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THE SCHOOLMASTER.

CHAPTER I.

"To me more dear, congenial to my heart,
One native charm than all the gloss of art."
GOLDSMITH.

OUR story, contrary perhaps to fashionable precedent, opens at a common farm-house, situated on one of the principal roads leading through the interior of the northerly portion of the Union. It was near the middle of the day, in that part of the spring season when the rough and chill features of winter are becoming so equally blended with the soft and mild ones of summer upon the face of nature, that we feel at loss in deciding whether the characteristics of the one or the other most prevail. The hills were mostly bare, but their appearance was not that of summer; and the tempted eye turned away unsatisfied from the cheerless prospect which their dreary and frost-blackened sides presented. The levels, on the other hand, were still covered with snow; and yet their aspect was not that of winter. Clumps of willows, scattered along the hedges, or around the waste-places of the meadows, were white with the starting buds or blossoms of spring. The old white mantle of the frost-king was also becoming sadly dingy and tattered. Each stump and stone was enclosed by a widening circle of bare ground; while the tops of the furrows, peering through the dissolving snows, were

beginning to streak, with long, faint, dotted lines, the selfdisclosing plough-fields. The cattle were lazily ruminating in the barn-yard, occasionally lowing and casting a wistful glance at the bare hills around, but without offering to move towards them, as if they thought that the prospects there were hardly sufficient to induce them yet to leave their winter quarters. The earth-loving sheep, however, had broken from their fold, and, having reached the borders of the hills by some partially trod path, were busily nibbling at the roots of the shriveled herbage, unheedful of the bleating cries of their feebler companions, that they had left stuck in the treacherous snow-drifts, encountered in their migrations from one bare patch to another.

The owner of the farming establishment, in reference to which we have been speaking, was in the door-yard, engaged in splitting and piling up his yearly stock of fire-wood. He was a man of about forty, not of a very intellectual countenance, indeed, but of a stout, hardy, and well-made frame, which showed to advantage in the handsome and appropriate long, striped, woollen frock, in which he was plying himself with the moderate and easy motions which are, perhaps, peculiar to men of great physical power. A rugged and resolute-looking boy, of perhaps a dozen years of age, having thrown himself upon one knee before a small pile of prepared wood, lying near the kitchen door for immediate use, and having heaped the clefts into one arm till they reached to his chin, as if in whim to see how much he could carry in, was now engaged in trying, with a capricious, bravado-like air, to balance an additional stick on his head, by way of increasing his already enormous load.

In another part of the yard, and as near his master as he could remain undisturbed, lay the well-fed house-dog, reclining upon his belly, with his muzzle, which was pointed in a direction most favorable for a look-out, resting on a clean,

broad chip, with ears attent, and eyes keenly following the slow, creeping motions of a small carriage, that was now seen in the distance winding along the road from the south; of whose approach he, from time to time, as he considered himself in duty bound, gave notice by a low growl, which, as the vehicle at length emerged from some partially screening bushes into plain and near view, was raised to a lazy wow! The carriage in question proved to be a light, open wagon, drawn by one horse, and containing a middle-aged man, of a fine, gentlemanly appearance, and by his side a small female figure, closely muffled in hood and cloak. Carefully guiding his horse, and turning him from one side to the other of the still icy road, to avoid the most sidling and dangerous-looking places, the traveller at length came abreast of the house; when the animal lost his footing, and after two or three violent but fruitless flounders to regain it, by which the carriage was nearly overset, finally landed flat on his side, and lay as if dead.

"My stars!" exclaimed the farmer, pausing with uplifted axe to see the mishap, "if that was 'nt a narrow escape from capsizing, it's no matter!"

A second thought now seeming to occur to him, he suddenly dropped his axe, darted forward to the spot, and, seizing the prostrate horse by the bits, held him down.

"Clear the wagon," he said, hastily motioning with his head to the traveller, "the horse will be as likely to overturn you in rising as he was in falling. Jump down, and lift out the girl, and I will then let him up."

This advice was instantly complied with; when the horse, being spurred to an effort, soon safely regained his feet.

"Your beast has lost a shoe, sir," said the farmer, approaching the panting animal, and lifting a suspected foot; yes, here is the foot, as bare as your hand. But you must have another put on before you drive him another rod in

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that wagon over these sidling ice-patches, unless you want neck broke."

your

"I have no very particular wishes for that, certainly," said the gentleman with a smile; "but where can I find a smith within any reasonable distance? "

"There's one, and a good one too, about a mile from here, on another road; but I think the horse can be taken across my pasture to the shop much nearer.”

"Should I be likely to meet with any difficulty about finding the way?"

"Why, yes, you might; and I'll tell you what, sir — you had better let me clap my boy on to the creature's back, after unharnessing, and he will take him over and get him shod, while you take your little girl into the house, and remain here. Ben!" continued the speaker, shouting for the boy who had gone in with the wood, with which we have noticed him as loading himself, "Ben! Ben Amsden! show your profile out here in the yard, if you will."

The boy promptly made his appearance.

"That boy?" asked the stranger, doubtingly. "My horse has considerable spirit can he manage him safely?"

"He will think so, I guess," replied the farmer, laughingly. "What say you, Benjamin? We want you to ride this horse over to neighbor Dighton's to get a shoe put on; and the gentleman appears to have some doubts whether you can manage him, seeing he has some spirit—what do you think about it, sir?"

"Why, I guess I'll agree to find neck as long as the gentleman will find horse," said the boy smartly.

“Well, then, lead him with the wagon into the yard; strip him of the harness; take our bridle, and ride across the pasture to the shop; tell Mr. Dighton to put on a new shoe, and charge it to me, as we have deal; though you may ask the price, that the gentleman may hand it to me if he wants

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