164 
FOREST AND S'is..r:AU. 
iM^jRCEE 3, ICC 
harder tu spell "an a big one. Cur ous, hain't it? Oh, 
I tell ye what, Tarnin' is mighty interestinM" 
If a scholar dared to giggle openly he was glowered 
upon so savagely that he was awed to silence and kept 
his eyes thereafter riveted as fixedlj'^ on his book as the 
culprit on his. Thus the old man lightened Sammy's 
punishment, and at the_ same time made the others apply 
themselves more closely. 
When the little boy was permitted to take his seat 
Uncle Lisha got his stout short legs in alongside, and 
sat with him through the remaining study hours and 
the boisterous jolly recess of the boys. 
During that quarter hour of indoor quiet they studied 
the hieroglyphics of the desk and found among them 
Sam Lovel's initials carved by his own hand fifteen 
years before, and Joseph Hill's name in full, bearing an 
earlier date and evidence of his characteristic indecision, 
the foot of one "1" being turned to the right, the other 
to the left. "Solon Briggs, Annuis Dominos 1820,'** 
whereat Uncle Lisha racked his brain to recall to mind 
a Danvis girl bearing the latter narne. Sammy missed 
scarcely a word of his spelling lesson, and when for- 
tified at noon by a generous luncheon felt brave enough 
to undertake going through the afternoon alone. 
So, bidding him good-by and to be a good boy, and 
reminding Miss Skinner to send her shoes over to him 
next day. Uncle Lisha trudged home in time for a late 
dinner with the plausible excuse that "he hed b'en on a 
taower for his health." 
The summer of school that on its first day Sammy 
looked forward upori as an ititerminable season of tot^ 
ventured to suggest. 
"We'll see 't this one is,*' said she, and began to lay 
on lustily. 
Sammy feigned the keenest suffering, writhing and 
howling so that when Miss Skinner desisted from sheer 
exhaustion, she felt that she had never administered 
punishment with more satisfaction to herself, while if 
she could have but known it, her victim as fully shared 
her feeling. He hid his armour in a convenient hollow 
stump, and it served him again on more than one oc- 
casion. 
Winter brought good Mr. Mumpson to preside over a 
larger school, and it brought the robust outdoor sports 
of snow-balling, sliding and skating that made the fifteen 
minutes of recess impatiently waited for, the nooning 
an hour of concentrated delight, when the happy owners 
of skates rushed whooping to the nearest ice patch, 
others slid down hill on their homemade sleds, with 
i-\inners sawn from natural crooks and beams fastened 
to them with wooden pins, or simpler sleds with board 
runners and jumpers made of barrel staves. Another 
rabble of yelling young savages assailed a fort of snow, 
defended by as noisjf a band of warriors. The master 
was noAv with one company, now with another, each 
proud to have him with it for the prestige he gave, and 
the plucky spirit that dwelt in so weak a body. Then 
there were the Saturday half-holidays that seemed long 
enough to do anything, almost everything, in, though 
they never did prove quite sufiftcient. 
If Sammy could spend this half day with his bosom 
friend Joseph Hill's youngest sgn, Ben, he "was satisfied. 
At noon they had a daily picnic by the brookside over: 
the tin pail of luncheon, yet did not long tarry over it, 
for there was a deal of playing to be done in that hour. 
In winter they were as close comrades. Sammy's sled; 
hauled the easier and slid down hill the faster when 
chiibby little sister was on board, and without recogniz- 
ing it, he felt a sort of heroism in shielding her from the 
fierce pelting of the snow storm, or in carrying her across" 
the brook running a flood in a January thaw. After the 
killing of the lynx he was quite in danger of believing 
himself a hero indeed. I 
Sammy had a little sweetheart, as all boys do, though 
they never, ncA^er tell their love in words, even to the 
object of their affections. His was next^to the youngest 
of Joseph Hill's daughters, the only dark-haired and 
dark-eyed one of the brood, and pretty enough to steal; 
the heart of any discriminating boy. He divided with 
her the big red Seek-no-further that was part of his noon 
dessert. Polly had one to herself; he puzzled his un- 
mathematical brain more over her sums than his own; 
gave her a place on his sled between Polly and himself, 
when her brothers, who had contempt for girls in general 
and sisters in particular, begrudged her a seat on theirs; 
he brought her handfuls of Dutchman's breeches and 
honeysuckles, and great green and white sheaves ofi 
moose flowers, and as a mark of special trust he showed 
her the rarest bird's nests he found; and saved for her, 
the choicest ambre-hued gum that he climbed the spruces 
to gather. There was a tacit understanding that when 
they were all grown up she and Sammy and Sis were to 
live together somewhere, when Sammy and Ben, who 
HARVARD GLACIER AT HEAD OF COLLEGE FIORD, PRINCE WILLIAM SOUND. 
Photo by E. S. Curtis. Copyright by E. H, Harrinian. 
ture proved not nearly so bad, in actual experience. He 
was not an ambitious scholar; the study of his lessons 
was an irksome task, from which his thoughts would 
always be wandering out to the blue sky, the green 
woods and the flashing brooks. 
