Year: 1878

Glow do you spell threshold, Aunt
Katy" asked Hal as he came to my
room just from school.


'.T-h-r-e-s-h-o-l-d," l answered.


Good enough" he replied; "but i
was sure as anything there was two his
in tit sounds so, anyway. Poor Joe
failed in it to-day, and he got down one.
He feels awful bad about it-you know
he's been at the head of the class for
two weeks"


"Oh. pshaw," | answered, 81
wouldn't feel bad over that don't
think it's quite fair to keep at the head
all the time, and not give any one else
A chance. Go down and ask 10 and the
rest to CONE up here and l will tell you
story of something that happened in
nv school life that | remember as
well as if it were but yesterday"


Willie Fiske was one of the very
brightest boys in town, and although
he loved fun as well as any of the rest
OF his mates, vet he was very fond of
study, and WAS never quite contented
until he reached the head of the class
in which he was.


When he was eleven years old he en-
tered the grammar school, and his
father said at that time, willie, if you
ever get to be the first one of the first
class in the first diyision-that is, to be
at the head of this great SCHOOL, will
give you gold watch.'


1t looked like big job; but Willie
was quite ready TO undertake it, and
answered:


"All right, papa; you can just make
up your mind TO hand over the watch
by the time I'm fourteen years old"


He went to work very much in earn-
est. and as he passed from time to time
through the different classes, and sue
ceeded in keeping at the head ofthem-
often for weeks together-he began TO
see that the watch was a pretty sure
thing, and would imagine how grand
he should feel to take it out and ''teil
the fellers the time of day"


Willie was a very generous boy, and
was never so happy as when sharing
some good thing with others. He
always defended the smaller boys, and
if any one was in trouble he was on
hand at once to help them out of 1t. VI
course he was a great favorite with
both the boys and girls, and no one
ever seemed to envy him because he
had rich father, or because he was so
good scholar.


Just as he reached his fourteenth
birthday he entered the highest class in
the school. 1t was now that the watch
was to be won or lost,


He had not been in the class week
before he found that he had a rival-a
sweet little girl, named Flossie Lee
She had just come into the school, as
her parents had only recently moved to
our village from distant city, and
Flossie. after an examination, had been
placed in the same class with Willie.


Her parents did not have much money,
but as their little girl WAS fine scholar,
they felt that they must send her to
school as long as they could; and Flos-
sic had often told them that she meant
10 be a teacher and earn lots of money
for them"


So you see that. although she did not
have gold watch to work for, she had
something worth great deal more.


\
Willie had found: for she very soon
skipped over all the others and TOOK
her place at the head of the class; anu
it looked as though il was going to be
pretty hard task to get her out of 1t.


Quite in despair, one day, Willie said
to his mamma:


"It's no use trying, l tell you, shall
never get higher than number two
never, Flossie Lee can't fail. But
there's one thing about it; if any one
has got to keep me from getting to the
head this year, I'd rather it would De
Flossie than anybody else in school, fer
| like her first rate" Aud | guess ne
did. for many fine pear or bunch OF
grapes. or luscious orange did Willie
take from his own home table, ana
watch his chance to put them into Flos-
sie's modest little lunch basket that
hung under her sacque in the hall oil
the school, s.for," as he told his mamma,
one day, 'sFlossie never seems to have
ANYTHING but crackers or bread and
butter for luncheon, and she almost
always goes off by herself to eat H.
when all the rest of us are having lots
of goodies; and I tell you it's fuh'
mamma, to hide, and watch her eyes
shine when she finds the good things
I've put in, 1 guess she thinks IL
some good fairy that puts them there'
don't you?"


One day. at recess, as group OF boys
and girls were chatting together about
very hard lesson they had Just been
reciting, in which every one OF the
Ia. l.. n ro;Ial at laaSt once save flOS-