THE LIBRARY 
 
 OF 
 
 THE UNIVERSITY 
 OF CALIFORNIA 
 
 LOS ANGELES
 
 /
 
 THE SCHOOL COMMITTEE.
 
 THE 
 
 WINTER SCHOOL; 
 
 on. 
 
 THE BOYS' CAMPAIGN AGAINST ONE OF THEIR 
 WORST ENEMIES. 
 
 BY MRS. H. E. BROWN. 
 
 PUBLISHED BY THE 
 
 AMERICAN TRACT SOCIETY, 
 28 COKNIIILL, BOSTON.
 
 Entered, according to Act ' Congress, in the year 1862, 
 
 BY THK AMfCIUi'AX TRACT SOCIKTY, 
 In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of Massachusetts.
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER PAOB 
 
 I. A JOKE AT WHOSE EXPENSE? .... 5 
 
 II. THE NEW SCHOOL HOUSE 14 
 
 III. THE COMMITTEE MEETING ....... 20 
 
 IV. THE GRAND CONDITION 27 
 
 V. A GREAT SURPRISE 31 
 
 VI. CATCHING A SUNBEAM 37 
 
 VII. FIRST FRUITS 44 
 
 V11I. THE ANTI-TOBACCO SOCIETY 51 
 
 IX. REV. MR. OSBORNE'S TEA TABLE ... 58 
 
 X. FARMER CLARK'S KITCHEN 66 
 
 XI. WELL DONE 72 
 
 XII. THE HISTORY OF A WEED 78 
 
 XIII. A TIMELY SCRUBBING 84 
 
 XIV. ANOTHER FLURRY 96 
 
 XV. A THREEFOLD EVIL 107 
 
 XVI. DIPPING 114 
 
 XVII. A PEEP INTO A MINISTER'S STUDY . . 124 
 
 XVIII. A DANGEROUS LUXURY 140 
 
 XIX. AN OUT-DOOR SERMON 147 
 
 XX. HOW TO MAKE MONEY 159 
 
 XXI. THE WORKING LEAVEN 166 
 
 XXII. A FOE TO TRUE MANHOOD 171 
 
 XXIII. CHARLIE MERRILL 176 
 
 XXIV. SHOEMAKER'S FINDINGS 185 
 
 XXV. A FAREWELL DISCOURSE 192 
 
 XXVI. WHAT BECAME OF THEM 199 
 
 ;7'
 
 THE WINTEK SCHOOL. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 A JOKE AT WHOSE EXPENSE? 
 
 "Jnvi LAWRENCE, what does make you 
 smoke so much? Before I'd be seen going 
 to school every day with a long-nine in my 
 mouth ! " Thus spoke Tristram Gilmore, a 
 noble-looking boy of fifteen, as, with rapid 
 strides over the crispy snow, he overtook a 
 young schoolmate. 
 
 " And who are you, I'd like to know ?" gruff- 
 ly responded Jim, as he turned lazily round 
 to face his companion, at the same moment 
 lifting his cigar from his lips, and ejecting 
 the poisoned saliva with the air and aptitude 
 of an accomplished smoker. 
 
 "I'm myself, and nobody else," said Tris- 
 tram, with energy; "and I'm the boy that 
 never will dirty my lips with tobacco ; no, 
 not if I live to be a hundred years old ! * and 
 
 (5)
 
 6 THE WINTER SCHOOL. 
 
 he straightened himself up with the conscious 
 spirit of a young nobleman. 
 
 "May be," replied Jim; "we'll see when 
 you come to be a man. You haven't found 
 out what's good yet." 
 
 " Ha, ha, ha ! If that isn't rich ! " shouted 
 the first speaker, with a broad, hearty laugh. 
 " When I'm a man ! How long have you 
 been one, I should like to know ? " 
 
 No wonder he asked the question. No 
 wonder he laughed. Any body would have 
 laughed that could have seen the two boys 
 as they walked together over the frozen foot- 
 path that morning. 
 
 A splendid-looking fellow was Tristram 
 Gilmore. His fine, large, well-developed head 
 bore testimony to a breadth of intellect and 
 a superiority of organization not often met 
 with. One had but to look at his fair, ample 
 forehead, and into his clear blue eye, to know 
 that he had a frank, kindly disposition, and a 
 noble, generous heart. His figure was finely 
 formed, tall and broad for one of his years, 
 indicating a strength of constitution and ro- 
 bust health which promised well as the foun- 
 dation and beginning of his life's career. His 
 step was firm, and his whole carriage bold 
 and intrepid. He always looked you straight
 
 A JOKE AT WHOSE EXPENSE? 7 
 
 in the eye when you spoke to him. And, 
 boys, do you know what that means ? It 
 means just this. When a boy looks up with 
 a clear, unabashed, modest countenance into 
 the face of the person who is talking with 
 him, you may know that he is a good boy, 
 honest and upright in his words and actions, 
 that he carries about with him a conscience 
 void of offense. He needs no concealment, 
 and fears no inquisition. But if he stands 
 with eyes downcast, or wandering restlessly 
 about from side to side, as if he did not dare 
 to look or be looked at, then you may be sure 
 there is something wrong about him. He is 
 not a boy to be believed, trusted, relied on. 
 But one might have known, at a glance, that 
 Tristram Gilmore was not one of these. His 
 whole bearing indicated integrity, high-mind- 
 edness, and resolution. He was not the youth 
 to do a mean act, neither one that was to be 
 overcome by difficulties. With him, to know 
 what was right was to will it, and to will was 
 to do. Squire Gilmore and his amiable wife 
 might well be proud of such a son. 
 
 Jim Lawrence was a perfect contrast with 
 him in every point a puny, pale, craven- 
 looking lad, shamefaced and listless. He was 
 very nearly of the same age as Tristram, and
 
 8 THE WINTER SCHOOL. 
 
 yet so inferior in mind, body, character, and 
 attainments, that one might well believe he 
 was many years younger. But alas ! a broader 
 gulf than months and years separated them. 
 A mean, selfish spirit, a cunning, malicious 
 disposition, vicious propensities indulged with- 
 out restraint, had made this boy an early vic- 
 tim of bodily disease, mental inactivity, and 
 moral weakness. Were his parents blind to 
 their son's delinquencies and faults, or did 
 they wink at them, because he was their first- 
 born? Did they believe that a boy must 
 " sow his wild oats " of sin, that he might reap 
 a rich harvest of manly virtues, or did they 
 shrink, from sheer inefficiency, from a contest 
 with his headstrong will and evil propensi- 
 ties ? However this might be, he was certain- 
 ly a boy unloved and un desired as a compan- 
 ion except by those of kindred disposition, a 
 torment to his little brothers, who, strange 
 to say, were quite unlike himself, a care and 
 anxiety at home, a vexation and annoyance 
 in school, and a nuisance in the neighborhood. 
 You may wonder, little reader, that so bad 
 a boy should come to school at all. Didn't 
 he play truant sometimes ? Yes ; but this 
 winter there is an attraction, we scarcely 
 know what, that keeps him in his place. For
 
 A JOKE AT WHOSE EXPENSE? 
 
 the first time in his life he is regular and 
 punctual in his attendance. We may hope 
 that whatever this attraction may be, it may 
 prove a power for good to the poor, miserable, 
 self-destroyed boy. 
 
 " But honestly, Jim, do you really like the 
 taste of that nasty thing?" asked Sidifey 
 Barnes, who had come up just in time to hear 
 his remark to Tristram, and to join in the 
 hearty laugh with which it had been received. 
 
 " Of course. What do you suppose I smoke 
 for, if I don't like it ? I don't do things I dis- 
 like, I tell you," sharply responded Jim. 
 
 " Oh, I thought you did it to look big to 
 make yourself a man? said Sidney, laughing 
 and stretching himself up. " Better take care, 
 Jim, or you will be like the frog in the fable." 
 
 " Who was he, Sid ? " asked a thick, coarse 
 voice at his elbow. It was poor Luther Lew- 
 is, the imbecile, the half idiot, the forlornest 
 of all forlorn creatures in the town of Camp- 
 field. Almost grown to man's estate, he knew 
 little more than a child of five or six. He 
 always attended the winter school, however, 
 with the punctuality of the most devoted stu- 
 dent, and being good natured and inoflensiA'e, 
 was tolerated by teacher and scholars. All 
 seemed to pity his misfortune, and none could
 
 10 THE WINTER SCHOOL. 
 
 refuse to do him a kindness, or to speak ten- 
 derly to him, though occasionally the mischief 
 of some fun-loving spirit would perpetrate a 
 harmless joke at the poor lad's expense. Lu- 
 ther had come up with the group of boys now 
 collecting around the school-house door, just 
 in- time to hear the latter part of Sidney's 
 speech. Now, Jim Lawrence was a very par- 
 ticular friend of his, he not being able, in 
 his simplicity, to discriminate very keenly be- 
 tween good and evil in character, furnish- 
 ing him with all the tobacco he wanted, in 
 return for the squirrels and woodchucks Lu- 
 ther trapped in the woods, and the birds' nests 
 he stole from the orchards. No wonder he 
 wanted to know who or what his champion 
 was going to be like, or how frogs could have 
 any thing to do with boys. 
 
 " Why, Luther," replied Sidney, with a 
 patronizing air and mock seriousness of tone, 
 " haven't you read in your Geography about 
 the wonderful frog that tried to be as big as 
 an ox? You see he was conceited and am- 
 bitious, and so he swelled himself out, and 
 swelled, and swelled till he " 
 
 " Busted ! " supplied a shrill voice in the 
 crowd. And then there was a perfect uproar 
 of laughter, and some ill-mannered fingers
 
 A JOKE AT WHOSE EXPENSE? 11 
 
 pointed at Jim. Luther's countenance, not 
 ordinarily very brilliant in its expression, put 
 on a piteously perplexed look, while he silent- 
 ly glanced from one to another around the 
 group as if to fathom what it all meant ; and 
 then he too laughed as uproariously as the 
 rest. 
 
 Jim's face grew spotted with anger. " You 
 just mind your own business, you preaching 
 fools," he cried, in a hoarse voice. " Go home, 
 and sit in your mammy's lap, and suck your 
 thumbs and eat your pap, and " 
 
 There is no knowing what further the boy 
 might have perpetrated in his wild indigna- 
 tion, but at this involuntary rhyme there was 
 such an outburst of shouts and merriment 
 that the poor fellow was completely over- 
 whelmed. 
 
 " Hurrah ! Jim Lawrence is a poet / did you 
 know it ? " cried one. 
 
 " If we could do as well as he, how very 
 grandeous we should be ! " sung another. 
 
 "Jim Lawrence the brave*, Jim Lawrence 
 
 the wise, 
 He's out, and his mother don't know it ; 
 
 A cigar in his mouth and smoke in his eyes, 
 Three cheers for Jim Lawrence, boys 
 go it,"
 
 12 THE WINTER SCHOOL. 
 
 was the more elaborate impromptu of SicU 
 ney, and volley after volley of fun and wit 
 succeeded, with the most vociferous hurrahs 
 and shouts. 
 
 In the midst of the tumult, Miss More, the 
 young teacher, came up the path. At sight 
 of her, Jim threw away his cigar, Luther's face 
 yielded its befogged expression, for there was 
 a charm in her bright eye which seemed to 
 throw light and intelligence into his, and the 
 boys parted to let her pass. 
 
 "Good morning, boys," said she, with a 
 smile ; " you seem merry to-day. This bracing 
 air makes you bright and happy." 
 
 " Jim Lawrence has turned poet; that's what 
 made us laugh so," said little Willie Osborne. 
 " You ought to set him to writing verses, Miss 
 More." 
 
 "An ode to cigars!" shouted Sidney. 
 
 " A dirge for the ' busted ' frog," hesitating- 
 ly suggested Tristram, in a low voice. 
 
 Jim looked furious with passion. Miss More 
 saw by a rapid glance that the mirth was 
 growing pointed and unpleasant to some of 
 the party, and ever striving to preserve har- 
 mony and good feeling in her little flock, she 
 tick no notice of the remarks, but simply say-
 
 A JOKE AT WHOSE EXPENSE." 13 
 
 ing, " It is time for school to commence, boys," 
 she entered the building. 
 
 As she passes in we perceive that she is a 
 slight-built, frail-looking specimen of young 
 womanhood. Wherein lies her capability for 
 controlling from day to day such a turbulent 
 representation of " Young America " ?
 
 14 THE WINTER SCHOOL. 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 THE NEW SCHOOL HOUSE. 
 
 Ko common country school house was that 
 into which Miss More entered, with a noisy 
 troop of boys at her heels, on that frosty Jan- 
 uary morning. It would by no means answer 
 to the oft-repeated descriptions of the dilapi- 
 dated, much abused, too freely ventilated 
 school houses of rural districts. Xo, indeed ; 
 it was new, whole, clean, tidy. The bright 
 red bricks and white curtained windows made 
 it outwardly a conspicuous and much admired 
 object, standing quite alone as it did on the 
 edge of the salt meadow, a few rods in from 
 the public road. The villagers gazed upon it 
 as they walked past, with a touch of pride at 
 its neat architecture. The farmers, as they 
 rode to church in their open wagons from the 
 far districts of the wide-spread township, felt 
 a little twinge of envy at the " Corner folks." 
 The stage driver, as he drove his weary horses 
 up to the door of the village tavern, to drop 
 the mail bag, and take a hasty refreshment 
 for man and beast, was not loth to point out
 
 THE NEW SCHOOL HOUSE. 15 
 
 the new edifice to his passengers as the " very 
 handsomest school 'us in all Maine." 
 
 In summer it might possibly have awakened 
 a feeling of discomfort, in some sensitive na- 
 tures, by its bare, unprotected seeming, the 
 hot sun glaring down upon the receptive 
 brick, and not a tree to nestle over it with 
 sheltering, cooling verdure. But no matter 
 for that now. The school house had but 
 just been finished ; it was opened for the first 
 time for a winter school, and when summer 
 came it would be time enough to complain, 
 if it were found to be like the fiery furnace 
 of the Persian king, heated seven times hot- 
 ter than ordinary. Then it is to be hoped 
 some kindly soul will take pity on its friend- 
 less condition, and, with stalwart arms, will 
 bring, from the near woods, maples and elms 
 and oaks to plant around it, for the benefit of 
 the future, if not of the present generation. 
 But now we are quite satisfied, for we need all 
 the heat which the red bricks can absorb from 
 the wintry sun, and that, too, which a well- 
 filled stove can supply, and every bit of the 
 bright sunlight that streams in through the 
 windows, to keep us from congealing during 
 this long, cold, tedious, down-east winter. 
 
