News and citizen. [volume] (Morrisville, Vt. ;) 1881-current, 1922-03-29

when they haven't got anything to do.
| called up my niece, Ann, because
knew she had children's books her
children never look at. they're
mostly grown up now. She said,
, why, yes, of course, the school could
have them, and could have had them
years ago. only she didn't know they
needed them. That's been the trouble.
None of us know, day by day, what
was needed.
"Well, after that it come out that
she hadn't mortal thing to give the
children to play with, rainy days,
when they had to stay in. So, | made
'em some bean bags, and got Hiram
willingto saw holes in a board to
make the board. Those young ones
have actually played one set of bags
to pieces, and Pm making 'em a sec
ond set this minute And that made
me think about games, and l tele-
phoned around and got hold of a
checkerboard and backgammon
board that folks weren't using. And
| cut some big letters out of the
magazines and pasted them on pieces
Of cardboard and made them a set
for that spelling game, Logomachy,
they call it. And l spliced some old
rope into rings, and made 'em a set
of ring toss. Oh, lots of things that
came into my mind when l remem-
bered back when | was little girl.
It's been fun" "And what else?"
ooh, yes" Aunt Mari began to
laugh, 81 found out that nobody paid
any more attention to the truant law
than as if it didn't exist. You know
what the law is, that every child's
got to go to school as long as he's
of school age. Well, knowing that
was the law I'd never thought thing
about it. Supposed, of course, they
did. Well, not bit of it! Once 1
began to take notice of what went
on about schools, l found that there
were families of children in this
town, them that live far back up in
the hollows, that hadn't been to
school regular, never! Miss Rice,
being stranger in town, thought all
she could do was to go to the truant
officer about it. But who is the truant
officer in town? Well, who but Jim
Rathbone, by cousin Jim, and what
does he care whether the Burritt chill
dren go to school or not? Less than
nothing. Nor nobody else, till Miss
Rice told me about it. Why, that big
Burritt boy, that's II now, is nice
bright boy as ever was, and he
couldn't hardly read the name of the
town he lived in, last fall. Well, Miss
Rice couldn't think of anything to do
about getting the Burritts to school
except to go to the proper officer
about it. And he being Cousin Jim,
that's all the good it did.
"But | could think of something
else, you'd better believe. | went to
Jim's wife, and his daughter and |
called up the family every morning :
at breakfast time to ask 'em if the !
Burritt children were going to school |
that day. And l got all the neighbors
round here stirred up too, and they'd |
telephone once or twice every day;
and the men folks when they went to |
town and see Jim, they'd holler out, |
When are the Burritt children |
comm to school?' We kind of made
a game of it. But 'twan't no game
for jim. He was as mad as a hornet. |
You'd think to hear him go on, that |
we were all picking on him without |
cause, and that it wasn't nothing to
him whether the Burrits got any
schooling or not. Honestly, | don't |
believe he'd ever thought in his life
before what it meant to be a truant !
officer Rachel, his wife, told me that !
he got so he'd swear like a trooper
every time the telephone rang.
"But land 'twan't long before the
Burrits were in school, all four of
them, and nice young ones too, though |
they do look as wild as little hawks,
with never seeing anybody before. |
Miss Rice and | we take special notice |
Of them and she sends them over |
here to get washed and combed when
they come to school very bad. /
you know their mother amt more
1alf-witted, for all she's so good
natured. Miss Rice has made an ar
rangement with their folks to keep
them down here nights when it's too
stormy to get back up there in the !
hollow, and we're learning them all
sorts of decent ways, between u.s."
Aunt Mari explained, "Miss Rice
md | sleep together, and we put two
If them in the other bed, and the
'ther two, we send over to the Per-
Iinses. . they've got an extra
bed, and | told Jen Perkins I'd like
20 know what better use she could
make of her spare room than to help
,ivilize some children in her own
own that never would get it any
,ther way?"
Oh, yes, knew how Aunt Mari
would say that, with her old jaw set,
and her sharp eyes piercing. l
how Jen Perkins would
not have dared say no. Yes, quite
what it had meant for the
school teacher to have valiant old
Aunt Mari adopt her. and
With her the school and education
If the children in her district. And
although | was shouting a "hurrah
tor Aunt Mari'" in my heart, l was
also laughing inwardly at the picture
If the marshalling of public opinion
n the matter of the truant officer,
With Aunt Mari marching at the
head!
She was LAUGHING. foo and now she