Part 2 (1/2)

Here I would reh a crevice cut in the side of the barn, my father who made the air resound with threats of what he would do if I did not at once return to enial spirit, and we played cards which were regarded as the eious parents; then ould sally forth with uns, and inspired by dime novels, overthrow the walls of children's playhouses, throw rocks against the schoolhouse, bully the ss, corn, melons and apples, which we devoured at leisure in a hidden hut in the woods

When the spiritand paddling beneath the overarching trees of Mill River, lazily watching thein the water or building their huts ofbeneath the surface and e victim in his talons which he bore away to a tree-top to tear and eat; then a tilided across a cove, secreting her little ones in the swawith half-closed eyes for a mud-eel for its dinner

Then ould i some fish which we broiled to satisfy our carnivorous appetites It was delightful to float in that tiny boat, gazing through the green canopy of leaves at the great white clouds sailing over like shi+ps upon the sea, listening to the ecstatic trilling of the orioles, and the flute-like bird of the north

We would watch the delicate traceries of the water gardens through which theimplicit confidence in the protection of their sharp spinacles, presenting to all enemies an impervious array of bayonets; the shark-like pickerel endeavoring to s every living thing; the lazy barvel, everlastingly sucking his sustenance fro at everything in sight with inable defense of their coats-of-mail

On one of these occasions ere aroused frohtful roar, and the destruction of all things see cyclone had struck the fire over which we had cooked our fish, fanning it into a furious conflagration We climbed a tall oak, and soon, as far as the eye could reach, all the hills and woodlands see the excited oxen and horses, ith tails in air, were dragging the ploughs,furrows around the houses and barns, which were nearly all located in pastures rendered dry as tinder by that extraordinary summer's heat

The cause of this disturbance was traced to us, and we barely escaped coats of tar and feathers at the hands of the infuriated neighbors, by the pleadings of our ever-loving o every day to the acadehly sobered by our dangers, and commenced our careers at this ancient institution founded by the first Lieutenant-Governor of Massachusetts Here reigned supreme a fiery autocrat, a fervent admirer of Greek and Latin, a cordial hater of mathematics--my weakest point--a DD, LLD, as detere He had heard of my escapades, and was fully prepared to lay uponcrowd of students

On the first day ofthe Divine blessing, the sight of a big dinner pail belonging to the fat boy in front of me, proved too much of a te pork, pickles, doughnuts, and so forth in its wake, and ending with a loud bang against the platfor off prayer abruptly, down he rushed, and banged my head till I saw more stars than ever shone in heaven

My acaderaduated but feho have--

”Clih From the round at the top they have stepped to the sky,”

and it is sad to recall that e secret societies the alcohol habit, and now sleep in drunkards' graves

Brilliant Charlie, es and sciences as easy as ”rolling off a log” I saw him last summer, a wreck--wine and bad women did it The idolized son of pious parents, whose youth was surrounded at home with the halo of Bible and prayer; but like Esau, he ”sold his birthright for a e” and afterwards ”found no space for repentance, though he sought it earnestly and with many tears”

It seea the top of a new desk, when in rushed the ”DD” with his feet encased in the thinnest of slippers and hich he gaveit in his hand, danced on one leg, whooping unconsciously cuss word ejaculations till we shrieked with laughter; then he bu brother shook the do would a rat, and threatened that if he ever struck ain he would drown hiood brother, he alas, and is now h now he comes from heaven to shi+eld me, for I am the last on earth of my father's family

Alas, how many of those academy classmates, each of as then the soul of honor and the heart of truth, drowned their intellects in the flowing bowl _Eheu, Eheu, fugaces anni labuntur!_ But surely it was only thisoh, beautiful, star-eyed Harry, that you and I, wearied with the frantic vain atte triangles and hieroglyphics on the blackboard the perplexities of cube root, ousted each other fro upon the floor, and were chased by the LLD out of doors, never to return until we apologized and proh I had been as ”prone tothe acadeue, bringing the professor in his night shi+rt fro his chih suffocated with s his coop and scattering his hens to the four winds of heaven, crawling under his bed at night and nearly frightening his as he ju on the floor as I leaped through thea students--I was appointed assistant teacher at the beginning of nity was assu resented bytheh I suffered froh and tumbles to assert my authority; I conquered, but secured many black eyes and bedewed the caood of the order

At length ere declared sufficiently craraduation day I discoursed in stentorian tones upon ”True Heroism,” amid the applause of the fair sex, and convulsed the audience with laughter by prancing, in my enthusiastic eloquence, upon the sore toe of one of the reverend trustees on the stage who fairly yelled with pain: ”_Sic transit gloriathe sins of my youth, which I confess with ”shame and confusion of face” were the pranks played by hbors These worthies consisted of an old hter, the two most unaccountable cranks that dame nature ever presented to my notice

The father was possessed of the insane hallucination that he was the greatest poet that ever lived Often I have seen him drop his hoe in the potato field, and run for the house so that you could hardly see his heels for dust, looking for all the world like an anis As he expressed it, ”an idee had struck him,” and all mankind would die of intellectual starvation unless he at once eht was to gather about hi folks and read to us his preposterous ”lines” On such occasions, soarret, and roll down over the stairs, with a thunderous uproar, a huge gilded ball which had decorated a post outside a tavern where he formerly dispensed much ”fire water,” to the impoverishment of his customers and to the enrichment of himself

Then our host, with much profanity, would rush to the rescue armed with an ancient bayonet and a fish trule-horn of Roderic Dhu, suhbors to his assistance; but so the candle so that they could never decide ere the guilty absentees

At other tis, ould seize his ancient roosters by their tails, and while they were ry couple would bombard the hen-roosts with shovels, hoes and other weapons in the hope of slaughtering the marauders These pleasantries made much fun for us, and varied the monotony of the lives of our entertainers

The ancient daughter firift of beauty, although her elongated face was of the thickness and color of sole leather, and one eye was hideously closed, while the other was of spotless green It onderful to see her cork-screw curls and languishi+ng s to court her, while an adh the

I can recall but two of the greatest of the poehted in the full belief that Shakespeare could not ”hold a candle to hies

No 1

”A youth of parts, a witty blade To college went and progress ick; The prince of hell wide spread his net, And caught hied him down to tophet”