 Inwardly, the " new " school house, as it
 
 16 THE WINTER SCHOOL. 
 
 was uniformly called, was a pleasant and at- 
 tractive place, not only because it was so well 
 warmed that every one forgot the icy condi- 
 tion of nature outside, but because it was so 
 neat and pleasant in all its appointments. 
 Xo inky, whittled desks were there ; no rickety 
 chairs, rusty, smoking stove, broken windows, 
 or torn curtains, disgraced the apartment. 
 The forms and seats were painted white, and 
 were as inviting to young intellects as hard 
 boards and straight backs could possibly 
 be. The walls were hung with blackboards 
 and maps a very unusual thing for those 
 days, and for that secluded part of the world, 
 but which added much to the pleasant, cozy 
 appearance. The teacher's desk, elevated 
 sufficiently from the floor to give her op- 
 portunity to look down upon her pupils, and 
 into their occupations, stood in a little alcove 
 between the two doors of entrance. In front 
 of the desk were a small table and a comfort- 
 able arm chair for the teacher's special accom- 
 modation during recitations, and on either 
 side of the area were the low benches for the 
 use of the abecedarians of the institution. 
 
 From the windows on the three sides of 
 this pleasant room we may look out across 
 the meadow, and over the smooth, sandy beach,
 
 THE NEW SCHOOL HOUSE. 17 
 
 upon the wide expanse of the deep-blue sea. 
 Just here the great Atlantic rolls his heavy 
 surf upon the fine, hard, beaten sand ; a little 
 further on, it breaks with fearful roar, scatter- 
 ing its cold, white foam over a projecting 
 ledge of rocks. Now it is placid as an inland 
 lake, clear and blue as the heavens above, in- 
 nocent and harmless in its bearing as the 
 white sails that gracefully cleave its calm sur- 
 face; and anon, tossing in furious commo- 
 tion, its angry billows, with their foaming 
 crests, look like some floundering monster, 
 roaring for its prey. A grand, imposing, sug- 
 gestive sight is that vast, heaving ocean on 
 these wintry days. It is a constant com- 
 panion, a hearty old friend, affluent in its store 
 of thrilling, speechless tales of beauty, sub- 
 limity, and terror. 
 
 Every morning we will not speak of the 
 evening this said school room was as guiltless 
 of dust, papers, nutshells, and apple cores, as 
 the industrious, smart little sweeper, Nannie 
 Cook, could make it. Nannie and her brother 
 toe were the children of a poor widow who 
 lived in the district, and were supplied by the 
 families of the neighborhood with clothing and 
 books for taking care of the room. Faithfully 
 did they perform their part of the contract. 
 2
 
 18 THE wj;. if.. 
 
 Eacn morning, just as the sun was seen com- 
 ing up from the blue Atlantic, casting his 
 earliest rays into the eastern windows of the 
 school house, Joe was on hand with his key 
 and ax, splitting the kindlings and bringing 
 in the round hickory logs. And when the 
 fire was well going and the wood box duly 
 replenished, Xannie appeared with her broom 
 and duster, to put every thing into nice work- 
 ing order. 
 
 Not the least charm of the place was the 
 rosy-faced, mild-voiced young teacher. She 
 had fairly won her way into the hearts of all, 
 so that to every one, from the infantile lisper of 
 her a-b-abs, up to the young men and maidens 
 who sat in the highest seats and studied from 
 ponderous volumes, her presence was always 
 welcome. Never a child begged to stay at 
 home while Miss More was the "mist: 
 Only illness or an unwonted tempest could 
 keep the little ones from their accustomed 
 places. The child that happened to overtake 
 her and walk to school by her side was the 
 hero of the day, and there was invariably a 
 strife among the little ones that went "up 
 street," when school was done, as to who 
 should walk next to her and carry her copy 
 books and pens.
 
 THE NEW SCHOOL HOUSE. 19 
 
 To the older pupils Miss More was the 
 beau ideal and sum total of all excellences. 
 They respected, admired, and loved her. And 
 the very best evidence of their attachment 
 was their unreserved and un deviating compli- 
 ance with her wishes and submission to her 
 rule.
 
 20 THE WINTER SCHOOL. 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 THE COMMITTEE MEETING. 
 
 How came Miss More, "the little, young 
 thing," as she was familiarly styled by some 
 of her mother-patrons, to have charge of a 
 winter district school ? This is usually con- 
 sidered work for a man. By what right or 
 reason had she stepped into the sphere of the 
 stronger sex ? 
 
 The district, as we have already remarked 
 of the school house, was a new one. It was 
 situated in the very center of the town, hav- 
 ing been set off from the four adjoining dis- 
 tricts because their circuit was inconveniently 
 large. The site for the building had been 
 selected very near the village corner, on the 
 one public street, and the school would, of 
 course, be supplied by the families of the vil- 
 lage the aristocracy, we may say, of this 
 rural community. The two ministers, the two 
 doctors, the lawyer, the postmaster, the tailor, 
 the grocers, and the innkeeper were here to be 
 represented by numerous sons and daughters, 
 and it was allowed to be the worst-trained
 
 THE COMMITTEE MEETING. 21 
 
 and hardest collection of children in all 
 Campfield. 
 
 Very animated was the discussion, at the 
 first meeting of the newly-constituted com- 
 mittee, with regard to the prospects of the 
 school, and the selection of a teacher. 
 
 "We've got the new district and the new 
 house, and have got to git up a school, I 
 s'pose," says Deacon Gooch, "but I don' know 
 who we're goin' to git to manage 'em. They'll 
 likely tear the eyes out of any common man, 
 and the coat off his back. Jest reckon, now 
 there's a raal army of young scamps round 
 here." 
 
 His own boy Bill was, no doubt, in his 
 mind's eye, though he made no personal al- 
 lusions. 
 
 " Oh, well, they are not all so bad, deacon," 
 said Squire Gilmore. " There are many good 
 children to offset the bad, and quite a number 
 of young ladies, too, who wish to enter the 
 school. Their influence will, no doubt, be 
 highly beneficial." 
 
 " I motion we get Miss More, if we can, her 
 that kept the school up on the hill last sum- 
 mer. My Anne thinks there's nobody on 
 earth like her," said Barnes, the innkeeper, a 
 hearty, good-natured man. " I never saw the
 
 '2 THE WINTER SCHOOL. 
 
 child cry so hard in all her life as she did 
 when that school was done ; and she wouldn't 
 be pacified, no way, till I told her I'd propose 
 for Miss More this winter. She seemed to 
 have a wonderful faculty for keeping school." 
 
 " Whew ! a woman for a winter school ! 
 "Well, I guess we should see times!" ex- 
 claimed Little, the storekeeper, with mingled 
 surprise and contempt at such a suggestion. 
 He wasn't a woman's-rights man not he. 
 " There's no woman can tackle my Josh, I'll 
 be bound not even his own mother." 
 
 " Miss More, of all womankind ! " added 
 Mr. Lawrence, with kindred disdain. " Why, 
 there are half a dozen of these Corner lads, 
 at least, who could just lift the wee thing in 
 their hands and toss her out of the window. 
 If you're goin' to get a woman, do get some- 
 body with some size to 'em." 
 
 "It is not always personal appearance that 
 commands respect, brother Lawrence," grave- 
 ly remarked Squire Gilmore. "Moral qualities 
 are often far more imposing." 
 
 "Them she's got, to my sartain knowledge," 
 responded Mr. Tuttle, a good, sensible farmer, 
 from the outskirts of the district. " I never 
 yet seed any one jest so dignified and perlite, 
 with such a little bit of a frame to stand on.
 
 THE COMMITTEE MEETING. 23 
 
 But she's got a way with her that makes the 
 youngsters mind, now I tell ye, and makes the 
 old ones look up to her tew. I know my dar- 
 ters never went to school where they larned 
 so much, manners included, as they did to 
 hern last summer on the hill. They'd give 
 all their old shoes to have her back here 
 agin." 
 
 " Well, now, I want to know," asked Dea- 
 con Gooch, "what you're a-goin' to do with 
 that boy of Hill's, and Sam Perkins, and that 
 half fool, Luther Lewis, and Tom Hatch, and 
 the rest of them great fellers, when they put 
 their heads together for mischief. And there's 
 my boy, too, I might as well own up, he isn't 
 slow when there's any fun goin' on. I guess 
 there'll be breakers when you git them all 
 cuttin' up their tantrums. It'll take more 
 than that teenty-taunty creater to make 'em 
 behave. How is she a-goin' to thrash them 
 great heavy fellers? I tellye, she won't stay 
 in the place three days. You'll have to git a 
 good stout man, and give him a fresh cow- 
 hide every week, if you're a-goin' to have 
 school here." 
 
 "You judge the boys too harshly, I fear," 
 replied Squire Gilmore. "I think there is not 
 one of them but would respect a woman, and
 
 24 THE WINTER SCHOOL. 
 
 a lady, like Miss More. I know they always 
 ' try the master,' as they call it, to see if he is 
 one whom they can respect and must obey. 
 But I hardly think there would be any at- 
 tempt of that sort with her." 
 
 " I like the idea, gentlemen," spoke the ReVc 
 JMr. Osborne, who had been invited to the 
 meeting, and had thus far listened in silence 
 to the discussion, "I like the idea of inviting 
 a lady to take the charge of our new school. 
 The novelty of the thing, it having been 
 your custom previously to have a gentleman 
 teacher for your winter schools, the novel- 
 ty of the thing, I say, would attract. I would 
 suggest, also, as gentlemen I would rather 
 say male teachers are prone to be abrupt in 
 their manners, and rough and severe in their 
 treatment of children, not having naturally a 
 tender sympathy with childhood, that the ex- 
 periment of employing a lady will very prob- 
 ably succeed, for gne term at least. And as 
 to the lady in question, it is my opinion that 
 a better appointment could not be made. I 
 am well acquainted with Miss More, and with 
 her very worthy and respectable family. I 
 know her to be a young person of talents and 
 good education, of integrity and sound prin- 
 cipje. Her amiable disposition and refine-
 
 THE COMMITTEE MEETING. 25 
 
 ment of manners will be very much in her 
 favor in the management of the school, and I 
 believe will have a subduing and mollifying 
 effect upon the boisterous spirits of the rude 
 and ill-trained children, to whom allusion has 
 been made. Moreover, she is a person of 
 devoted piety, and will discharge her duties 
 in the fear of the Lord ; and permit me to say 
 gentlemen, that I consider this qualification 
 of the highest moment the highest moment. 
 For a person, gentlemen, who has not the fear 
 of God before his eyes and in his heart, is not, 
 in my estimation, a safe person with whom to 
 intrust any enterprise, and especially the im- 
 portant work of educating our children." 
 
 Upon the delivery of this address, to which 
 of course, as a matter of courtesy, all assented, 
 the Rev. Mr. Osborne withdrew, and the vote 
 was immediately taken. It was almost unan- 
 imous in favor of Miss More, although several 
 had still their misgivings with regard to the 
 result. 
 
 " We can try her," said Deacon Gooch, with 
 an air of submission. " 'Tisn't at all likely 
 she'll accept, though." 
 
 "Not a bit," rejoined Little. "If she's got 
 a thimbleful of prudence I'm sure she won't. 
 She'll be afeard to undertake such a job."
 
 26 THE WIXTEE SCHOOL. 
 
 " She don' know the fellers she'll havf to 
 deal with, ye see, till she tries 'em," said Mr. 
 Lawrence. " She can come, if she likes ; but 
 you'd better believe she'll be glad enough to 
 quit. If she gits hold of them big boys once, 
 she'll drop 'em like a hot potatur." 
 
 " I believe, brother Lawrence," said Squire 
 Gilmore, in his bland, persuasive tones, 
 (these gentlemen were brothers in the church, 
 and Squire Gilmore always chose to use this 
 Christian and affectionate style of address, 
 especially when there was need of concilia- 
 tion,) "I have faith to believe, brother 
 Lawrence, that all will soon come out right, 
 and that our new school will be a grand suc- 
 cess the pride of our town, as the school 
 building itself is. I think Miss More has 
 qualities of intellect ami heart, and of out- 
 ward manner, which will secure the respect 
 and affection of her pupils, and obedience will 
 then be sure to follow. Let us not prophesy 
 evil. We will quietly wait her answer, and 
 if she accepts our offer, we will suspend our 
 judgment until time shall prove her capa- 
 bilities."
 
 THE GRAND CONDITION. 27 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 THE GRAND CONDITION. 
 
 SQUIRE GILMORE, in virtue of his superior 
 education among his towns-people, and of his 
 position in society, being secretary of the 
 committee, wrote the invitation, and in due 
 time Mr. Sheffield, the Campfield postmaster, 
 handed him a letter. 
 
 " An answer to your call, squire," said he. 
 " We'll all be anxious to hear what it is." 
 
 The committee were at once summoned to 
 hear this important communication. 
 
 B , Nov. 15, 185-. 
 
 H. T. GILMORE, ESQ. 
 
 Dear Sir: Yours of the 10th instant was 
 promptly received. 
 
 I thank you for the tribute of esteem you 
 have rendered me, in the offer which I have 
 received. 
 
 I will accept the situation with pleasure, on 
 one condition that you will allow me to be 
 untrammeled in my method of instruction 
 and government. I do not approve of cor-
 
 28 THE WIXTEK SCHOOL. 
 
 poral punishment, and could not, on any con- 
 sideration, undertake to administer it. Let 
 me have a fair understanding on this point. 
 
 Your terms are satisfactory. Of the two 
 boarding places you mention, I should prefer 
 the family of Rev. Mr. Wade. 
 
 Respectfully yours, 
 
 A. B. MORE. 
 
 " She's wise enough to be a little bit cau- 
 tious," says Mr. Lawrence, as the squire 
 folded the letter. " She knows well enough 
 she couldn't tackle them great boys." 
 
