for i\j( 1)oumv 
THE STORY OF A DISTRICT SCHOOL. 
A COLLEGE BOY’S DIARY. 
[Continued.) 
The director helped me take the names of 
the scholars, and then he proceeded to review 
the mental capacity of the school. 
"First class in grammer rise!” he ordered, 
striking the desk a vigorous blow. 
There was no movement on the part of the 
pupils. When he repeated the order in a 
louder tone, the little girl who had had the 
trouble about the seat rose timidly, and stood 
by her desk. She was the only one in the 
school who had ever studied grammar. 
The directo- next called for pupils in elocu¬ 
tion and mathematics, but not one could he 
induce to rise. When he spoke of arithmetic, 
however, the entire school jumped up in a 
body to show that there was one study that 
they understood. The director at last got tired 
of his examination, and with another warning 
speech took his departure. 
I got along fairly well during the forenoon 
in arranging classes and lessons. It was im¬ 
possible to arrange classes according to degrees » 
of study. As there was only one book for 
every three scholars, the classes' had to be made 
up by families, so there would be no need to 
buy uew books. This seemed to be the prin¬ 
ciple upou which the school had been conduct¬ 
ed before my time. 
When at-last I struck the bell for the noon 
recess, the scholars gave a loud shout, and 
rushed in a body for the door. I made some 
of them go back to their seats and march out 
in the usual style, but the larger boys bad all 
run out to the road before I could stop them. 
The director bad told me that the greatest 
trouble was likely to occur during the noon 
recess. He had insisted that I should remain 
in the school house during this hour to pre¬ 
serve order. I found that this order gave me 
the worst work of the term. 
The scholars all seemed to have brought 
their dinner, even those who lived close to the 
school-house. The great dinner pails were 
emptied in a very short time and then began 
a season of the noisiest fun. Several boys be¬ 
gan swinging with their hands on an iron bar 
that had been placed at one end of the room 
to strengthen the walls. Others played tag 
among the seats. It seemed as if they had all 
entered upon a shouting and laughing match. 
The boys all kept on their hats and there 
were certainly no cushions to the bottoms of 
their boots. By the time I had driven the 
boys away from the iron bar, some of them 
began to dance and whistle at the other end of 
the room. I found it necessary to shake sev¬ 
eral of the larger boys severely before the 
noise could be stopped. Gentle measures would 
not answer at all. 
TIipu there came a dull and sullen silence. Most 
of the boys went outside where I could see 
them holding some sort of consultation. They 
seemed to he very deliberate in all their move¬ 
ments. It was necessary to hold a caucus be¬ 
fore taking any decided action. The girls 
whispered together for a moment and then the 
largest one came up to my desk and simpered: 
"Say, teacher, kin we play ‘The Needle’s 
Eyef ’Taint no noisy game an 1 our other 
teachers always lets us play it. They joins in, 
too—like enough you’d like ter.” 
After ma king this request she burst into a 
giggle and threw her apron over her face. 
She ran back to the other girls and stood in 
the corner shaking with suppressed laughter. 
I did not know the nature of the proposed 
game, but the name seemed quiet and harm¬ 
less enough and I was anxious to please them, 
so I consented, I had a great mind to join in 
myself, but at last decided to wait and see 
what it was to be like. The large girl at once 
ran to the door and shouted: “Teacher says 
we kin play ‘The Needle’s Eye I 1 ” There was a 
loud shout of approval from the company at 
the gate, and they all came rushing into the 
house without ceremony. The smaller boys 
and girls were at once pushed to the rear of 
the room, and the others proceeded to form in 
a circle just in front of my desk. A hoy and 
a girl stood facing each other at each corner 
of a large diamond marked out on the floor. 
The other players joined hands in a circle and 
began to slowly move around between these 
foui - couples, who remained stationary at the 
corners. With one accord they began singing 
at the top of their voices: 
"The needle's eye Dial doth supply 
The thread that runs so truly, 
It's oft I've passed a smiling lass 
Before l did meet you. 
With a Bow so ucat 
And a kies so sweet; 
I do Intend before I end 
To stay here half a week.” 
The action was suited to the word in every 
Instance, At the proper point of the song 
the entire company stopped to bow and at the 
next step the boy and girl next those waiting 
so patiently at the cornel's, assisted in the 
singing with a resounding smack, and then 
dropped out of the line to take the places of 
those whom they hail so pleasautly liberated. 
The smaller children, not to be outdone in 
entertainment, formed another circle at the 
rear of the room and shouted the.song until the 
noise was deafening. In fact the only scholar 
who did not join in the game was the little girl 
who hail cried about the seatat the opening of 
school. Tlie rest tried to pull her into the cir¬ 
cle, but she held stoutly to her seat. One 
great boy went to her seat and tried to kiss 
her there but on her appeal to me he ran for 
the door with all his speed. 
LETTERS FROM THE COUSINS. 
Dear Uncle Mark:— I wrote to you once 
before and my letter was put in the waste 
basket, but I thought I would write once more 
and ask you to let me join the Y. H. C. I live 
on a small farm of 85 acres on the Black War¬ 
rior River. We have another farm in East 
Tennessee of 185 acres. 1 have a dog, a cat, a 
cow, and some chickens and ducks. We have 
about 50 chickens. We have White Leghorns 
and Black Spanish Mixed, and Mamma has 
just bought some full blooded Plymouth Rocks 
to improve their size. I have a very nice boat 
named The Bird. I have four brothers and 
one sister but they are all away from home. 
