Year: 1872

u seCIng 1Ortn tn2t ne LAD Killed 1--WE
ar ty two men, and on that account d
i'd manded that his property be restor
in to him-although what bis proper
d. mi ght have consisted of is not We
il clearly shown.


: FUN AT WINTER SCHOOL.


BY. C. D. WARNER.


I never knew a boy farmer wi
. was not eager to 60 to the distri
;. school in the winter. There is SUI
J, a chance for leaning, that he mu
y be dull hoy, who does not come o,
In the spring q fair skater, an accl
: rate snow-baller, and an accom-
plished slider-down-hill, with or witt
out a board. on his seat, on hi
! stomach or on his feet. Take a mod
, crate hill, with foot slide down
worn to icy smoothness, and a "g
round OF boys on it, and there
nothing like it for whiting ava,
boot leather. The boy is the shoe


makers friend. An active lad cal


wear down a pair of cowhide soles il


a week so that the ice will scrspe hi


toes. Shedding or coasting is als'


slow fun compared to the bareback


sliding down a steep hill over hard


glistening crust. 1t is not only dan


gerous, but it is destructive to JACKIE


and pantaloons, to degree to make


a tailor laugh. II any other anima


wore out his skin as fast as schoo


boy does his clothes in winter, he


would need new one once q month
In a country district school, patches


were not by any means a sign of pow
erty, but of the boys courage and
adventurous disposition. Our elders
used TO threaten to dress US in leath-
er and put sheet iron seats in our
trousers. The boy said that he wore
out his trousers on the hard seats IN
the school house, cipheiiDg hard
sums. For that extraordinary state
ment he received two castigations,
one at home, that was mild, and one
from the 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 pam
falcons.


What l liked best at school, how
ever, was the study Of history, early
history, the Indian wars. We studied
it mostly at noon time. and we ha1 it
illustrated as the children now a-days
have "object lessons''-though our
object was not so much to have les.
sons as it was to revive real history.


Back of the school house rose a
round hill, upon which tradition said
had stood in colonial times a block
house, built by the settlers for de-
fense against the Indians. For the
Indians had the idea that the whites
were not settled enough, and used to
came 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 fiud laurel, and checker berries,
and sassafras roots, and sit in the
cool breeze, looking at the mountains
across the river, and listening to the
murmur of the Deerfield The Meth
odists built a meeting house there
afterwards, but the hill was so slip.
perry in winter that the aged could
not climb it, and the wind ragged so
fiercely that it blew nearly all the
young Methodists away (many of
whom were afterwards heard of in the
West, and finally the meeting house
itself came down into the valley, and
grew q steeple, and enjoyed itself
ever afterwards. 1t used to be a no
ton in New England that a meeting
house oug hit to stand as near heaven
as possible.


Tho -hays- -o.--.ohooi -tsi-rsea
themselves into two parties; one was
the Early Settlers and the other the
Pequo.s. the latter the most numer-
GUS. The Early Settlers built snow
fort on the hill, and strong fortress
it was, constructed of snow balls,
rolled up to vast size (larger than
the Cyclopian block of stone which
form the Etruscan walls in Italy,
piled one upon another, and the whole
cemented by pouring on water which
froze and made the walls solid. The
Peqdots helped the whites build it.
1t had covered way under the snow,
through which only could it be enter.
ed, and it had bastions and towers
and openings to fire from, and o great
many other things for which there
aye no names in military books.
And it had'a glacis and q ditch out
side.


When it was completed, the Early
Settlers, leaving the women in the
school house, prey to the Indians,
used to retire into it and await the
attack of the Pequots. There was
only q handful of the garrison, while
the Indians were many, and also bar
barous. And it was in this light that
the great question was settled, wheth-
er 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 in the head by one of
them, he could not tell whether he
was q Pequot or sn early settler. 1t
was considered as unfair to use these
ice balls in an open fight, as it is to
use poisoned ammunition in real war.
But as the whites were protected by
the fort, and the Indians were treach
erous by nature, it was decided that
the latter might use the hard missiles.


The Pequots used to come swarm
ing up the hill, with hideous war
whoops, attacking the fort on all sides
with great noise and shower of balls.
The garrison replied with yells of de-
fiance and well-directed shots, hurting
back the invaders when they at
tempted to scale the walls. The set
tiers had the advantage of position,
but they were sometimes overpow-
cred by numbers, and would often
have had to surrender but for the
ringing of the school bell. The Pc
quots were in great fear of the school
bell.


/ do not remember that the whites
ever hauled down their flag and sur
rendered voluntarily; but once or
twice the fort was carried by storm
and the garrison was massacred to
boy, and thrown out of the fortress,
having been first scalped. To take q
boys cap was to scalp him, and after
that he was dead, if he played fair.
There weye a great many hard hits
given and taken, hut always cheer
fully, for it was in the cause of our
early history. The history of Greece
and Rome was stuff compared to this.


SAMUEL GooDRlDGE, OF Canaan,
Me-, is the oldest man in New Eng
land-1O5 years. His last farm labor
was performed in his ninety ninth
year. His wife lived to be ninety
seven, and their Oldest child is now
living at the age Of eighty-one.