 "You see she ain't fit for the place. She 
 can't whip 'em ; but they'll never git along 
 without it, squire, in the world. You know 
 they won't," added Deacon Gooch, as positive 
 as ever. ""Why, did ye ever see a child that 
 could git on without a beatin' ? You know 
 what the Bible says on that pint 'Spare 
 'the rod and spile the child.'" 
 
 " She never can git along so now, don't 
 you see she can't, Squire Gilmore ? " said Mr. 
 Little, the father of the unruly Josh. " Let 
 alone her not whipping 'em, she just goes and 
 tells 'em she shan't, to start with. Why, if 
 the boys gits hold of that, they'll jist ride right 
 over her rough shod."
 
 THE GEAND CONDITION. 29 
 
 " She would be quite as badly off, in my 
 estimation," replied the squire, "if she did 
 not tell them of her determination, for she is 
 certainly physically incapable, as you sug- 
 gested at our first meeting, of flogging boys 
 larger and stronger than herself. It is my 
 opinion, however, still, that moral suasion, in 
 her case, will be altogether sufficient. I am 
 not prepared to say that corporal punishment 
 should be altogether banished from our school 
 system, but I think Miss More displays a 
 proper judgment in declining it for herself. 
 Perhaps, upon the whole, it would be advisa- 
 ble, at the first, not to inform the boys of the 
 fact, lest some malicious spirit should take ad- 
 vantage of it to disturb and annoy her." 
 
 "Let her come, let her come," cried Mr. 
 Tuttle, rubbing his hands and ejecting his 
 words in the most vehement manner. "And 
 I say, let her have her own way tew. Let's 
 see how she'll manage. I warrant ye 'twill 
 be a great speritual victory. If she conquers 
 them boys with a word and a look, if they're 
 as bad as these gentlemen say, why, it'll be 
 one of the nine wonders of the world a 
 spectacle to be looked at. Now try it. For 
 my part, I don- know nothin' about boys, 
 mine are all darters, only folks says' they're
 
 30 THE WIXTEK SCHOOL. 
 
 harder to manage. And I don' know nothin' 
 about these 'Corner boys' ye tell about, I 
 live so fur off; but I think a sight of Miss 
 More, and I say, try her." 
 
 So Squire Gilmore was authorized to accept 
 Miss More on her own conditions, but advised 
 to suggest to her the propriety of keeping 
 her plan of operations a secret from the boys. 
 TTith a firm conviction of the security of her 
 position and a natural ingenuousness of char- 
 acter, she replied that she would never hold 
 a rod over the head of her pupils which she 
 did not mean to use, that she felt much safer 
 in trusting to their honor than to their fear, 
 and that if she found boys in her school that 
 she could not subdue, she would send them 
 to their parents for the needed chastisement. 
 
 So the young lady, as they say women al- 
 ways do, had her own way ; and though the 
 boys of Campfield Corner had the reputation 
 of being the worst in town, though the com- 
 mittee were critical, and the parents exacting, 
 she complacently undertook the difficult task.
 
 A GREAT SURPRISE. 31 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 A GREAT SURPRISE. 
 
 AT the time appointed the young teacher 
 entered upon her duties, recognizing no diffi 
 culty or danger in her path, but walking right 
 onward, trusting in the Lord. She threw 
 herself at once upon the self-respect and 
 honor of her pupils. 
 
 "I do not consider you as children," she 
 remarked to the older classes on the opening 
 day of the session, " but as young ladies and 
 gentlemen, and you will behave, of course, as 
 such. Your example will constitute the pub- 
 lic opinion of the school. If you are atten- 
 tive and diligent, regardful of my wishes, the 
 younger classes will prove themselves also 
 docile and tractable. This will make my 
 work easy and delightful, and your daily 
 occupations a pleasure. Make my wish your 
 law, and we shall have no hinderance to the 
 prosecution of our several duties. You will 
 learn rapidly, and I shall be greatly aided in 
 imparting instruction." 
 
 Such doctrine was new in the schools of
 
 32 THE WINTER SCHOOL. 
 
 Campfield, where the young people had been 
 used to having inkstands thrown at their 
 heads and birches broken over their shoulders. 
 They opened their eyes in wonder, and cast 
 significant glances at one another. But it 
 proved itself wholesome doctrine, for the pu- 
 pils instantly put themselves upon their good 
 behavior, and seemed to vie with one another 
 in punctuality, studiousness, and correctness 
 of deportment ; they seemed solicitous to at- 
 test their right to the title of gentleman and 
 lady. 
 
 " Xobody ever called us gentlemen before," 
 said Sidney Barnes, at recess. " Old Burns 
 always called us young rascals or fools. I 
 like to be treated as if I was somebody, and 
 I mean that she shall see I am." 
 
 " We couldn't find it in our hearts, I'm 
 sure," said Tristram Gilmore, " to trouble her, 
 she seems so pleasant and good natured. I 
 do hope the boys will behave themselves." 
 
 " There's no danger of the girls," said Bes- 
 sie Simonson. " We know what's what, and 
 we like her too well, too, not to please her. 
 I shall do my part." Bessie was the oldest 
 young lady in the school, and well she knew 
 that all eyes, on the girh* side of the house 
 at least, would be fixed on her. There's no
 
 A GEEAT SURPEISE. 33 
 
 danger of her, reader. She is a good girl, 
 with gentle, winning manners. She is a fa- 
 vorite in her own class, and the little ones 
 look up to her with a feeling of admiration 
 and real devotion. She always has a bevy of 
 them about her at recess, clinging to her 
 arms, petting her long black curls, or fondling 
 the soft white hand. There's no danger but 
 she will lead off her side of the house in the 
 right direction. 
 
 "It will only be a pleasure," she added, 
 " to do all she wants us to." 
 
 " She never wants us to do any thing we 
 can't do," said Rebecca Gilmore, a cousin of 
 Tristram's. We will just linger to say that 
 Rebecca was the youngest of seven daugh- 
 ters, and was supposed to have profited by 
 the wisdom, and experience, and dictation of 
 all her older sisters. So you will not be sur- 
 prised to learn that this young lady of six- 
 teen, though rather prim and precise in her 
 manners, was ever correct in her school de- 
 meanor. 
 
 " We've been to school to Miss More," she 
 continued, " all summer, and we know her 
 well. She'll never require any thing hard." 
 
 " Why, don't she never give you hard les- 
 sons ? " asked little Harry Lawrence. 
 3
 
 34 THE WINTER SCHOOL. 
 
 "Why, yes, Harry; but when the lessons 
 look hard, we always try the harder, you 
 know, and that makes them grow easy," re- 
 plied Rebecca. 
 
 " Well, now, supposing a fellow can't do a 
 sum, and there's awful hard ones in my 
 book, what'll she do then ? " 
 
 " Oh, she'll explain them to you, Harry, and 
 make them so clear, you can't help under- 
 standing them; and then you'll get along 
 finely." 
 
 " That wasn't the way old Burns did," re- 
 joined Sidney. "He beat it in through our 
 brains or our knuckles, or else it never got in." 
 
 Miss More not only appealed to a sense of 
 honor in her pupils, and to their affection, 
 which she sought to win with every gentle 
 and familiar way, there was one source of 
 help upon which she relied over and above 
 all these. She believed that no labor could 
 succeed without the favor and smile of God, 
 and to him she looked and upon him she 
 leaned with humble, earnest, child-like confi- 
 dence. "Except the Lord build the house^ 
 they labor in vain that build it," she was ac- 
 customed to say. She prayed for heavenly 
 wisdom for herself, that she might be " apt to 
 teach, gentle, and patient." For her pupils
 
 A GKEAT SURPRISE. 85 
 
 she besought docility of spirit, amiableness of 
 temper, vivacity of intellect. And she trusted 
 in Him who has proclaimed himself the hearer 
 and answerer of prayer, that he would crown 
 her efforts with success. 
 
 She improved her opportunity also to exert 
 a religious influence upon the youthful minds 
 clustering around her, for their present and 
 daily benefit, but no less for their future and 
 enduring good. She gave them daily reli- 
 gious instruction, plied them with the purest 
 motives, wrought with their consciences, edu- 
 cated their understandings. Every morning 
 she read and briefly enforced some practical 
 portion of the Holy Word, and prayed for the 
 presence and aid of God's Spirit in their daily 
 duties. Each evening, before the school was 
 closed, she reserved a half hour for some 
 moral or religious lesson. Sometimes it was 
 a Bible narrative, explained and applied. At 
 other times she selected some choice, attrac- 
 tive story. Then, again, it would be a familiar 
 talk on some subject which she saw to be ap- 
 propriate to their needs. She watched her 
 pupils, their conduct in and out of school, 
 their temper toward each other, and treasured 
 up each striking incident as a text for future 
 instruction.
 
 36 THE WINTER SCHOOL. 
 
 So the young teacher, who had excited so 
 many fears among the well-wishing country 
 people, proved satisfactorily that a gentle 
 spirit in a leader, and self-go vernment among 
 the led, will bring about most happy and suc- 
 cessful results. For never was there a school 
 burdened with fewer rules and restrictions, 
 controlled by a milder discipline, or annoyed 
 by less misdemeanor, than this. 
 
 Squire Gilmore was gratified. Good Mr. 
 Tuttle exulted. Deacon Gooch said he would 
 withhold his judgment till the end of the term. 
 The other opponents became quiet. "A new 
 broom," they said, " sweeps clean." Still no 
 one threw any impediment in her way, and 
 things went on smoothly and tranquilly.
 
 CATCHING A SUNBEAM. 37 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 CATCHING A SUNBEAM. 
 
 BY one of the southern windows in this 
 pleasant school room sat Anna Little, a sis- 
 ter of the indomitable Josh, who had never 
 yet been subdued by woman. Reader, lend 
 your ear a moment. If we might dare to 
 reveal a secret, we should say, that since the 
 boy had been under Miss More's tutelage, he 
 had been brought to the very verge of such a 
 catastrophe. But Anna was not at all like 
 her brother. She was always submissive 
 " a good scholar," by the consent of all. If 
 you just catch a glance of her little dumpy 
 figure, you may take her to be a woman of 
 thirty; but when you look right into her fair, 
 handsome face, you will forget all that, in the 
 fascination of her sweet blue eyes and rosy 
 cheeks. But externals aside, they are of little 
 consequence. Anna was a brilliant scholar. 
 At the age of sixteen, with only the advan- 
 tages of country schools, she could have put 
 to shame many an older girl in our best insti-
 
 38 THE WINTER SCHOOL. 
 
 tutions. She was pious, too, and that is worth 
 more than any thing else. 
 
 There she sits this morning, studying her 
 lesson in Natural Philosophy, with a prism, 
 which she has brought for experiments in the 
 class, lying on ^he desk before her. The cur- 
 tain is looped back from the window, out of 
 which she casts occasional admiring glances 
 at the unbroken expanse of ice-sheeted snow, 
 glistening in the sunlight of this beautiful 
 morning. All is quiet, for it is the silent 
 study-hour. 
 
 But the sun outside is steadily pressing on 
 to the meridian, and presently a ray slanting 
 in at her window falls upon the little prism, 
 when, as by magic, a rainbow-hued, quiver- 
 ing, beautiful spectrum shines on the oppo- 
 site wall. 
 
 " Oh, oh, oh ! " involuntarily issued from the 
 baby lips behind the stove ; and " Oh, oh, 
 Miss More!-" resounded from the opposite 
 seat. 
 
 " Look there, look there, Miss More ! what 
 is it ? where did it come from ? " shouted the 
 little ones. 
 
 In a twinkling the eyes that had been so 
 intent on book and slate were upward gaz- 
 ing, but not all at the beautiful appearance
 
 CATCHING A SUNBEAM.
 
 CATCHING A SUNBEAM. 89 
 
 before them. Luther Lewis, the simpleton, 
 who occupied a seat with the large boys, 
 although in intellect he was scarcely above 
 babyhood, had caught sight of the bright, 
 airy presentation on the wall, and, standing 
 upon his feet, his frouzy head thrown back, 
 with eyes and mouth wide open, and hands 
 outstretched, he was in the act of springing 
 to catch it. A titter was heard from every 
 side of the room. The teacher herself could 
 but smile at the amusing spectacle, and Anna, 
 the unsuspected cause of the disturbance, 
 yielded for a moment to her mirthful pro- 
 pensities, and prolonged the fun. Taking 
 the prism, unobserved, in her hand, by dex- 
 terous movements she rapidly and repeatedly 
 changed the locality of the phantasm, and 
 made it dance in swift and ever-varying mo- 
 tion around the room. Now it alighted upon 
 the wall, now on the desks, here, there, and 
 every where in a moment ; and poor Luther, 
 frantic with eager delight, was darting after 
 it in every direction, the contortions of his 
 face, his violent, spasmodic efforts, and his 
 constant disappointments, producing upon 
 him the most ludicrous effect. The school 
 was in a rising tempest of merriment. 
 It fell on a boy's head directly before the
 
 40 THE WINTEB SCHOOL. 
 
 poor innocent, and aiming a tremendous blow 
 he thought he had now surely secured it. 
 
 " That's my head, sir," exclaimed the unfor- 
 tunate sufferer. 
 
 Luther looked in his hand to see what he 
 had got, and lo, nothing was there; but the 
 beautiful object he so much desired was dan- 
 cing on the wall at his side. 
 
 " I'll have you, I will," cried the overgrown 
 child ; and in his -excitement he sprang, with 
 force enough to have slain an enemy, both 
 hands open, to reach the prize, when, behold, 
 again it had vanished, and, the next instant, 
 was blinding his very eyes, as if in mockery 
 of his misery. 
 
 " There, sit down, now, Luther," said Miss 
 More, after the performance of sundry evo- 
 lutions of this sort; "you see you can't 
 catch it." 
 
 " What is it ? I want it, I must I will " 
 cried the boy, as, almost spent with his 
 exertion, he seated himself, and looked about 
 wildly to get sight of it again. 
 
 At that moment, by a well-directed move- 
 ment, Anna laid the pretty thing in the boy's 
 hand. With an expression of the most in- 
 tense childish delight, he closed his hand, 
 when lo, it was no longer within, but smiled
 
 CATCHING A STJJTBEAM. 41 
 
 up into his face from the outside of his rough, 
 hard fist. Oh, cruel witchery ! The poor fel- 
 low fairly cried with disappointment and vex- 
 ation. Anna laid aside the,, prism, and Miss 
 More soon called order out of confusion. 
 
