[Gutenberg 36732] • Charlie Newcomer

CHAPTER I.

AT THE RINGGOLD SCHOOL.

"Hurry up Charlie, for as soon as we get our dinner over, we want to

play base-ball, and you're on our side, you know," called one of the

scholars of the Ringgold school to Charlie Newcomer, as he was going

home at noon for his dinner. Charlie's home was only a few rods from

the school house, and on the same side of the road.

"All right, boys, I will," he answered in return, and in a minute more

he was home.

Dinner was not ready when he reached home, for his mamma had been

putting out her washing that forenoon. So he brought the water and

then went to the cellar for the bread and butter while his mamma made

the gravy, and dinner was soon on the table. While they were eating,

Charlie said, "Do you think, mamma, I can get up head this afternoon?

I've studied my lessons very well."

"I don't know, indeed," said his mamma, "you cannot unless some one

above you should make a mistake, and the other scholars are as anxious

to stand well as you are."

"They're awful hard lessons, and surely some one will miss, and I'm

just waiting for a chance like that. You know I hate to be foot," he

continued, "and if I hadn't 'a' missed that day three weeks ago, I

would have been head now."

He had finished his dinner before his mother and little sister, and

was off to school while they were yet at the table.

The boys in the play ground had changed their minds about playing

base-ball, from the fact that some wanted to begin playing right away,

while others wanted to wait for the return of those who had gone home

for dinner. Some wanted to choose new sides, and others wanted to

remain as they had been the day before; and yet others, as they said,

"didn't want to play anyhow," and in the midst of so many voices, they

all went to playing "Drop the handkerchief," girls and boys together.

Charlie was especially fond of playing "Drop the handkerchief," and

when he saw it was that game instead of ball, it did not take long

until he was at it with all his might. Adding his kerchief to those

already afloat, he ran around the large circle never faster.

Grown up people sometimes wonder how it is that children are willing

to play until they are all in a perspiration, but children just as

well wonder at grown up people for working with the same result.

The ringing of the school bell brought the game to a close. Nearly all

of the scholars went at once into the house, while a few lingered on

the porch to get a drink of water and cool off a little before going

in.

How quiet it seems just after all the boys and girls are called from

the play-ground to their books.

The school building at Ringgold is at one end of the town, and the

town is a little, long one, right on the top of a large, long hill. On

either side you can see the mountains, and from Ringgold to the

mountain eastward, even away up on the side of the mountain, are

thousands and thousands of peach trees.

[Illustration: THE RINGGOLD SCHOOLHOUSE.]

Within the school house is work. Class after class is called up to

recite, and in some of them not many changes are made as to the standing

of the pupils. In most of the classes the method of trapping is used.

Whenever any one mis-spells a word or makes a mistake on a problem, the

next one below him has a chance at it; if he misses, the next has a

chance, and so on until the one is found who can make right the error,

then that one traps and goes up above all who have missed.

Ever since Charlie had been absent that one day, he had been working

especially hard to win his accustomed place at the head of his

classes, for whoever missed a day had to "go foot."

That afternoon because the lessons were rather difficult, he hoped to

get near to his old place, if not to reach it altogether. When the

first class was called, his heart beat just a little faster than while

he was preparing his lesson. As he arose from his seat to go, he

breathed a little prayer to God, that he might remember well what he

had just been learning.

Several problems were missed and as many times somebody trapped up. But

not every problem that others had mistaken reached Charlie. One time he

thought he would now trap three, when he himself missed, and another got

it. In trapping, however, the close of the recitation found him "third"

but not "first." And so the class was dismissed for that day.

The last in the afternoon was the spelling class. The teacher

frequently began to pronounce the words on the lower part of the page

first. "Tournament" was the first word to-day. The next was

"constitute." "Coadjutor" was Charlie's first word to spell.