We wandered. There was
the comradship and fellowship Of the
patrons everywhere, glad it, seemed,
to welcome us, glad to give us the
best, glad to encourage us in our
work, and bid us God speed. Now my
heart goes out in grateful rcmcm-
brancc to those friends Of either days,
these arc the Lords noble men. l.au-
rcnS county has them by the hundred.
All! Happy days, must dcsist. But
oh! those days!
The memory OF each little kindness
from either patron, pupil, or trustee
fingers with nc, as | Journey through
this wilderness world and will enrich
the twilight OF my life with beauty
and blessing and as We sit watching
and waiting around the flccting shad-
ows OF time, with age and inlirmity
upon us-Lifc, like a broken vase,
which has contained sweet flowers,
the fragrance will be perpetual,
you may break, you may crush you
may ruin the vase if you will; but the
sweetness Of the roses will lingcr
there still" Like the beautiful conch
shell, YOU may remove ii from its
pcarly bed, yet i, will forever sigh and
sing the songs Of the sea.
Now, ! am past the meridian Of life,
disabled, waiting. The rctrospcction is
good, my eyes are on the horizon, but
it is the horizon Of the setting sun.
They day is far spent, in the after
glow will come the last call of the
Master, tho greatest Teacher of all
mankind. "F."