 " Poor fellow," said she, " he has been chas- 
 ing a sunbeam, and cries because he can not 
 grasp it. But he is no more simple than we 
 are, who daily seek happiness from mere self- 
 ish gratifications. It eludes our grasp just as 
 certainly, and leaves us, too, with an empty, 
 aching heart." 
 
 The older scholars listened with marked 
 attention as their teacher drew this brief 
 moral from the amusing incident, and in a 
 few moments all were again busy with their 
 studies. 
 
 When the exercises of the day were over, 
 and the pupils of the new school were wait- 
 ing with clasped hands and quiet attitude for 
 the teaching of the day, Miss More took occa- 
 sion to improve this incident by a few simple, 
 impressive remarks. She told them how ev- 
 ery body was eagerly running after happiness, 
 making that the very object and aim of life, 
 while it constantly eluded the pursuer, or, if 
 obtained, proved vain and unsatisfactory. 
 
 " The aim of life," she said, " should be vir-
 
 42 THE \VIXTEB SCHOOL. 
 
 tue, purity, usefulness. In loving God, in 
 striving to be like him, in endeavors to do 
 right ourselves, and to benefit those around 
 us, we are reaching the true end of our ex- 
 istence, and shall certainly gain unalloyed, 
 lasting, and ever-increasing happiness. And 
 though these noble pursuits may lead us 
 through self-denials, difficulties, and toils, we 
 must not shrink, but press on to the rich 
 reward that surely awaits us at the end. 
 
 "Young people are apt to think that if 
 they become Christians, they must sacrifice all 
 their joys, and that a life of usefulness is dry 
 and barren. But they are mistaken. You, 
 my dear pupils, may enjoy every thing that 
 the world can give, and you will be sure to 
 say at the last, in Christ's own words, What is 
 a man profited if he shall gain the whole world 
 and lose his own soul ? ' You will have pre- 
 cisely the experience that Luther had this 
 morning, when he chased the sunbeam around 
 the room until he was weary, and cried be- 
 cause he could not get it." 
 
 Many of the scholars went home that 
 evening with deep and serious impressions, 
 gravely deliberating within themselves how 
 they might serve God and their fellow-crea-
 
 CATCHING A SUXBEAM. 41i 
 
 tures, and secure a true and lasting hap- 
 piness. 
 
 ^None reflected more solemnly or to better 
 purpose than Tristram Gilmore ; and this 
 was the beginning out of which grew a great 
 good.
 
 14 THE WINTER SCHOOL. 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 FIRST FRUITS. 
 
 Ox the morning on which we introduced our 
 young friend Tristram to our readers, he had 
 started for school with an earnest determina- 
 tion to carry out, if possible, the suggestions 
 of usefulness which had been made by the 
 teacher on the previous evening. 
 
 " I don't know," he said to himself, " exactly 
 how to begin, or where to go to work. But 
 I'll watch, and perhaps I shall find a chance 
 for something." 
 
 As he followed Miss More and the rushing 
 troop of his companions into the school room 
 on that occasion, walking thoughtfully across 
 the entry and up the aisle which led to his 
 seat, suddenly it flashed upon his mind, 
 "Here's my chance now I can do some 
 good. 
 
 " I have it," said he, audibly ; " now I'll 
 strike. 
 
 "Sidney Sid" he called in a loud 
 whisper to his friend and classmate, who had 
 already reached his desk. " Look here, Sid. I
 
 FIRST FEUITS. 45 
 
 want to speak to you a minute. I think 
 smoking and chewing are getting quite the 
 go here in school, lately. Have you noticed ? 
 I wish we could do something to stop them. 
 Father says tobacco is almost as bad as rum, 
 and it's a shame for these little bits of boys 
 to learn such ways. I say, Sidney, can't we 
 do something ? " 
 
 " If Miss More knew it, I warrant you she'd 
 talk to 'em some. Supposing we tell her, 
 Tris." 
 
 " No, no ; we don't want to go tattling. 
 Besides, 'twould be ever so much better to do 
 it ourselves. You know what she told us last 
 night. Now let's see if we can't think of 
 some way to stop this ourselves." 
 
 " Draw up a pledge, Tris, and make 'em all 
 sign it ; just like our cold-water pledge, you 
 know." 
 
 The sound of the bell at that moment, call- 
 ing the school to order, arrested the conversa- 
 tion ; but the suggestion of a pledge dropped 
 down into a very snug corner of Tristram's 
 noble heart, and was treasured up there for 
 future consideration. Algebra and geometry 
 occupied all his attention for the present, for, 
 like the faithful student that he was, he never 
 allowed pleasure or interest of any sort for-
 
 46 THE WLN T TER SCHOOL. 
 
 eign to his school duties to interfere with 
 them. 
 
 What a comfort and joy such pupils are to 
 their instructors I How easy and pleasant it 
 is to teach them ! Such are the "favorites" 
 in school ; and how can it be otherwise ? A 
 lazy, careless boy, who is never at his seat 
 when the bell rings, who is always the last in 
 the recitation room, lagging along, studying 
 as he goes, because he has neglected to learn 
 his lesson at the proper time, who is always 
 ready to eat, or whisper, or play, or break 
 some rule, when the teacher's eye is not full 
 upon him, complains that his teacher is cross 
 and partial. " The teacher has favorites," he 
 says, " and it's of no use for me to try to do 
 any thing. He don't like me." 
 
 Of course he does not, little boy. How 
 can you expect him to? If you w r ere a teacher, 
 do you think you would like a boy that was 
 always doing wrong, giving you trouble, and 
 vexing you in every conceivable way? No> 
 indeed, you would not. But the boy that 
 is always correct in every thing, with good 
 lessons and good conduct every day ah, 
 that's the one that you would like. You 
 would pick out such a one from all the rest, 
 and consider it a pleasure to instruct him, and
 
 FIRST FRUITS. 47 
 
 you wouldn't be able to hide your preference 
 either. Of course you would show it. 
 
 So, then, for you to stand there grumbling, 
 and complaining that your teacher is "real 
 cross," is only to proclaim to every one that 
 you are a bad boy in school. When you say 
 that he favors Henry Jones and likes him 
 best, you are only telling your friends that 
 Henry Jones is a better boy than you are. 
 Now, if I were in your place, instead of doing 
 this, I would turn right about, and be a good 
 boy myself. I'd mind every rule, and take an 
 interest in all my lessons, and try to please 
 my teacher, and see if I couldn't make him 
 love me as well as Henry. Try this plan, my 
 little friend, and see if it doesn't work well. 
 
 That day at " fifteen minutes' recess," while 
 the majority of the school were taking a frolic 
 out of doors in the snow, a few of the older 
 and more sedate scholars were gathered about 
 the stove in grave consultation. 
 
 "I like what you said this morning, Sid, 
 first rate," said Tristram, " and I believe we 
 might form a society like a temperance society, 
 you know, or anti-slavery, and get the boys 
 to join it, as many as we can, and " 
 
 " Girls too, as to that," interrupted Sidney, 
 "for I'm sure women use tobacco. They
 
 48 THE WINTER SCHOOL. 
 
 snuff it," he added laughing, and suiting the 
 action to the word, in the drollest manner 
 imaginable, in the mean time casting sly glances 
 at the girls on the opposite side of the stove. 
 
 "You needn't look at me," replied Anna 
 Little. " You'd never catch me doing such a 
 nasty thing." 
 
 " Oh, not now, Miss Little ; but may be when 
 you're an old lady, you know, and want some- 
 thing to please you, and don't know what to 
 do, why, then you might. Old women never 
 do any thing but knit and take snuff." 
 
 "I think you are not acquainted with all 
 the old ladies, Sidney Barnes," said Miss Gil- 
 more, with an air of offended pride. " Do you 
 know aunt Xancy, who lives at Mrs. Osborne's? 
 Do you know good old Grandma Sheffield, up 
 on the hill ? Do you know Miss Phebe Quin, 
 at the lower corner ? Do you know my grand 
 mother, Sidney Barnes ? " 
 
 " Oh, well, never mind Sidney's fun," said 
 Tristram, in a conciliatory tone. " Of course 
 you wouldn't use snuff now or ever ; but some 
 might, you know." 
 
 "Why, Sidney's behind the times," re- 
 marked Miss Simonson, " to think that ladies 
 of any pretensions to refinement would take 
 snuff, though it's not an uncommon thing for
 
 FIRST FKUITS. 49 
 
 the most elegant to use tobacco. Cigarettes 
 are the fashion now, and dipping." 
 
 "Why, what do you mean, Bessie?" ex- 
 claimed several at once. " Do tell us." 
 
 " I can't now ; there isn't time. See, the 
 bell is just going to ring But I'll tell you 
 one of these days. When you get the society 
 formed, you invite me to deliver a lecture. 
 
 " By the way, Tristram," added the young 
 lady, as she was proceeding to her desk, " you 
 are doing welk | This is a good idea of yours. 
 I'll join your society, and I'll try to help you 
 all I can;" and her pleasant smile and en- 
 couraging words strengthened Tristram won- 
 derfully in his prospective undertaking. 
 
 " I will too, Tristram," said the gentle Lucy 
 Clark, the very sweetest, loveliest girl in all 
 the school. "I am not afraid of ever being 
 led into using tobacco myself, but I've got 
 brothers, you know, and if I sign the pledge, 
 Benajah will, and Josiah, and Marcus." 
 
 The bell sounded, and a crowd of little 
 folks, with blue noses and benumbed fingers, 
 came rushing in, stamping their snowy feet, 
 as they jostled and pushed their way to the 
 stove to warm. Our young reformers, with 
 hearts full of warmth and zeal in the benevo- 
 4
 
 50 THE WINTEB SCHOOL. 
 
 lent scheme they were projecting, retired to 
 their seats. 
 
 " I'll draw up the pledge right off," said 
 Tristram, "an then we'll offer it to every 
 scholar." 
 
 "All right," replied Sidney; "and we'll 
 carry the school, I almost know." 
 
 The boys were sanguine, as youthful hearts 
 are apt to be. 
 
 i
 
 THE ANTI-TOBACCO SOCIETY. . 51 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 THE ANTI-TOBACCO SOCIETY. 
 
 BY the noon intermission next day, our two 
 boys had arranged their plans, drawn up the 
 pledge, and Miss More's attention was pres- 
 ently attracted by the passing about of a sheet 
 of foolscap among the pupils. 
 
 " What have you there, Sidney ? " she in- 
 quired, pleasantly, as she was disposing the 
 pens and copy books for use that afternoon. 
 " Are you getting up a petition ? " 
 
 " No, ma'am, a pledge," answered the boy. 
 " "We are forming a society an anti-tobacco 
 society." 
 
 The teacher's countenance must have ex- 
 pressed the surprise she felt at such an an- 
 nouncement, for he immediately added, as in 
 explanation, 
 
 " There's need enough of it, Miss More, if 
 you only knew. Almost all our little boys are 
 beginning to smoke or chew." 
 
 " Is it possible ! " she exclaimed. " Well, 
 my boy, go on, and do all the good you can, 
 If you want any help, come to me."
 
 52 THE WINTER SCHOOL. 
 
 " Yes'm, I will, and we shall want help by 
 and by. Here, Xic Nicholas Gilmore," he 
 called to a boy just passing out of the door, 
 " come back here. I want you." 
 
 "What for?" asked the boy, hesitating. 
 " Here, I want you to sign this paper ; come 
 back and read it." 
 
 The child addressed was one of a class of 
 little fellows in the school from ten to twelve 
 years of age, as intelligent, bright boys as a 
 teacher ever could desire. The only excep- 
 tion in point of age or mental activity was the 
 Before-mentioned James Lawrence, or Lazy 
 Jim, as he was often called by his mates. He 
 was a drone and a hinderance even among 
 boys so much younger than himself, and Miss 
 More had reason to fear that his moral influ- 
 ence was really bad. A single bad boy can 
 do untold injury in a school, and, though the 
 teacher be ever so vigilant, will sow the seeds 
 of wickedness in many a tender heart. 
 
 Nicholas Gilmore, whom Sidney called at 
 this moment, was a brother of Tristram, and 
 was supposed to be " all right," as his brother 
 was, on the tobacco question. But the enemy 
 had sowed tares among the wheat. 
 
 "I don't want to read your papers nor your
 
 THE ANTI-TOBACCO SOCIETY. 53 
 
 pledges," said he, in a careless tone. " I know 
 all about it, but I shan't sign." 
 
 "Stop a minute," said Sidney, advancing 
 quickly to prevent his going out ; " we don't 
 let you off so. You ain't a-going to let it be 
 said now of a Gilmore, that he won't sign a 
 pledge against tobacco. Now, Nic, you know 
 your father and mother would want you to, if 
 they knew about it." 
 
 "But I don't care; I shan't," replied the 
 child ; " it's of no use asking, for I won't" 
 
 " Jim Lawrence told him this morning 'twas 
 babyish ; that's the reason he won't do it? 
 said Charlie Moore. 
 
 " He said he wasn't going to sign away his 
 liberty," added Willie Osborne. 
 
 " I don't see what you want to sign that 
 for," says John Marshal. " If a chap wants to 
 leave off smoking, why, let him do it ; that's 
 all." 
 
 "That's just what ./"think," rejoined Nicho- 
 las ; " and when a fellow don't smoke at all, 
 why, then, what's the use?" 
 
 By this time quite a bevy of boys were col- 
 lected around Sidney in the entry. There he 
 stood, unabashed by objections or ridicule, 
 with his paper in one hand, and waving tho 
 other for silence among his young auditors.
 
 54 THE WINTEE SCHOOL. 
 
 " Stop a minute, boys ; just hush your noise, 
 and listen to me. Don't you know," said he, 
 in a clear, firm tone, "that tobacco is apoison- 9 
 and if you use it you will certainly make 
 yourselves sick, and perhaps die? Besides, 
 it's terrible nasty, every body knows, to be 
 chewing and spitting around every where, 
 and puffing smoke in decent people's faces. 
 Who wants to be so filthy? Now, boys, you'll 
 be better off without tobacco, you'd better 
 believe ; and as to signing this paper, it's only 
 to promise each other that you won't use it 
 -it's only just to find out what company you're 
 in. You might just as well say you wouldn't 
 have your names down on Miss More's book 
 as her scholars. Now come, let me read it ; 
 you haven't heard it yet; you don't know 
 what it is." 
 
