Year: 1872

we chose her at oLce, and while she was
tripping to her place at our side the 9TH
er leader, as if to seek revenge and pay
court to Mars instead of Venus, select
ed for his first choice the very best schol-
ar in school, girl who, though homely
as Barnum's "wAat is it" could go
through the spelling book like tighten
ing, and was as much at home among
words of seven syllables as those of two.
Then the work commenced, and the quo
ia of spelling was soon filed, though we
must confess that our mind became
slightly confused while holding "our
girls" hand in ours and choosing at the
same time. and our side was weak, men
tally, compared with that of Bill Jones.


After order was obtained amoug the
scholars, and those who we're not in the
lists had brought their angry feeling un-
der subjection, I" Old jacket Duster," as
we termed our teacher, would pull out .
dog's-eared copy OF Webster's Elemen-
lary, whose fy-leaves had long since as
cended heavenward in the form of spit
balls, and in voice about three keys
higher than his ordinary tone, proceeded
to put out the words alternating TO the
Two sides. The contest waxed warmer,
and down went all the small fry on the
more simple words. We we're only al
lowed one trial, and the man who hesi-
tated was irrevocably lost, until at last
only half dozen were left on side
"Our girl'' had come near going down


the word Coffee (she always COM
menced it with "k") but we had set
her right in whisper, though Bill Jones
saw the prompting, and would have in
formed the teacher had he not at that
moment received sumner in the shape
of .phthisic," which occupied his mind
to the exclusion OF all else, but which he
would have mastered had not wad of
chewed paper struck him at that instant
in the mouth and so affected his utter
ance as TO lead the master to think he
had omitted one b" and he sat down
swearing, and we had the satisfaction OF
seeing bis ears slapped with piece of
leather for his profanity. There were
now FIVE on the other side and six on
ours, when the teacher of the other
school took the floor and we saw that
there was blood in his eyes the moment
he said we will now proceed to spell BIZ
BILE proper names"


This exercise soon thinned our ranks,
Four Of the enemy and one of our own
forces went down at one shot, on Neb-
uchadnezzar sour girl" let go of our
hand and wilted on Phoraoh before we
could inform her whether it commenced
with :" F." or P" and finally we keel
ed over on the simple word Isaac" and
the champion was small boy of
ten years, who was named after the son
of Abraham, and the only word which
he could spell was that with which he
had won the day.


But the sorrows and troubles of our
youthful days never lasted long, and we
had soon forgotten our defeat, in the
happiness of having the rosy-cheeked
girl ali to ourself 10 the back end of the
sleigh, and with three buffalo robes that
we had stolen to conceal our faces, and
render unintelligible the whispered words
os sympathy and affection that we pour
ed in under the "kiss-me-quick" hood
that covered her curls. Two mittens
held our four hands, and the few strong
peppermint drops that We had been
boarding up for this occasion we're dull
and tasteless compared to the condensed
extract of sweetness that we daringly
snatched from her lips when crossing the
bridge on our way home. She said she
had forgotten that there were so many
bridges on that road" while we-well,
gentle reader, you cannot have forgotten
how the old thing worked in those days
before the war Titusviile Herald.


How TO CHOOSE A HUsBAND.-Never
marry man until you see him. Let
the candidate for your hand, ladies, pass
through the ordeal of eating soft boiled
eggs. IF he can do it, and leave the ta-
BILE spread, the napkin and shirt unspot-
ted, take him. Try him with spare
rib. IF he accomplishes this feat without