The Caledonian-record. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1920-current, 1921-11-26

and Texas. There were two kinds
of grammars, large and small, and
the most | ever got out of any OF
them was that Puppies bite and
kittens scratch"
In 1860, the state took a new
interest in schools and text books,
and the office of town superln-
tendent was provided for. Angus
tus p. Walter was the superintend-
ent for Burke, and the textbooks
were changed. | we'll remember the
day he came with the new books.
They were the Greenleaf Arithme-
tic, Progressive Readers and Spell
ers, Cornell's Geography, and
when the old books were taken in
exchange, the cost of the new
ones was verv reasonable. Most of
the old books went out of exist
ence at that time. A few years
ago | wanted to get a COW of the
old Webster's Spelling book, once
common in every household, but
could not find one anywhere
among my acquaintance, but fl
nally secured one from an old
book store in Boston. There have
been. several exchanges of school
books since that time. Now the
books are provided by the town
and are uniform in all the schools.
The. summer school for the
whole six years I lived here was
taught bv Minerva Fyler, and as
the larger scholars attended only
in winter, the attendance dropped
to from 80 to 40 pupils. We all
liked her and everything went
smoothly. | remember one little in
cident that interested us all at the
| time. and was enjoyed more bv the
rest of us than by the principals
| of the scene. Miss Fyler had occa-
sion to punish one of the Haneoms
and sent Mortimer Sleeper out to
get a switch. He returned with a
| green raspberry sprout which the
teacher did not think was what she
wanted. Mortimer, as solemn as a
| deacon, said it was all he could
get, "cause he didn't have no knife
! The teacher then went herself and
! returned with a plum tree switch
and Albert got good licking, but
not enough to satisfy the most OF
US for he was not popular.
In those days CYRUS Hall,
Augustus Walter or Erwin Smith
would hold a select school every
fall. 1t took the place of institute
high school OF academy for vs.
then. Hall was fine teacher. Once
one of his pupils went to neigh
bong town to teach. 1t was her
| first teaching experience. She went
to get her certificate with much
fear and trembling. The superin-
tendent asked her name and where
she had been attending school
and without further questions
handed her her certificate. Hel
father asked if he did not wish tt
question her on her studies to fine
out what she knew, but the offie
ial replied that it would not lool
we'll for him to question one o.
Cyrus Halls pupils.
Walter was very ponulal
teacher. His schools were Away
well attended. They We're. some
times noisy, but the scholars al
ways learned something. Srciti
kept good order, and woe to tn
fellow who dropped his slate o
banged his boots against the bench
One winter John Bartlett wa
hired to teach. He held out TO
three weeks and then sent wore
that he was sick and could no
continue the school. The most o
the scholars were of the opinion
that his sickness was onl'- an ex
cuse to quit. Six boys from thu
school, Charles Woodruff. Warrel
and George Norris, David Hoy'
Freedom Babcock and Hiram
! King. went south at the call o
! Abraham Lincoln. and two o
! them never came hack. Seren
Bugbee completed that term o
school, with great success.
, The worst school I remenlbe
, was in the winter of 1860-61
: when DR.. Edgar Smith tried i
He would know when the big boy
were cutting up. but never SCENE
y quick enough to catch them at j
!. The building had become badl
> out of repair, plasterino off, stow
y and pipe ricketv and liable to fal
!. which it usually did about ever
time the first class in arithmetl
!, was called into the floor to recit
. Then too the blackboard woul
E come down with bang whenevt
81 the string that held it up was c.
o by someone unknown to the teael
: or, but well-known to about ever!
RI body else in the room.
In the spring of 1861. it W.
! voted to repair the building. Tt
last use of the old room, before
o was remodelled, was when ii
y Young women of the village M
Q there and, after the stove had bee
:. removed TO make more room. mac
n a large Union flag bv sewing Il
: stars on the blue field. snreadir
! the flag on the floor. Jack Ha
i rington Wanted the red stripes, a
: ter which it was raised on nol'
e furnished by S. l.. Nichols and
\ r. Brown.
o In 1863, I moved away and hay
o known verv little about the Rurl
6 Hollow school. excent from VIII:
L 4