 The earnestness of his tone and manner 
 made an impression, for the boys stood very 
 still while he read : 
 
 "'Whereas we see with great sorrow the 
 increased use of tobacco in this school, and 
 believe it to be injurious and wicked, we 
 pledge ourselves, in this way, never to smoke, 
 chew, or take snuff, or encourage these filthy 
 habits in any of our companions, while we be- 
 long to this school, or as long as we live.'
 
 THE ANTI-TOBACCO SOCIETY. 55 
 
 " Now, boys," lie continued, " what is there 
 in that to be afraid of? Those of you who 
 think it's babyish to sign that, think it's man- 
 ly to smoke, I suppose ; but I tell you, it's a 
 mistake both ways." 
 
 " So much for your opinion, Sidney Barnes," 
 said a surly voice in the crowd. " Other folks 
 have a right to their opinions too. Who are 
 you, to set up for so much ? " It was Jim 
 Lawrence who spoke. 
 
 " I'll back you, Jim," cried Bill Gooch, com- 
 ing in that moment. " Nothing like a good 
 cigar, Sid. Didn't you ever try it, boy ? " 
 
 "His ma'am wouldn't let him," said another 
 great burly fellow, hanging up his cap. " His 
 little mother is too nice, and pretty, and good 
 for that," he added in a mocking tone. 
 
 " You needn't go to saying any thing against 
 my mother, Sam Perkins, because I shan't 
 stand it. I am glad she won't let me smoke. 
 It's a nasty thing, and bad every way," re- 
 joined Sidney with warmth. "Now,* you big 
 boys can go along, and if you choose to 
 smoke, why, smoke. But it's a shame for you 
 to try to make these little fellows as b.a,d as 
 you are. Let them alone to do as they wish." 
 
 " And as their mothers tell them to," addecl 
 Perkins, in his sneering way.'
 
 56 THE WINTER SCHOOL. 
 
 " "Well, good boys always do that," said little 
 Marcus Clark. " It's only bad boys that don't, 
 and they always come to some bad end, my 
 teacher says." 
 
 " Marcus was a smart boy, and learned his 
 lesson well, didn't he ? " replied his big school- 
 mate, taking him up by his ears ; " and now, 
 for a reward, I'll show him where the Dutch- 
 man put his money." 
 
 " Let my brother alone, or there'll be trou- 
 ble, Sam Perkins," said Benajah. "I'll see to 
 him. We're all going to sign that pledge, 
 Sidney, and we'll keep it too. No tobacco 
 for us." Benajah Clark was as grave and 
 steady as a man. 
 
 "I'll sign too," said another voice. "And 
 I," " And I," shouted others. 
 
 And while these were writing their names, 
 the opposing party retired to laugh and scoff 
 as they pleased. But gibes and jeers never 
 harm any but those who use them, and our 
 little band of reformers were strong and cour- 
 ageous as before. Perh aps more so ; for the 
 opposition which intimidates the weak always 
 makes the brave and good more determined 
 and energetic. 
 
 "You'll sign shan't you, Willie ?" cried 
 {Sidney, as with amazement he saw the son of
 
 THE ANTI-TOBACCO SOCIETY. 57 
 
 his pastor pushing his way into the school 
 room with these unprincipled boys. "Don't 
 go with that set, Willie ; now don't," said he 
 in a persuasive tone ; " come, give us your 
 name." 
 
 " No, I shan't, Sidney. I don't want to. I 
 can't to-day any way. By and by, perhaps I 
 will;" and he hurried away with a flushed 
 face and agitated manner, which seemed to 
 say very plainly that he was not doing right. 
 No wonder the boys were surprised that he, 
 of all others, should be reluctant to participate 
 in the enterprise. 
 
 " What's got into Willie ? " exclaimed Be- 
 najah. " I'm sure he don't act like himself."
 
 58 THE WINTER SCHOOL. 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 EEV. MR. OSBORXE'S TEA TABLE. 
 
 WILLIE was himself conscious that he was 
 taking a wrong step doing something that 
 would not bear investigation. That was the 
 reason he ran into school so fast. His refusal 
 to sign the offered pledge was not that he did 
 not comprehend it. Ko, indeed ; though he 
 was scarcely ten years old, there was nothing 
 that interested his schoolmates that he could 
 not understand as well as they. There was 
 nothing dull or stupid about him. Why, they 
 say, at seven years he had read all the books 
 in his father's library, excepting those mon- 
 strous theological works on the upper shelf. 
 And though a country clergyman's library is 
 not usually veiy large, yet it was quite a 
 remarkable achievement for such a child. 
 He had studied ancient and modern geog- 
 raphy, and ancient and modern history, and 
 Latin, and Hebrew, and nobody knows what 
 else. In fact, he had done too much reading, 
 and too little playing. If he had studied less, 
 and skated and coasted more, I believe he
 
 EEV. ME. OSBOENE'S TEA TABLE. 59 
 
 would have been a better boy. But this only 
 proves that it was not stupidity that hindered 
 his signing that pledge. 
 
 Neither was it ignorance of his duty. He 
 had a well-instructed conscience, and knew 
 well enough what was right and wrong in 
 the matter. He was an only child, and had 
 the advantage of all the efforts that father 
 and mother both could put forth for his 
 moral education ; and his father being a min- 
 ister, it is to be supposed he was as instant in 
 season and out of season in his teachings to 
 his son as to his flock generally. 
 
 What, then, could have induced the child 
 to hear that pledge read by the zealous Sid- 
 ney, and to ^ass on without subscribing to it ? 
 Can't you guess? Why, the child hadn't 
 moral courage enough to write his name on 
 that paper. He knew it was right ; but Jim 
 Lawrence had made fun of the "old granny 
 society," as he called it, and would laugh at 
 any boy that joined it. The other big boys 
 would laugh at him, too, and Willie couldn't 
 bear to be laughed at. Silly fellow ! Didn't 
 he know, with all his shrewdness, that those 
 who laughed hurt themselves more than any 
 one else? It never hurts any one to be 
 laughed at. Why, you can always smile
 
 60 THE WINTER SCHOOL. 
 
 pleasantly back again, when any body makes 
 sport of you, particularly when he makes fun 
 of your doing right, and say, "Oh, I don't 
 care if you do laugh ; it doesn't hurt me one 
 bit." Be courageous, and your courage will 
 be to you like a coat of mail, which will pre- 
 vent the shafts of scorn and ridicule from 
 piercing you ; and like a shield, too, from 
 which such shafts will rebound into the very 
 heart of the enemy. 
 
 It is my private opinion that there was 
 another reason for Willie's conduct, especially 
 as he was heard to say to one of the boys, 
 that " signing the pledge was as much as to 
 say you used tobacco, and were going to 
 reform." 
 
 " Well, Willie, my son," said Mr. Osborae, 
 at the tea table that evening, "what have you 
 been doing at school to-day?" It was a 
 question often asked, for Willie's father was 
 always solicitous about the progress of his 
 promising child in his studies. 
 
 But Willie, a little uneasy in his conscience 
 at what had occurred that afternoon, forget- 
 ting all about his lessons, rather doggedly 
 replied, "They have been making an anti- 
 tobacco society, I believe."
 
 BEV. ME. O^BOKNE'S TEA TABLE. 61 
 
 "A what?" exclaimed his mother, in aston- 
 ishment. 
 
 "Willie repeated what he had said. 
 
 " What is that for, my son ? " inquired his 
 father, with no less surprise. "It seems to 
 me that's strange work foreign to intel- 
 lectual pursuits. "Whose proposition was it?" 
 
 " I don't know, sir, any thing about it, only 
 Tristram Gilmore and Sidney Barnes start- 
 ed it." 
 
 " Good boys, good boys they are," said Mr. - 
 Osborne, partly talking to himself. " We can't 
 suspect mischief where they take the lead. 
 Does Miss More approve the movement?" 
 he asked, turning to Willie. " I should be 
 sorry to have any thing occur to divert the 
 attention of the scholars from their lessons." 
 
 " I didn't hear her say any thing about it," 
 said the boy. 
 
 "Did you join, dear?" asked aunt Nancy, 
 looking across the table at Willie pretty 
 sharply. " I hope you did." 
 
 "Why, of course, aunt Nancy," said Mrs. 
 Osborne, in her haste preventing a reply from 
 the child. "Willie, of course, would join 
 that is, if it is all right. He'll never wish to 
 use tobacco." 
 
 Aunt Nancy looked at Mrs. Osborne, and
 
 62 THE WINTER SCHOOL. 
 
 smiled significantly, and then at "Willie, whose 
 cheeks had begun to grow a little red. 
 
 " Did you, dear ? " she persisted. 
 
 "I should hope my son would always be 
 found on the side of right," remarked Mr. 
 Osborne, again intercepting the boy's answer. 
 "I don't know about this thing, but I pre- 
 sume it must be all right, for I know those 
 two boys too well to suppose they would do 
 any thing disorderly in school. A special 
 need has suggested so extraordinary an un- 
 dertaking, without doubt. Willie, to-morrow 
 ascertain if Miss More approves it, and find 
 out from the boys what led them to think of 
 forming such a society. Do you hear, my 
 son ? " 
 
 "Yes, sir." 
 
 But aunt Xancy wasn't satisfied, nor was 
 she to be put off. Looking over her specta- 
 cles again across the table at Willie, she re- 
 peated distinctly her question, 
 
 "Willie, dear, did you join ? " 
 
 There was no getting off this time. The 
 child had very willingly shielded himself be- 
 hind his mother's and father's remarks, and 
 flattered himself he should get rid of the 
 question. But no ; aunt Nancy had her rea-
 
 EEV. ME. OSBOENE'S TEA TABLE. 63 
 
 sons for wanting a direct answer, and W iilie, 
 however unwillingly, had to say, 
 
 " No, ma'am." 
 
 His parents both looked at him in surprise. 
 
 " Why not ? " asked both. 
 
 " Oh, I didn't see the use of it," said the 
 boy, without looking up from his plate. He 
 was very intent on his biscuit and butter. 
 
 "Were you fearful it was not in order?" 
 asked the methodical father. " I don't know, 
 but I think there can be nothing wrong about 
 it, and unless there is such a reason, I would 
 have you join at once. You know, my son, I 
 consider the use of tobacco pernicious to body 
 and mind, and, for religious considerations, 
 we should never use it." 
 
 " Why, it isn't wicked, father, to use it 
 is it?" 
 
 " I deem it so." 
 
 "Well, 'most all your church members are 
 wicked, then. Why don't you preach about 
 it?" 
 
 This was a poser. Mr. Osborne never used 
 tobacco himself, because, as he said, he con- 
 sidered his body as " the temple of the Holy 
 Ghost, and he could not defile or injure it 
 without sinning against God." But he had 
 never publicly expressed his sentiments on
 
 64 THE WINTER SCHOOL. 
 
 the subject, nor preached against a practice 
 so prevalent and so destructive among his 
 own people and throughout the civilized com- 
 munity. His sense of refinement, and his 
 estimate of clerical dignity, forbade his intro- 
 ducing such a subject into the pulpit. He 
 hardly knew what to say to this potent an- 
 nouncement from his little boy. He succeed- 
 ed, however, in remarking, that "his church 
 fell far below the right standard of living, to 
 his great sorrow, but that the short-comings 
 of others furnished no suitable reason for our 
 wrong-doing." 
 
 "Why, Willie," said his mother, uninten- 
 tionally, yet opportunely, coming to her hus- 
 band's help, "I should have thought you 
 would have been the first one to join, to- 
 day. You are the minister's son, and his 
 representative, as it were, Willie, and you 
 should honor your father, and his teachings, 
 by being prompt and decided in favor of what 
 is right." 
 
 Willie didn't look straight up in his moth- 
 er's face, as an honest boy would have done, 
 as he received this advice, but turned his 
 head away, moving restlessly on his chair; 
 and the moment she had finished, he jumped
 
 REV. ME. OSBOENE'S TEA TABLE. 65 
 
 up and ran away. He didn't notice how 
 closely aunt Nancy was observing him. 
 
 As the door closed after him, she turned to 
 Mrs. Osborne, and in a low voice said, 
 
 " Sarah, there's some good reason why Wil- 
 lie didn't join, dear. He uses tobacco himself. 
 He chews, dear." 
 
 " Why, aunt Nancy ! " exclaimed her au- 
 ditor, starting from her seat. " What do you 
 mean? My Willie? Never!" 
 
 "I think so, dear. Now you watch him, 
 and you'll find out. Don't say any thing to 
 him, nor tell him that I told you so, for you 
 know I love Willie, dear. I wouldn't hurt 
 his feelings for the world, dear not for the 
 world. But I've had suspicions lately, dear ;" 
 and the affectionate old lady shook her head 
 gravely. 
 
 Mrs. Osborne was astonished and grieved 
 beyond measure, but determined to be on the 
 alert to ascertain the truth, and in time to 
 prevent a great evil. 
 
 5
 
 66 THE WINTER SCHOOL. 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 FARMER CLARK'S KITCHEN. 
 
 THE Clark boys went home brimful of the 
 new society. They entered heart and soul into 
 the enterprise, and were bold and straightfor- 
 ward in their appeals to their schoolmates to 
 help it forward. 
 
 The table was spread for supper as they 
 entered the large, old-fashioned kitchen of 
 the substantial farm house. Mrs. Clark, the 
 kindest and most motherly of mothers, ex- 
 erted herself daily to provide a hearty wel- 
 come for her little family when they returned 
 from school. " To walk two miles to school 
 and two miles back this cold weather, and to 
 put up with a cold bite at noon, was enough," 
 she said, " and they must always have a good 
 hot supper waiting for them when they got 
 back." 
 
 This family did not properly belong to the 
 central district, and attended school there 
 only by special permission. Lucy had been a 
 member of Miss More's school during the 
 Bummer, and, like the rest, had become very
 
 FARMER CLARK'S KITCHEN. 67 
 
 much attached to her as a teacher and a friend. 
 Good Mrs. Clark had formed a very exalted 
 opinion of the young teacher, and Avhen she 
 learned that she was engaged at Campfield 
 Corner through the winter, could not rest un- 
 til all her children were placed under her 
 care. Mr. Clark, a very worthy, pious man, 
 who admired a Christian spirit wherever he 
 saw it, was very well pleased with this arrange- 
 ment. He had often been heard to say that 
 he had but one desire for his children, and 
 that was, that they might be found in the 
 ways of righteousness, and he would "joyfully 
 go in for any body or any thing that would 
 help them along." So the permission was ob- 
 tained by the payment of tuition for them ; 
 and punctual as the morning, the red cheeks 
 and sparkling eyes of the four young Clarks 
 helped to light up the pleasant school room. 
 
