Year: 1872

L NENER knew BOY farmer VINO was
not eager to go to the district school. in
the winter There is such a chance for
learning, that he must be dull boy, who
does not come out in the spring a fair
skater, an accurate snow-baller, and an
accomplished slider-down-hill, with or
without board, on his seat, on his stom-
ach, or on his feet. Take amoderate hill,
with a foot-slide down it worn to icy
smoothness, and ego round" of boys on
it, and there is nothing like it for whit
tling away boot leather She boy is the
shoemaker's friend An active lad can
wear down a pair of cowhide soles in a
week so that the ice will scrape his toes.
Shedding or coasting is also slow fun COM
pared to the bareback" sliding down a
steep hill over hard, glittering crust 1t
is not only dangerous but it is destructive
to Jacket and pantaloons, to a degree to
make tailor laugh. If any other animal
wore out his skin as fast as school boy
does his clothes in winter, he would need
a new one once a month In country
district school, patches were not, by any
means, sign of poverty, but of the boy s
courage and adventurous disposition.
Our elders used to threaten to dress us in
leather and put sheet iron seats in our
trousers. The boy said that he wore out





school house, ciphering hard sums. For
that extraordinary statement he received
two castigations, one at home that was
mid, and one from his school master, who
was careful to lay the rod upon the boys
sliding place, Furnishing him, as he jocosely
called it, on a sliding scale, according to
the thinness of his pantaloons.


What | liked best at school, however,
was the study of history-early history,
the Indian wars We studied it mostly
at noon-time, and we had it illustrated as
the children nowadays have "object les
sons"-though our object was not so
much to have lessons as TO revive real
history.


Back of the school-house rose a round
HILL upon which, tradition said, lad stood,
in colonial times, block house, built by
the settlers for defense against the Indi-
ans. For the Indians had the idea that
the whites were not settled enough, and
used to come nights to settle them with a
tomahawk. 1t was called Fort Hill. 1t
was very steep on each side, and the river
ran close by. 1t was charming place in
summer, where one could find laurel, and
checker berries, and sassafras roots, and
sit in the cool breeze looking at the noun
tains across the river, and listening to the
murmur of the Deerfield. The Method
lists built meeting house there after
wards, but the hill was so slipperyi in winter
that the aged could not climb it, and the
wind ragged so tiercely that it blew nearly
all the young Methodists away (many of
whom were afterwards heard of in the
Vest, and finally the Westinghouse it.
self came down into the valley, and grew
steeple, and enjoyed itself ever after
wards, 1t used to be notion in New
England that a Westinghouse ought to
stand as near Heaven as possible.


The boys at our school divided them
selves into two parties; one was the early
| settlers and the other the Pequots, the lat
ter the most numerous. The early settlers
built snow fort on the hill, and a strong
fortress it was, constructed of snowballs,
rolled up to vast size Qarger than the
Cyclopian block of stone wich forms the
Etruscan walls in Italyl piled one upon
another, and the whole cemented by
pouring on water which froze and made
the walls solid. The Pequots helped the
whites to build it. It had covered way
under the snow, through which only
could it be entered, and it had bastians
and openings to fire from, and great
many other things for which there are no
names in military books. And it had a
glacis and ditch outside.


When it was completed, the Early Set
tiers, leaving the women in the school
house, prey to the Indians, used to re-
tire into it and await the attack of the
Pequots, There was only handful of
the garrison, while the Indians were
many, and also barbarous. And it was
in this light that the great question was
settled, whether boy might SNOWFALL
with balls that he had soaked over night
in water and let freeze. They were as
hard as cobble-stones, and if boy should
be hit on the head by one of them, he
could not tell whether he was a Pequot or
an early settler. 1t was considered
as unfair to use these ice balls in an open
fight, as il is to use poisoned ammunition
in real war. But as the whites were pro-
tected by the forl, and the Indians were
treacherous by nature, it was decided that
| the latter might use the hard missiles.


The Pequots use to come swarming up
the hill, with hideous war-hoops, attack
| ing the fort ON all sides with great noise
and shower of balls. The garrison
replied with yells of defiance and well
directed shots, hurting back the invaders
when they attempted to scale the walls,
The settlers had the advantage OF posi-
! tion, but they were sometimes over