Fraudulent Holidays
"Third Reader," called Gray-beard, and some ten or twelve boys and
girls marched to the place of recitation, and put their toes on a
straight crack in the floor. The reading lesson was some verses on
"Summer," prettily illustrated with a picture of a boy and a dog, the
lad racing over a meadow, and the dog frisking at his side.
"Now, Robert, begin!" said Gray-beard to little Bob, who in some
unaccountable way had reached the head of the class.
The boy put his index finger on the first word, and slid it along as he
read, in a low, sing-song tone, "Come, come, come, the Summer now is
here."
"Read that over again," said Gray-beard. "Read it loud, as though you
were out of doors at play."
Bob read again, but in the same manner, and had hardly gone through
half the line when the sharp crack of Gray-beard's ruler on the desk
made us all jump.
"That's not the way to read it!" he exclaimed with some impatience; and
he repeated the lines to show how they should be given. "Now, begin
again."
Bob began, but in the same lifeless tone, never taking his finger from
the words.
"Next!" interrupted Gray-beard. "The same verse; read as though you
were wide awake and calling to your playmates, not as if you were going
to sleep."
The boy addressed straightened himself up and shouted out:
"Come, come, come, the Summer now is here!" going through the verse
without a break, then he glanced proudly toward the girls, only to see
them giggling behind their books.
"Silence!" cried Gray-beard, striking his desk. "That was well done!"
The door slowly opened, and the farmer entered, hat in hand, and
addressed Gray-beard, "I want to transfer a sow with a litter of pigs
from one pen to another, and I've come to ask if you could let me have
the help of some of the boys?"
When permission had been granted, a number of willing hands went up,
and as many faces turned with eager expectancy to the farmer, who
looked around, and then said, "Brush, Frank, Lester, and Warren will
do."
We followed the farmer to the pen, and at once jumped in, each one
seizing a little pig; but, before we could turn, the sow made such
an onslaught upon us that we dropped the pigs and scrambled over the
fence; but Lester, who was last, left a piece of his trousers in the
jaws of the angry beast. After this exciting experience, at which the
farmer could hardly stop laughing, we held a consultation with him, and
agreed upon a plan which we immediately proceeded to carry out.
We threatened the sow with our hats; she retreated into a corner with
her young; then Brush slyly went up, and, reaching his hand through the
fence, caught one of the little pigs by the legs and held it fast; it
squealed lustily, and the infuriated mother made savage attacks upon
the fence. Then Lester, Warren, the farmer, and I sprang into the pen,
caught the frightened little pigs, and ran with them to the new pen.
Brush released his prisoner, and the cry of the transported little ones
brought the mother to the pen, where she was secured.
While the farmer was fastening the gate, we boys walked around the
hog-yard; Warren, who was ahead, discovered a weak place in the fence,
and beckoned excitedly for us to hasten.
There were times when the pupils became very tired of their books, and
longed to take a run over the prairies or through the woods. When this
longing came upon them, they sought for ways and means by which to
have the school closed, and secure a holiday. I remember once, it was
in the fall, the members of the Big Seven loosened the joints of the
long stove-pipe during recess. When school opened in the afternoon,
and their class was called, they marched to the place of recitation,
keeping step and jarring the room so that the sections of the pipe fell
rattling to the floor, filling the room with smoke, and covering floor
and desks with soot. As it would take some time for the pipe to cool
and be put up again, and the room cleaned, the school was dismissed,
giving us a half holiday.
Now, in the weakness of the hog fence, there was a chance for an
afternoon out of school, and Warren saw it. He told us his plan, and
the rest of us fell in with the scheme. After dinner we took some corn
and scattered it outside of the fence at the weak place; then we went
to the school-room, where Gray-beard, when he came to ring the bell to
summon the scholars, found us hard at work on our arithmetic lessons.
The geography class was up, and Brush was describing the rivers of
South America, when the door was thrown open by the superintendent, who
exclaimed, "Hurry, boys! The pigs are out and going to the Indians'
cornfield!"
We did not wait to be ordered a second time; but, snatching our hats
from the pegs in the hall, we ran down the hill with wild shouts and
cries. All the afternoon we chased pigs, and had a glorious time, while
the girls had to stay in school and be banged at by Gray-beard.
It was almost supper-time when we finally drove the pigs into the yard
and repaired the weak places in the fence. Flushed with our exciting
chase we entered the dining-room when the bell rang, and took our
places at the table for the evening meal; then the superintendent,
looking at us with a kindly smile, thanked us for the good service we
had rendered that afternoon!