 The hot toast and rye mush, with a bonnie 
 dish of baked apples, were placed smoking on 
 the table, and as they satisfied their eager ap- 
 petites the boys began as eagerly to relate the 
 adventures of the day. 
 
 " What do you think, 'pa ? " said little Mar- 
 cus ; " we are going to have an anti-tobacco 
 society down to school. And we've all joined,
 
 68 THE WINTER SCHOOL. 
 
 'pa, and Sam Perkins made fun of us, and the 
 other big boys did too." 
 
 "What is it for?" asked the mother, turn- 
 Ing to Lucy. 
 
 "Tristram and Sidney started it," she re- 
 plied, "because they say that 'most all the lit- 
 tle boys in school are getting to use tobacco, 
 and they felt sorry to have such a bad habit 
 spreading so, and they are trying to pre- 
 vent it." 
 
 " They wrote a pledge just like a temper- 
 ance pledge," said Josiah, "and we put our 
 names to it." 
 
 "Jim Lawrence makes all manner of fun 
 of it," added Marcus, " and he's mad about it 
 too. I don't see why." 
 
 "Bad folks always get angry with good 
 people don't they, 'pa ? " asked Benajah. 
 "Isn't that the reason he feels so?" 
 
 "It is often so, my son, especially when 
 any effort is made right against their bad 
 practices." 
 
 "James Lawrence smokes awfully," con- 
 tinued Benajah, " and he's never without a 
 chunk of tobacco in his mouth never." 
 
 " Ah, yes, he begins to show its effects upon 
 his health," remarked Mrs. Clark. " He is 
 very pale and miserable looking. I shouldn't
 
 FARMER CLARK'S KITCHEN. 09 
 
 think lie could live long at this rate. Oh, 
 boys, I do hope you will be good boys, and 
 never do such naughty things. How bad I 
 should feel if either of you were like him ! " 
 
 " He's got a horrid temper, any how," said 
 Josiah, " Why, don't you think, 'ma, he 
 doubled up his fist right in our Lucy's face 
 to-day, just because she said she wished she 
 could persuade him to sign this pledge ; and 
 he said he'd fight any body that dared to say 
 another word to him about that " 
 
 " You mustn't tell 'ma what he said, Si," 
 interrupted Marcus. " Isn't it wicked, 'ma, for 
 us to say the wicked words the other boys 
 use?" 
 
 " Certainly, dear. You oughtn't to repeat 
 bad words even in telling a story. I am glad 
 you are particular about that." 
 
 "But, oh, 'ma," continued Si, "you don't 
 know, you can?t think, what an awful bad boy 
 Jim is. Why, he swears like every thing, and 
 he never does what a fellow wants him to. 
 I don't see, for my part, what he comes to 
 school for." 
 
 "I do believe," said Benajah, "it's just to 
 do mischief. He behaves well enough to Miss 
 More, better than he ever did before to a
 
 70 THE WINTER SCHOOL. 
 
 teacher so they say. But out of school he s 
 dreadful." 
 
 " Well, my son," said his father, "try to do 
 him all the good you can. Watch and pray 
 lest you are led into temptation yourselves, and 
 try as hard as you can to offset and prevent 
 his mischief among the boys. Remember the 
 Bible way is, to overcome evil with good ; 
 that is, you must make your good influence 
 so strong as to overpower his evil influence. 
 What does Miss More say to this society ? " 
 
 " Oh, she likes it first rate. She told Sid- 
 ney to go on and get all the names he could, 
 and then she promised him she would deliver 
 some lectures for us." 
 
 "Yes," said Lucy, "their plan is to have 
 weekly meetings in school on Thursday after- 
 noons, and Miss More is going to give us six 
 lectures on the subject." 
 
 " That will keep you in veiy late after 
 school won't it?" asked the mother. 
 
 " Xo'm she thought of that. She is not 
 going to keep us in, for she said it would 
 make it too tiresome for the little ones, and 
 we shouldn't get home till after dark. But 
 she's going to give the last half hour to that." 
 
 "That's first rate," said the farmer. "I 
 like her ways of doing things. She's always
 
 FARMER CLARK'S KITCHEN. 71 
 
 instructing the scholars in something good. 
 I'd like to go down and hear her myself." 
 
 " So should I. Let's go down, father, in the 
 sleigh, some afternoon," replied the mother, 
 witli a beam of great satisfaction in her eye. 
 "We can go down to bring the children 
 home, and just happen in, and hear her." 
 
 "Oh, that's nice oh, do goodey, good- 
 ey!" cried little Marcus in ecstasy, jumping 
 up from the table not altogether in glee, 
 little reader. He had finished his supper, and 
 had his pet rabbits to feed and put to bed.
 
 72 THE WIXTEK SCHOOL. 
 
 CHAPTER XI. 
 
 WELL DONE. 
 
 THUKSDAY morning, an hour before school 
 time, found Tristram and Sidney in consulta- 
 tion together, beside the glowing stove in the 
 school room. They were examining their roll 
 of names, framing the constitution and by- 
 laws of the society, and otherwise concluding 
 the preparations for their first meeting. 
 
 The before-mentioned sheet of foolscap 
 paper lay before them, soiled and crumpled, 
 schoolboy fashion, but, withal, presenting, in 
 their estimation, a most satisfactory and en- 
 couraging aspect. The pledge, to which we 
 have already listened, headed the paper, writ- 
 ten in a fair, legible hand. The composition, 
 though it might have been criticised by a 
 mature, business mind, was creditable in the 
 highest degree to their unaccustomed brains, 
 and particularly to the ardent young hearts 
 that prompted it. Twenty-two names out of 
 the forty-three members of the school were 
 appended. Some, written neatly and dis- 
 tinctly, indicated that the majority of the
 
 WELL DONE. 73 
 
 older scholars countenanced the effort. Then 
 followed crooked lines and misshapen letters, 
 and names that scarcely could be recognized 
 by the owners themselves. Some were even 
 in printed letters, and others bore evidence 
 of having been first traced in pencil by an 
 experienced hand. The inspection, however, 
 proved highly gratifying to the two boys. 
 
 " We have done well," said Tristram. 
 
 "Better than I expected, ever so much," 
 responded Sidney. 
 
 " You see there are ten babies in school that 
 don't know their right hand from their left " 
 
 "Of course they couldn't sign it wouldn't 
 be of any use to ask them," interrupted Sid- 
 ney. 
 
 " No, but I was going to say, I think we 
 ought to let them stay at the meetings, and 
 perhaps Miss More will make them under- 
 stand about it. Then, by the time school is 
 over, perhaps they will know enough about 
 it to take the pledge. Really now, Sid, ff we 
 could get every name in the school, wouldn't 
 it be fine ? " 
 
 " Of course we can't do that ; 'tis no use try- 
 ing. You couldn't make Bill Gooch and Sam 
 Perkins, nor Jim Lawrence, give up tobacco, 
 if you were to try for ever. They wouldn't
 
 74 THE TVIXTER SCHOOL. 
 
 give up, just out of spite. Oh, they are so 
 mad, and make such fun, and call us ' priests,' 
 and ' stick-ups,' and i upper crust,' and all sorts 
 of names." 
 
 "I'm sure I don't care for their talk do 
 you ? " said Tristram. " We are on the right 
 ;ide, and father says, that when we know we 
 are right, we needn't be afraid if the whole 
 world is against us. All we've got to do is to 
 keep straight on, and we shall be sure to come 
 out on the top of the heap." 
 
 " Then there's foolish Luther he's nothing 
 any way; and Josh Little, you won't catch 
 him to give up his chewing. I don't believe 
 that boy has been without a paper of ' honey- 
 dew' in his pocket these two years." 
 
 " What a shame it is ! I declare it makes 
 me feel real bad to see such a bright, pretty 
 boy as he is, doing such things. He's a real 
 clever fellow, but there's no religion nor any 
 thing to help him at home. His parents don't 
 seem to care what he does." 
 
 " How comes it that Anna is pious, Tris ? 
 I don't see how it happened, for I know Mr. 
 Little and his wife both make fun of religion." 
 
 "Why, don't you know? She was con- 
 verted last summer in school ; and I do believe
 
 WELL DONE. td 
 
 she's a real Christian too. She's a splendid 
 girl, I think." 
 
 Sidney gave his companion a comical look, 
 and with a whistle began again to examine 
 the paper before him, as if to see what other 
 names were missing. 
 
 "There's Willie Osborne," said he; "I 
 wonder why he won't put his name down 
 Don't you think it's queer ? " 
 
 "Well, I've mistrusted lately that he has 
 been led away by some of these bad boys. 
 Jim and Josh, I think, have both got hold of 
 him. You see he's the minister's son, and if 
 they can only get him to do something bad, 
 why, then they crow. I'm real sorry." 
 
 The other boys and their various reasons 
 for withholding their names were discussed, 
 and our friends finally concluded that they 
 would at least urge all to attend Miss More's 
 lecture. 
 
 "For they may get convinced," said Sid- 
 ney, "and then by and by join." 
 
 "I have more hope in prevention than in 
 cure, after all," remarked Tristram. " I have 
 heard that it is very hard to reform tobacco- 
 users as hard as it is to reform a drunkard." 
 
 Still they determined to do their utmost. 
 Nor were they alone. The young ladies were
 
 76 THE TVIXTER SCHOOL. 
 
 as interested and active as themselves. They 
 had already urged the subject upon each one 
 of the opposing party, and made especial 
 endeavors with the little boys to persuade 
 them to go to the meetings, if nothing else. 
 But, alas for the stubbornness of the young 
 offenders ! the wise counsels of the pretty 
 Miss Simonson, the persuasions of gentle Lucy 
 Clark, the sarcasms of Miss Gilmore, and the 
 up-and-down declaration of Anna Little, that 
 if they refused they would no longer be con- 
 sidered gentlemen, alike failed to move them. 
 Still there was hope that in the course of 
 time, especially if Miss More's addresses on 
 the subject proved popular, they might be 
 brought in and conquered. 
 
 The boys had obtained a blank book, in 
 which was written their plan of operations, 
 which, by advice from head quarters, was very 
 simple. They were to have their meeting at 
 noon, to organize themselves into a society, 
 choose officers, &c. "We can easily guess who 
 those said officers will be. 
 
 When the school convened, a very neatly 
 printed programme considering it was exe- 
 cuted with a pen was found posted in front 
 of the teachers desk. It read thus :
 
 WELL DONE. 77 
 
 Miss A. B. MORE 
 will deliver a lecture, 
 
 this afternoon, 
 
 in this school room, 
 
 at half past four o'clock. 
 
 Subject Tobacco. 
 
 A meeting for the organization of the society 
 will be held at one o'clock. 
 
 Miss More smiled as she came into school, 
 and saw herself so conspicuously placarded. 
 
 "It's the first time," she remarked laugh- 
 ingly, " that I have been advertised as a lec- 
 turer. A woman too ! Some may think I 
 am stepping out of my sphere. Dear ! how 
 fluttered I shall be ! " 
 
 At this the little ones laughed, as though 
 any thing would flutter their calm, quiet 
 schoolmistress ; and the large ones smiled at 
 the idea that they were advocating "woman's 
 rights" in the new movement. All seemed 
 excited and joyful, as if some thrilling occa- 
 sion was at hand.
 
 78 THE WINTER SCHOOL. 
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 
 THE HISTORY OF A WEED. 
 
 XEVER did public speaker have a more cor- 
 dial welcome than did Miss More, that Thurs- 
 day afternoon, from her little congregation. 
 Their demonstration was only in beaming eyes 
 and quiet demeanor; but that was enough. 
 She felt that her effort would be received at- 
 tentively, and she prayed that it might be 
 with lasting good. 
 
 "Boys and girls," she said, "it gives me 
 more than usual pleasure to speak to you this 
 afternoon, for I am to address you on a sub- 
 ject of your own choosing. I am glad to see 
 among you such an earnest purpose to do 
 good, and that your attention has been turned 
 in the direction of this great evil, which is 
 certainly one of the most wide-spread and 
 devastating that we know. Your endeavors, 
 I trust, will not prove a failure. 
 
 " I do not want my lecture to be stiff and 
 formal, like a sermon. I much prefer it to be 
 a pleasant, familiar talk. So that, if, in the 
 course of my remarks, a question should occur
 
 THE HISTORY OF A WEED. 79 
 
 to you, or you should be able to give me any 
 additional information on the subject before 
 us, I wish you to raise the hand, and I will 
 give you opportunity to speak. 
 
 "My subject to-day will be the History of 
 Tobacco. 
 
 " It is a plant, which grows from three to 
 six feet in Light. The name is supposed to 
 have been taken from Tobago, one of the 
 West India islands, where it grows abundant- 
 ly. Others think it is derived from tobaco, 
 the name of a pipe formerly used in Virginia, 
 
 " It is cultivated extensively throughout all 
 the countries of the temperate zones, and is so. 
 largely used as to have become a very impor- 
 tant commodity in commerce. 
 
 " Tobacco was introduced into Spain, from 
 this western world, soon after its discovery by 
 Columbus, and from Spain found its way into 
 Portugal, and then into the other European 
 kingdoms. Sir Walter Raleigh was the earli- 
 est patron of it, and its most extravagant con- 
 sumer in England. It is related of him, that 
 on one occasion, he was enjoying quietly in 
 his apartment his favorite pipe, when a ser- 
 vant, entering, saw his master surrounded by 
 volumes of smoke. Ignorant of the cause, 
 and alarmed at seeing the gentleman, as he
 
 80 THE WINTER SCHOOL. 
 
 supposed, ou fire, lie rushed from the room 
 to procure -water, with which he completely 
 drenched the distinguished lover of smoke. 
 Whether it was received as a joke, or the ser- 
 vant was punished for perpetrating such an 
 indignity, we are not informed. 
 