Mamma aud Papa like the Rural ever so 
much. I like to read the letters from the 
cousins and I like the “Story of a District 
School” very much. I have 215 bird eggs; al¬ 
most every kind that can be found in Alabama. 
I have a box of 25 different kind that I want 
to exchange with one of the cousins that live 
on the coast for sea shells. I hope you will 
print this. nela mcCalla. 
Tuscaloosa, Ala. 
[Those who want to exchange should write. 
—D. M.] _ 
Dear Uncle Mark: I have been very 
much interested in reading the Cousin’s letters 
aud would like to join the Y. H. C. My Papa 
is a Michigan fanner. He is 40 years old aud 
this is his first year at farming. He has 40 
acres of corn planted, two acres of potatoes 
and two acres of broom corn. He plauted the 
Angel of Midnight corn that the Rural sent 
him, and it spreads all over the farm, He 
planted the watermelon and muskmelou seeds 
where there bad been a pig pen for several years 
and they are not doing very well and Papa 
thinks the soil was too rich for the seeds and 
he is much disappointed for he is afraid he 
will not get the ten dollars that is offered for 
the largest melons. Money is what he is 
working for. My Papa has got three horses 
aud a little colt and it’s name is Tip. He is a 
fine colt, he is not small like his name. Papa 
has two fine Chester hogs and four little Ches¬ 
ter pigs, also a great many black bogs, but I 
don’t think these are worth mentioning for 
they always put me iu mind of the black 
people. Your niece, 
East Milan, Mich. annie knowles. 
[We musn’t judge people, or even bogs by the 
color of the skin, We should judge them by 
what they can do.—u. m.] 
Dear Uncle Mark: 1 am a little girl 
eleven years old. Papa has taken the Rural 
for several years. We all like it very much, 
and I aud my younger sister Kate like the 
letters from the young people and would like 
to joiu the Club. We live on a small farm 
one mile and a half from the village. Sister 
Kate and I had a garden this Summer and 
raised some flowers and vegetables. Wo help 
Papa too; we earned ?15 picking berries. We 
play a good deal too, and ride on horseback 
and drive. We help by doing errands. We 
went to mill one day with the team. We like 
to do anything with a horse. But wfe must go 
to school next week. We have two Peri heron 
colts aud they are great pets. I could tell you 
a great deal more but 1 fear that dreadful 
waste basket as this is my first attempt. 
From your nieces, 
EDITH AND KATE VAN EPS, 
Stanley, N. Y. 
[You are pretty good workers I think. I 
have no doubt you help very much.—u. m ] 
Dear Uncle Mark: I was 12 years old 
the 17th of August, and I suppose you are 
quite an old man—are you not i We are 
having quite a nice rain to-day, which is very 
welcome to the people. I hope you are not so 
needy for rain as we were here. The wells are 
failing. We will have about half a crop of 
corn. The small grain did very well. Gran- 
pa and Granina had quite a lot of small fruit 
this year, considering the dry weather, it 
has been so dry that our flower seeds did not 
come well; what came were very nice indeed. 
Uncle Mark, would you not like to live in the 
the country ? I think I would like it better to 
live in the country than to .live in a busy 
town like New York. Our school is out, aud 
it seems as though we have nothing to do. I 
will stay at Graudpa’s till school commences 
again. Grandpa milks six cows aud has five 
little calves. 
Liscomb, la, h. m. h. 
[I am considerably older than you are, any 
way. I live in the country, too. I am only 
in New York during the day.—u. m.] 
Dear Uncle Mark: The sweet peas came 
up and they are blooming nicely. There are 
five or six colors. They arc very pretty. We 
have not many flowers this Summer, but we 
would have had a good many it' it had not 
been so dry: everything is suffering from the 
drought. Mamma planted the Garden Treas¬ 
ures in small boxes. A few came up, but none 
lived except the Castor Bean. The Bird cante- 
lopes and watermelons are growing nicely and 
we think we shall have n good many melons, 
We have had two watermelons. Papa caught 
a swarm of bees last Summer and they 
swarmed this Summer and about nine days 
after they swarmed the old hive was dest royed 
by the heat melting the comb and falling down 
on them. At the close of our summer school 
we had a picnic at one of the neighbor’s 
groves. We had a very nice time, the schol¬ 
ars spoke pieces and dialogues. Two or three 
weeks ago Papa got up and he and the dog 
killed two skunks. They and the wolves have 
destroyed a good many chickens and nests for 
us. Uncle Mark you promised to tell us how 
you kept house on the plains. We have been 
watching the papers quite anxiously but have 
failed to see it, won’t you please fulfill your 
promise. We are quite interested iu the story 
of the District School. Mamma is doing with¬ 
out a girl this Summer, and we help her all 
we can; we wash dishes, sweep, make beds, 
iron and we can do a little of everything and 1 
(Sarah) can bake real nice cakes. To-day we 
dried corn and Mamma tried to put up some 
your way and tw - o bottles burst. Papa fin¬ 
ished stacking yesterday aud he has 15 stacks 
of oats and one of wheat. 
Your Nieces, 
Sarah and Katie McDonald. 
Greene, Iowa. 
[A good letter. I shall tell you about my 
keeping house all in good time. 1 am glad you 
are doing so much work. I would like to try 
those cakes myself.—u. M.] 
It is getting pretty chilly about here. Now 
is the tun * to take care of the health. If we 
get cold now we won’t be likely to get over it 
all Winter. 
PiscfUaufousi §Mmti,$inn 
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