The few hours' release from the tasks of the school-room had brought
about a general good feeling among the boys; so, when we had partaken
of the simple fare, we gathered on our play-ground and joined in a
number of lively games in the long twilight. So interested and excited
had we become in our play that we took no notice of the fading light
and the lateness of the hour until the first bell for bed sounded.
Our school was an industrial one, and in the assignment to the larger
boys and girls of various duties in and about the building, I was given
the care of the hydraulic ram that pumped the water from the spring
to the house. In the morning I started it, and in the evening shut it
off. The ram was located in a wooded ravine a quarter of a mile from
the school, and I usually stopped it while it was yet light, for, like
many a foolish boy, I was afraid to go away from the house alone in
the dark. Now in the excitement of play I had forgotten all about the
ram until I heard the bell calling us to prepare for bed, nor had I
realized till then that it was dark, and that the sky in the west was
black with storm clouds through which the lightning zigzagged, and that
there was an incessant rumble of thunder. The myriad of fireflies that
filled the air with flashes of red light only made the darkness seem
yet darker.
Stricken all at once with fear, I called loudly for Brush and the
rest of the boys, but none of them responded. I was afraid to go to
the ram alone in the dark, but if I should let it pump all night the
water would overflow the kitchen, and that would mean a disgraceful
punishment for me. I went from boy to boy, trying to secure a
companion; but not one of them dared to go with me, they were all
afraid of ghosts. Marbles could not tempt them, nor could a much
coveted gun-lock, which for the first time I was willing to part with,
induce any boy to go. The time for the last call for bed was fast
approaching, and I dared not wait longer trying to secure an escort, so
I started on a run, frightened nearly out of my wits at everything I
saw, but on I went as if racing for life.
I reached the place and stood over the square pit in which the ram
was placed, and was about to go down the ladder into it, when I saw
something move rapidly at the bottom. I nearly fell over backwards as I
jumped away. I ran toward the house, but the thought of the overflow in
the kitchen, and the punishment that was sure to follow, came back to
my mind. For a moment I struggled between a known and an unknown fate,
and decided to meet the latter. With set teeth and clenched fists I
jumped into the pit, backed into the nearest corner, yelled at the top
of my voice, while I struck right and left with my fists and kicked out
with my feet. Let it be ghost or beast, I was determined to fight it
and die game. I kept on striking, kicking, and yelling, but nothing put
itself in my way. I dropped to the ground, panting, but kept an eye
on the white thing which had also moved into a corner. I made a feint
at charging upon it and it fled-to another corner; then I put my head
close to the ground to discover the shape of my enemy, when, to my joy,
I discerned the outline of a rabbit. With a long-drawn breath of relief
I stood upright, turned off the ram, made a rush upon the rabbit and
caught it. Hastily rolling it up in my jacket, I climbed the ladder,
ran up the hill as though a dozen ghosts were after me, and reached my
bed just in time to say "Amen" to the evening prayer.
When Gray-beard had gone down, I whispered to Lester and Edwin, "I've
caught a white rabbit!"
"Let's scare the boys," said Lester.
So we dropped the little creature on the floor, and it ran around
the room as hard as it could go, while one of us cried out in a loud
whisper "Ghost!" Then every boy in the room pulled the bedclothes over
his head, and did not dare to uncover again.
We kept the rabbit for a pet, and made a box for it. We liked to watch
it eat, and it did not suffer for want of food so long as we had
it. One of the "gangs" among the small boys came to us one day while
we were feeding our pet, and offered us some clay marbles for it. We
looked upon their offer with contempt, for we all knew how to make clay
marbles ourselves, and had all we wanted.
"I'll tell you what we'll do though," said Brush to the would-be
purchasers. "If you will give each one of us seventeen cakes, you can
take the rabbit."
The boys retired and held a private consultation, then came back, and
the leader said, "We'll take the rabbit."
These boys must have coveted the rabbit very much, for there was not
a boy in the school who did not love cake, and the one slice of brown
ginger-cake we were each given for Sunday noon lunch was the only
delicacy we tasted. This cake became a currency among the boys, and all
contracts for cakes were faithfully kept. I know of only one instance
where a boy failed to keep his bargain, and he was so persecuted by the
other scholars that he was obliged to pay his debt in order to live in
peace.
Brush thought he had put the price of the rabbit so high that it would
not be accepted; but as we could not back out of our agreement, we were
obliged to part with our ghost rabbit for eighty-five cakes.
As the number of the "gang" purchasing the rabbit was the same as ours,
for seventeen Sundays these five boys went without their cakes, while
each one of us enjoyed a double share.