 " On its first introduction most astonishing 
 accounts were given of its remarkable virtue 
 as a medicine, and thus it obtained general 
 favor, and rapidly passed into use among all 
 classes in the community. There were per- 
 sons, however, in the olden time, as now, who 
 denounced it. In some parts of Switzerland, 
 the public authorities at one time placed the 
 prohibition of smoking among the ten com- 
 mandments. Two hundred years ago its use 
 was forbidden in Russia, on penalty of having 
 the nose cut off. In Constantinople every 
 Turk who was caught in the indecent act of 
 smoking was conducted in ridicule through 
 the streets, seated on an ass, his face turned 
 toward the animal's tail, and a pipe thrust 
 through his nose. But alas, since those days 
 public opinion has sadly degenerated in all 
 these countries ! 
 
 " King James I. wrote in a most lively and 
 amusing manner against tobacco. 'Were I 
 to invite the devil to dinner,' he says, 'he
 
 THE HISTOET OF A WEED. 81 
 
 should have three dishes ; first, a pig ; second, 
 a poll and ling of mustard ; and third, a pipe 
 of tobacco for his digesture.' He closes his 
 remarkable essay in these words: 'It is a 
 custom loathsome to the eye, hateful to the 
 nose, harmful to the brain, dangerous to the 
 lungs, and in the black, horrid perfumes there- 
 of nearest resembling the smoke of the pit 
 that is bottomless.' 
 
 "There is a striking fact connected with 
 the history of tobacco, which I must relate to 
 you. The first colony in Jamestown, Vir- 
 ginia, was composed entirely of men. They 
 cultivated tobacco extensively, and derived 
 great profit from its exportation. After some 
 years they came to the conclusion that they 
 should be much happier, more industrious, and 
 moral, if they had female society. They need- 
 ed homes and families before they could feel 
 really settled and contented in the new coun- 
 try. They accordingly sent to the mother- 
 land to ask for a reenforoement to be sent to 
 them, to consist of young women. A compa- 
 ny of ninety, of respectable character, though 
 of humble circumstances, was at once sent to 
 them, and each planter who wanted a wife 
 made his choice, and paid for her with one 
 hundred and twenty pounds of tobacco. Just 
 6
 
 82 THE WIXTER SCHOOL. 
 
 think ot it ! The first human beings sold in 
 Virginia were wives for the planters, and paid 
 for in tobacco ! The next year sixty or sev- 
 enty more were sent out, but the price was 
 advanced to one hundred and fifty pounds. 
 The tobacco was sold in England to defray 
 the expenses of their outfit and voyage. This 
 is the history of the first women in Virginia, 
 from whom have descended some of our most 
 distinguished scholars and statesmen. 
 
 " Tobacco is a terrible poison, one of the 
 most deadly in the vegetable kingdom." 
 
 Here a hand was raised. 
 
 " Miss More," asked Josiah Clark, " what do 
 you suppose God made it for ? " 
 
 " We are taught," was the reply, " that ev- 
 ery thing has been made with benevolent de- 
 sign on the part of the Creator, and we have 
 no reason to doubt it. The tobacco plant 
 must, therefore, be good in its place among 
 the herbs of the field. Poisonous plants are 
 medicinal. This one is highly so, and is there- 
 fore needed by man. But it should not, 
 therefore, be inferred that it was designed foi 
 daily use, any more than hemlock, prussic acid, 
 thorn-apple, or any other virulent poison. Its 
 effect is to stupefy, to lull pain, to quiet the 
 nerves ; and people have used it in this way
 
 THE HISTORY OF A WEED. 83 
 
 until they have become so accustomed to it, 
 that they love and crave it, and have not res- 
 olution to do without it. 
 
 " My next lecture will be on the different 
 methods of preparing and consuming this 
 dreadful poison, most generally styled by its 
 opposers ' the filthy weed.' " 

 
 84 THE WLNTEB SCHOOL. 
 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 A TIMELY SCRUBBING. 
 
 SIXCE aunt Xancy had intimated to Mrs. 
 Osborne the possibility that Willie had be- 
 come infected with the bad habits of the 
 schoolboys, the devoted mother had been on 
 the alert to ascertain the truth. Discretion 
 suggested that she should not put the ques- 
 tion direct, lest the child in his weakness be 
 tempted to tell a lie. She therefore resolved 
 to watch closely; and what child can elude, 
 for any length of time, the scrutinizing obser- 
 vation of an anxious mother? 
 
 Her first inquiry was, if he had remained to 
 hear Miss More's address. He had not. Still 
 his mother did not reprove or remonstrate 
 with him. She expressed no surprise and 
 no wish on the subject. She waited until a 
 fitting opportunity should offer to talk with 
 him seriously and authoritatively; and she 
 had not to wait many days. 
 
 Saturday, the grand play-day of the chil- 
 dren, had come, and Willie obtained permission 
 to go coasting with the boys. The coasting
 
 A TIMELY SCEUBBIjSTG. 85 
 
 ground was about a mile from the house, on 
 the declivity of what was familiarly styled 
 " the hill," that designation being sufficient to 
 indicate the only rising ground within a cir- 
 cuit of many miles. This was the favorite 
 rendezvous for the boys of Campfield Corner 
 on the winter holidays. No matter how fast 
 it snowed, how swift the wind, or keen the 
 frosty air, these hardy, rustic lads, with warm 
 comforters and mittens, and pockets stuffed 
 with gingerbread and apples, found rare sport 
 with their sleds and skates on the hill and 
 adjacent pond. They brought the dry brush 
 from the woods, and kindled fires to keep 
 their feet and hands from being frost-bitten ; 
 and great was the fun and unsparing the 
 shouts and merriment on those weekly oc- 
 casions. 
 
 Willie Osborne did. not often go on these 
 excursions. He was a boy of rather delicate 
 organization, and, being an only child, was 
 cared for with a more tender solicitude than 
 his companions generally. Besides, he had 
 not the taste which most boys have for out- 
 door sports. He did not enter into them with 
 such a relish as his rough and ready class- 
 mates, Nicholas and Josiah, the stout, hearty 
 farmer's boys that they were. He preferred
 
 SG THE WINTER SCHOOL. 
 
 to spend the time in bis father's library, con- 
 ning some of the big books, which the others 
 would without regret have seen consigned to 
 the flames. On his little low seat, beside the 
 old-fashioned Franklin stove, he could sit for 
 hours, wandering with some gifted writer over 
 the mountains and vales of the Holy Land, 
 deciphering the hieroglyphics of the Egyptian 
 monuments, or exploring the wastes of the 
 vast American continent. Sometimes, how- 
 ever, he could be induced to take his ball, or 
 kite, or sled, and join his companions. 
 
 What the inducement on this occasion was, 
 we can not say ; but, after breakfast, he took 
 down his sled, and asked his mother if he 
 might go up on the hill. 
 
 " Why, yes, Willie ; I'm glad to have you 
 go," she replied ; " it will do you good. It's 
 a mild, pleasant day, and you can stay till 
 dinner time, if you like ;" and filling the 
 pockets of his stout overcoat with substantial 
 goodies, the kind mother bade him depart in 
 peace. 
 
 It was near dinner time when Willie's step 
 was heard at the outer door; and the shambling 
 noise of the sled, as he dragged it to its ac- 
 customed place in the shed, told that his play
 
 A TIMELY SCEUBBIISTG. 87 
 
 was ended. Pretty soon he put his head in- 
 side the sitting room. 
 
 "Is father in?" he asked. 
 
 " In his study, dear," answered aunt Nancy 
 from her chimney corner. 
 
 " Is dinner ready ? " 
 
 " Not quite," replied his mother, who was 
 sitting by the window at work ; " but come in, 
 Willie, come in ; I want to see you." 
 
 Willie came in and stood by the fire. 
 
 " What's the matter, child ? " 
 
 " Nothing." 
 
 "Haven't you enjoyed yourself?" 
 
 " Yes 'm." 
 
 " What do you want to do? any thing in 
 particular ? " 
 
 "Nothing much," said Willie, in that am- 
 biguous, boyish style which always seems to 
 mean, I do want to do something in particular, 
 but I don't choose to tell what it is. 
 
 "Well, come here, Willie," continued his 
 mother. " It seems to me you don't act just 
 right. You don't like to stay where mother is 
 so well as you used to. What's got into you, 
 child? You used to come and tell me all 
 about your plays, where you had been, and 
 what happened to you ; but now, lately, you 
 haven't done so at all. I don't like to have
 
 60 THE WINTER SCHOOL. 
 
 my little boy grow away from his mother. 
 What's the matter, Willie? You are not 
 afraid of mother are you?" 
 
 "No," he answered, still standing with a 
 sort of indifferent manner, with his back to the 
 fire, and his hands behind him. His mother 
 observed that he had something in his mouth, 
 which he cautiously rolled about, and evi- 
 dently wanted to get rid of. Then he turned 
 round and spit. 
 
 "What are you chewing, Willie? You 
 know I don't like to have you chew gum and 
 such things, like the other boys. Yv^hat have 
 you got?" 
 
 " Nothing much," was the reply ; and 
 Willie made a desperate effort, and ejected the 
 quid from his mouth upon the glowing embers. 
 Aunt Xancy followed the movement with her 
 eyes, and drew her own conclusions. 
 
 " Come here, my son. I want to see you. 
 Come right here by my side." 
 
 The boy advanced, and his mother put out 
 her arm and drew him close to her. 
 
 " Yow tell me, dear," said she, " have you 
 had a good time to-day ? Who was up on the 
 hill with you ? Was the coasting good ? Tell 
 me all about it." 
 
 "'Most all the boys were there," he an-
 
 A TIMELY SCRUBBING. 89 
 
 swerecl. "Yes, we had a good time enough 
 'twan't very cold." 
 
 " What's the matter with you? " exclaimed 
 the mother, who, while the boy was giving 
 his answer, directed her gaze to his lips. 
 "What can ail you? "she cried. Springing 
 from her seat, and suddenly drawing his head 
 under her arm, she turned toward the light, 
 and, opening his jaws, looked full into his 
 mouth. The movement was so sudden, and 
 her hold so firm, that the boy could make 
 no resistance. 
 
 " Why, Willie," she fairly screamed, " what 
 have you been eating? Your lips are all 
 covered, and your teeth and tongue, with 
 some nasty-looking brown juice. Your teeth 
 are fairly black. Tell me, child, right off; 
 tell me." 
 
 But the poor fellow happened to be in such 
 position that he couldn't very well speak ; 
 nor did he need to, for, at that instant catch- 
 ing the fumes of his breath, she -exclaimed, 
 "Tobacco! tobacco! the child's been chewing 
 tobacco, as true as I live the nasty stuff ! 
 Aunt Nancy, Abigail, here, quick, help me, 
 quick! I must scour him out his filthy 
 mouth!" and, suiting the action to the word,
 
 1)0 THE WINTER SCHOOL. 
 
 she dragged the helpless boy, with jaws still 
 extended, to the sink in the kitchen. 
 
 Aunt Nancy followed with her knitting 
 dangling in her fingers, astounded at such 
 vociferous demonstrations on the part of the 
 usually staid and dignified Mrs. Osborne, and 
 more than half suspecting it was a w T ell-feigned 
 excitement, intended for the special impres- 
 sion and benefit of the young victim. 
 
 Abigail hastened from the boiling pot, 
 whence she was abstracting a savory chicken, 
 to attend the unusual calls of her mistress ; 
 and James, the man of all work, coming in 
 from the yard very opportunely at that mo- 
 ment, sprang to the rescue. 
 
 " Abigail ! water soap towels quick ! 
 
 a brush get me his tooth-brush, nail- 
 brush, scrubber, any thing. Hurry, quick 
 the brown soap, any thing ! Oh, fill his mouth 
 
 plaster it in the nasty, filthy stuff! Hold 
 him, James ! hold his mouth open, head back 
 
 fast, James!" cried Mrs. Osborne, in a per- 
 fect tempest of excitement ; and hastily throw- 
 ing a towel around the boy, and rolling up 
 her sleeves, she entered upon the cleansing 
 operation. 
 
 " Good gracious ! Miss Osborne, what .9 the 
 matter ? You're goin' on dreftul," said Abi-
 
 A TIMELY SCRUBBING.
 
 A TIMELY SCRUBBING. 91 
 
 gail, hardly knowing whether to laugh or cry 
 at the strange catastrophe. 
 
 " Has he hurt hisself, Miss Osborne ? " ven- 
 tured to inquire James, holding the struggling 
 boy in his firm grasp.' "Has he got the 
 toothache ? What ails you, Willie ? " 
 
 " Tobacco ! James, tobacco ! " eagerly re- 
 sumed Mrs. Osborne. " Our boy, our Willie, 
 chewing pigtail ! had his mouth full teeth 
 all black tongue all dirty breath ah ! 
 bah ! shall I ever get it clean ? " And in 
 went the soap and the dripping brush, until 
 the child's mouth looked like a shaving pot, 
 and he was nearly strangled in his efforts to 
 resist the offensive application. 
 
 " Hold still, child, hold still," she exclaimed; 
 " soap's clean, but tobacco isn't ! Ah, the dirty, 
 poison stuff! Hold still ; I'll scrub it off if I 
 can. There, now, rinse your mouth ; rinse it 
 well ; gargle the water in your throat ; " and 
 the mother, suffering the flurry to subside, 
 sank into a chair. The three witnesses stood 
 by amazed. 
 
 " If ever I seed sich a time ! " said Miss Abi- 
 gail, as she returned, laughing, to her cook- 
 ing stove. 
 
 "Soap's healthy; they say it cures bile," 
 remarked James, dryly, as he proceeded to his
 
 9-2 THE WINTER SCHOOL. 
 
 ordinary routine of business; "but 1 declare 
 'taint so pleasant to have it chucked down 
 your throat at that rate." 
 
 "Rinse it well, Willie," said his mother; 
 " take plenty of water three, four, a dozen 
 times." 
 
 There was no need of that exhortation, for 
 more rinsings and garglings than could be 
 counted were necessary to take the taste of 
 that strong, coarse soap out of the poor child's 
 mouth. At last, after gaspings and swallow- 
 ings innumerable, he recovered his speech, 
 while tears of anger, fright, surprise, or shame, 
 or perhaps all together, flowed freely down his 
 cheeks. 
 
 " You're too bad, mother ; you 'most killed 
 me. Twan't pigtail at all 'twas honey- 
 dew." 
 