Miss Almira Skinner was a strict disciplinarian, who 
seldom spared the rod and laid it on with no gentle 
hand. Once caught by her at their monkey tricks the 
Bissette children never repeated them. Sammy was 
not in danger of dying young through being too good, 
but merely a rough, noisj', mischievous boy, apt to play 
naughty pranks, yet too honest to escape punishment by 
, lying. Once he achieved a triumph of invention in 
contriving to hold a long thorn between his naked first 
and second toes, so that he could secretly prod the boy 
who sat in front of hirn. The first — and last — was em- 
inently successful ; it brought forth a yell from the sur- 
prised victim that started the whole school, Stispicion 
at once fell on Sammy. Miss Skinner charged him with 
the crime, and when he would not deny it, she sent 
him out for a rod suitable for his chastisement. As he 
carefully searched the grove behind the school-house, a 
smooth-barked white birch caught his eye, and inspired 
him with a happy thought. On the instant he whipped 
out his jack-knife and peeled oft' a sheet from the trunk, 
which was about the same diameter as his body and as 
long as from his neck to his hips. He made a pair of 
armholes in the upper part, slipped off coat and vest 
and put on this primitive armor next his shirt. He 
had barely time to replace his clothing, when the im- 
patient beat of the ferule sutnmoned him to return. 
Hastily cutting the first stout switch at hand, and trim- 
ming as he ran, he presented himself for punishment. 
"Was you waitin' for a switch tu grow?" Miss Skinner 
demanded, with sharp sarcasm. 
"No, marm," he answered, meekly. 
"Well, if you was all this time a-looking for one you 
might have faound a better, I should think," she said, 
examining and testing the stick with critical eye and 
"They're most all used up, I guess, marm," Sammy 
The next best use of it was to visit with Uncle Lisha, 
listening to tales of his adventures, his memorable Platts- 
burgh campaign, his journey to the far West, but most 
interesting perhaps in comparing their school experi- 
ences. 
Uncle Lisha's school-house was built of logs, with a 
wide stone fireplace that made a great show of warming 
the big room, while the pupils in the far corners were 
half-frozen, the water pail quite so, and there Avas a 
continual clamor of appeal, "May I go t' the fire?" 
Youngsters of Sammy's years were seated on rough 
slab benches, without desks, and their short legs sought 
in vain to reach the floor. Sammy counted himself 
fortunate in living in more luxurious times, though miss- 
ing the thrilling experience of crossing wolf tracks on 
his way to school. 
Though he continued to be an unambitious scholar 
when he came to study and heartily hated arithmetic, he 
liked geography a little better and history quite well 
for the stories, going to school grew less irksome as 
term after term went by without bringing Miss Skinner. 
After two or three years Polly began going, and the 
renewal of their constant companionship was a great 
joy to both. What happy loitering along the road in 
pleasant weather, watching the minnows flashing like 
silver arrows shot into the black shadows of the bridge, 
or noting the coming of the swallows, and a little later 
the bobolinks, both faithful to date, almost to a day. 
Or in roadside fields they hunted for nests, just to know 
where they were — they rarely did know where those of 
bobolink and meadowlark were cunningly hid. But there 
were flowers in plenty; great tufts of blue violets ready 
to be picked by handfuls, only to be beheaded by scores 
by these sanguinary little gamesters, who would "fight 
roosters" till they were conscience-smitten to behold 
the heaps of slain. After all, they were no crueller 
than botanists. Then there was the triumph of 
finding the first ripe strawberry, then of stringing a 
herdsgrass stalk full of them for the school ma'am, if on 
the way to school, for mother or Aunt Jerusha if home- 
ward bound; and later,, gathering a basketful for supper. 
were to be the nearest neighbors, would do nothing 
but hunt, trap or fish, while the women kept house^ an 
arrangement quite satisfactory to all. 
Alas! that it must be told. Sainmy was fickle, and 
one summer made an Indian gift of his heart and be- 
stowed it upon a tall, willowy, pink-and-white school- 
mistress, ten years his senior. For her now were the 
flowers, the handfuls of strawberries, the raspberries 
gathered out of the thorny thickets of fence corners, and 
amber jewels of the spruce; and as they walked to and 
from school while she boarded at Sam's, she squeezed 
his hand in hers, strong and long, yet very smooth, and 
he cast loving sheep's eyes, up under his hat brim at her 
smiling pink face. 
One Saturday forenoon a chipper ybung fellow came 
driving to the school-hoUse in a spick and span new 
buggy, and Sammy's heart was righteously torn with 
jealousy, when he saw her feed this odious fop with ber- 
ries he had given her that very morning, and the pair 
wagging their jaws in unison over the gum that was 
meant for no lips but hers. At noon they drove away 
together, and the poor boy spent the wretchedest of half- 
holidays. Sunday was no better, but on Monday the 
enchantress returned and beguiled him again with her 
smiles. 
In the fall when school was ended the spell was 
broken, for it came out that the pretty school ma'atn was 
to be married, and had been teaching to get her wedding 
finery. 
Sammy thirsted for the blood of that little fop and 
was sure for a week that he could never be happy 
again, and was glad to have the family take notice that 
his appetite was poor, until Aunt Jerusha suggested 
"popple bark bitters." The winter school begun, he 
fcimd himself fonder of little M'ri', and mortally afraid 
that she would pay him as he deserved for his faith- 
lessness, but his treatment had not changed her faithful, 
loving heart one jot. She behaved just as if nothing had 
happened and theii" life flowed on again in the old course. 
Rowland E. Robinson, 
[to be continued.] 