 "'Twas tobacco, child, tobacco; that's what 
 it was, and that's enough. No matter what 
 the name is ; no matter how much they honey 
 and sweeten it up ; 'twas tobacco, the filthy, 
 poisonous weed, in my Willie's mouth. What 
 do you think father'll say ? " 
 
 That was an unanswerable question. Wil- 
 lie didn't like even to think about it. So his 
 mother, who, by this time, had resumed her 
 usual tranquillity, wiped, the boy's face, and
 
 A TIMELY SCRUBBING. 93 
 
 leading him back to the sitting room, an- 
 swered it for him. 
 
 "He'll say, Willie, that he is ashamed, 
 mortified, that a child of his should do such a 
 coarse, vulgar, dirty thing. He'll say, that he 
 is grieved that you, knowing what his opinion 
 and practice are about the use of tobacco, 
 should go contrary to his wishes, and disobey 
 and dishonor him by chewing it. He'll be 
 surprised, perfectly astonished, that, after what 
 was said upon the subject only the other 
 night, you should slyly and deceitfully com- 
 mit such a fault. Willie, he'll understand 
 now, and so shall I, why you did not join the 
 society in school, and why you were not will- 
 ing to remain and hear your teacher's lecture. 
 O Willie, my son, my dear child, I would not 
 have believed it possible that you should have 
 acted so wickedly." The mother was silent, 
 and her face was sad. Willie stood looking 
 earnestly into the fire, the big tears rolling 
 down his cheeks. 
 
 " How long have you chewed, Willie?" she 
 asked, after a pause. 
 
 " I don't know, 'ma ; ever so long." 
 
 " Where do you get your tobacco ? " 
 
 " The boys give it to me." 
 
 "What boys?"
 
 94 THE WINTER SCHOOL. 
 
 " James Lawrence and Joshua Little." 
 
 " Do you love it, Willie ? " 
 
 " I didn't at first, but now I do pretty well." 
 
 "What made you chew it at first?" 
 
 " Why, the boys laughed at me, and said I 
 was such a baby I wouldn't dare to without 
 asking my mother; and so I did it just to 
 show "em I didn't care ; and then I always 
 did it when they gave me any." 
 
 " What boys laughed at you ? " 
 
 "Why, Josh and Jim." 
 
 " Are they good boys ? " 
 
 " I don't know, ma'am ; I don't think they 
 are, very." 
 
 "Which ought you to care for the most, 
 Willie, these naughty boys, or your mother?" 
 
 " I know I ought to care for you most." 
 
 " Do you think you ought to let such boys 
 influence you? Now I wish to have you 
 associate with good boys, like Benajah Clark, 
 and Josiah and Nicholas Gilmore." 
 
 " Nicholas chews, too, and to-day they made 
 him smoke a cigar. It made him real sick." 
 
 " What a pity it is that you and Nicholas 
 should associate with such naughty boys, and 
 that you should prefer them to those you 
 know to be good ! It makes me think of the 
 little bird we saw last summer, charmed by
 
 A TIMELY SCRUBBING. 95 
 
 the evil eye of the cat, until it fell right down 
 into her jaws. So, if you listen to tempting, 
 bad boys, you will surely fall into their snare. 
 You see that you have done it already. You 
 must be bold and positive, Willie, against 
 wrong, and learn to say no, when you are 
 tempted ; and, above all, never fear being 
 laughed at." 
 
 A hasty knock at the door at that moment 
 was heard, and the next instant Tristram 
 Gilmore rushed into the room. 
 
 "Mrs. Osborne, mother wants to know if 
 you'll come up to our house, right away. 
 Nicholas is sick, dreadful sick ; we don't know 
 but he'll die, and nobody can tell what's the 
 matter with him." 
 
 With true neighborly kindness she threw 
 on her shawl and hood, and giving aunt 
 Nancy hasty directions while she strapped on 
 her snow moccasins, she left Abigail's inviting 
 dinner smoking upon the table, and hurried 
 up the street to Squire Gilmore's. 
 
 Here a counterpart to the scene which had 
 just taken place awaited her.
 
 96 THE WINTER SCHOOL. 
 
 CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 ANOTHER FLURRY. 
 
 Ox a couch in the pleasant sitting room at 
 Squire Gilmore's lay Nicholas. The bright sun 
 shone in at the low windows, but he heeded 
 it not. The fire glowed in the open stove, 
 but it brought no cheer for him. With eyes 
 closed and lips compressed, the child tossed 
 restlessly from side to side, at short intervals 
 violently vomiting. The sheet that covered 
 him was not whiter than his usually ruddy 
 cheeks, nor the ice that hung over the win- 
 dows more cold than his hands and feet. Ho 
 groaned with pain, started and twitched con- 
 vulsively, and a cold sweat stood on his pale 
 forehead. 
 
 His mother leaned over him, trembling with 
 anxiety and alarm ; every body in the house 
 was astir to do something, they scarcely knew 
 what ; and the neighbors, heaiing of the boy's 
 sudden illness, were rapidly gathering with 
 offers of assistance. 
 
 " Oh, Mrs. Osborne, what shall I do ? " ex- 
 claimed the poor, frightened mother. "I've
 
 ANOTHER FLURRY. 97 
 
 sent for Dr. Moore, but he's away over to the 
 pine woods to see old Mrs. Jones she's very 
 low. There's no knowing when he'll be back, 
 and I don't know what to do 'for Coly. Oh, 
 dear! I wish I knew what was the matter 
 witli him he acts so strange." 
 
 " He was just as well as could be this morn- 
 ing," said Tristram. "He was out sliding 
 with the boys." 
 
 " Did you go up this morning with them ? " 
 asked Mrs. Osborne, addressing Tristram. 
 
 " No, ma'am ; I had something to do for 
 father, and I couldn't get off. But lots of 
 boys went." 
 
 " Did Sidney Barnes go do you know ? " 
 
 " No 'in ; he waited to go with me this after- 
 noon." 
 
 "He was smart and chipper as could be 
 when he went off this morning," remarked 
 Dolly, the " help," as she came in with warm 
 water for his feet. " Whatever's happened, 
 mercy knows, that he should be strick down 
 so sudden." 
 
 Mrs. Osborne had a key which she fancied 
 would unlock the mystery at once. Willie's 
 remark had enlightened her. But not wish- 
 ing to forestall the opinions of the doctor, or 
 the confessions of the child, and believing 
 7
 
 98 THE WINTER SCHOOL. 
 
 that he was not in a dangerous condition, she 
 remained silent, and busied herself in doing 
 what she could in the emergency. In the 
 mean time the child's sickness increased, and 
 after every exertion he would sink back in 
 deathly faintness upon his pillow. 
 
 "I never saw a child so faint," said his 
 mother. " 'Tis this that frightens me." 
 
 All that household pharmacy and neigh- 
 borly kindness could prompt was brought for 
 his relief, but without avail. It was with the 
 greatest joy that the sleigh bells of the doc- 
 tor were heard at the gate, and the squire, 
 who had been absent from home on business, 
 came in at the same moment. 
 
 The doctor, with the coolness characteristic 
 of his profession, marched up to the stove, 
 took off his gloves, unbuttoned his coat, and 
 sat down to warm his feet, at the same time 
 with apparent carelessness surveying the scene. 
 Life or death didn't seem to trouble him 
 much. 
 
 The father, alarmed at the change in his 
 cheerful home during his brief absence, and 
 not knowing how to interpret the pale, dis- 
 tressed looks of his wife, hastened to the 
 couch, and commenced an examination for 
 himself.
 
 ANOTHER FLUNKY. 99 
 
 " Coly, my son, what's the matter with 
 you? What's made you sick?" he asked, 
 leaning over the couch. 
 
 There was no response. The child only 
 turned away his face from his father, and 
 passed his hands restlessly over his head. 
 
 "He hasn't spoken since he came home," 
 said the mother. "He just threw himself 
 down on the floor, and cried, ' Oh, clear ! I 
 feel so bad ! ' and that is every word he has 
 said." 
 
 " Can it be scarlet fever, doctor ? " asked 
 the anxious father. " My brother's little boy 
 was taken just so last week." 
 
 " May be. What had he for breakfast this 
 morning, Mrs. Osborne ? " 
 
 " He ate a simple breakfast, as usual, doctor, 
 and not much of a meal either, he was in 
 such a hurry to get away." 
 
 " Where has he been ? " 
 
 "Up on the hill, sliding." 
 
 With whom ? " 
 
 " All the boys." 
 
 " Some mischief going on, perhaps," sug- 
 gested the doctor. "There's some roguish 
 little scamps among the boys here." Hap- 
 pening at that moment to look up, he encoun- 
 tered the speaking eyes of Mrs. Osborne,
 
 100 THE WIXTEIl SCHOOL. 
 
 which, seemed to say that he had struck the 
 right lead. So he went on. 
 
 "Nic," he asked, in his blunt, rough way, 
 " what did you do up there ? Tell me all about 
 it now : it won't hurt you to talk a bit. Let 
 on now, and let's have the truth, the whole 
 truth, and nothing but the truth. What did 
 you do up there ? " 
 
 " Nothing much : I slid," said the child, 
 hesitatingly. 
 
 " Of course but between whiles what 
 did you do then ? Eat any thing ? " 
 
 "Ate an apple; that's all." 
 
 " Hem ! No nuts nor raisins ? " 
 
 "No." 
 
 "What did you drink? Brandy whisky 
 gin egg-nog ? What did you have that 
 was good ? " 
 
 " Nothing," answered the child, tartly. 
 
 " What did you chew ? Gum India rub- 
 ber? Perhaps you have swallowed a piece 
 of rubber. Boys do sometimes. A boy over 
 to Sampville swallowed a piece the other day. 
 'Twasn't a very big piece neither, but 'twas 
 the death of him. Shall have to get the 
 stomach pump to you. Nothing else will do 
 for that." 
 
 " I haven't done any such thing," cried the
 
 ANOTHER FLUKEY. 101 
 
 child, evidently as terrified as the doctor 
 meant he should be. 
 
 "Tobacco, then," persisted the doctor. 
 " That's just as bad a rank poison makes 
 you deathly sick. All fixed up, nowadays, 
 for boys and young gentry. Call it ' solace,' 
 'honey-dew,' all the fancy names, squire. 
 They sugar it up, but the poison's there just 
 the same. Come, own up, my boy. Been 
 eating the stuff?" 
 
 No answer ; but a tossing of the head and 
 fearful vomiting ensued, and the child fell 
 back on his pillow exhausted and ghastly. 
 
 "Answer the doctor, my child," said the 
 father, after an interval. " It is necessary for 
 us to know the truth." At the same time, he 
 had such implicit confidence in the integrity 
 of his son, that he never doubted for one mo- 
 ment that his reply would be satisfactory. 
 
 "It makes boys have convulsions some- 
 times," continued the doctor "horrid spasms 
 makes 'em sick as death, and sets their flesh 
 creeping all over 'em. But I know what to 
 give you. A right smart dose of ipecac will 
 straighten you out." 
 
 " Oh, don't," cried the child, " don't. I didn't 
 chew a bit to-day not a bit."
 
 102 THE WINTER SCHOOL. 
 
 " Then you smoked, I'll bet a dollar. Come, ' 
 now, I know it's tobacco; it acts just like it. 
 Have to give you an emetic, any way. Hand 
 a cup, Mrs. Gilmore." 
 
 "Why, doctor," said she, "Coly never 
 smokes. What, such a child as he? I know 
 he hasn't he wouldn't do such a thing." 
 
 A ray of light seemed to flash upon Tris- 
 tram's mind, who had been awaiting the ex- 
 amination with intense interest. He observed 
 a quizzical smile play over the doctor's fea- 
 tures in answer to his mother's assertion, as 
 though he would have said, "Don't be too 
 certain, my dear madam. Boys do very 
 naughty things sometimes, that mothers don't 
 know about." Looking around, he observed 
 a significant expression on Mrs. Osborne's 
 face. Stepping up to her, he asked in a low 
 tone, 
 
 " Do you think it possible ? " 
 
 " It may be," was the replp; " go and talk 
 to him yourself, Tristram. Ask him if they 
 had cigars; if Willie smoked; if the others 
 did." 
 
 So, while the doctor was preparing the nau- 
 seous dose, Tristram knelt by the side of 
 the couch, and in his turn began to ply the 
 little sufferer with questions.
 
 ANOTHER FLUKEY. 103 
 
 "Was Jim Lawrence on the hill to-day, 
 Coly?" 
 
 Yes." 
 
 "And Josh?" 
 
 "Yes." 
 
 " Did they smoke any ? " 
 
 "Yes." 
 
 "Did Willie Osborne smoke?" 
 
 "No." 
 
 "Why not?" 
 
 " He said he couldn't, he didn't know how. 
 He did try a little bit. Oh, don't ; do be still, 
 Tris, I'm so sick." 
 
 "Just a minute, Coly. I'm sorry you are 
 sick; but just tell me what made you do it." 
 
 " I didn't say I did go along," answered 
 the child, fretfully. 
 
 " It seems hard to trouble you when you 
 are sick," said the father, taking up the mat- 
 ter, and speaking very seriously. "But if it 
 is true that you have been using tobacco in 
 any way, I wish to know it. It is a deadly 
 poison, my son, and if you have taken it, you 
 must have the proper antidote." 
 
 " Ipecac's the best thing in the world," said 
 the doctor. " The poisoned saliva has operated 
 on the stomach, and the smoke has penetrated
 
 104 THE TVIXTEK SCHOOL, 
 
 his brain. This at first, and another medicine 
 I will leave, will cure him." 
 
 " My son," resumed his father, authorita- 
 tively, " answer me promptly, before we give 
 you any medicine, or do any thing further for 
 you. Have you smoked a cigar, or tried to, 
 to-day?" 
 
 It was plain to see that a sharp struggle 
 was going on within the mind of the tor- 
 mented boy tormented not only with illness, 
 but with remorse, shame, and the mortal fear 
 which the doctor's formidable words had in- 
 spired. He found a voice at last, and ejacu- 
 lating, 
 
 " It was only half a one, father. I never 
 did it before," he burst into a flood of tears. 
 
 "That's good, first rate," said the doctor; 
 " better out than in, my lad. ~Now we know 
 what ails you, we'll go to work and cure you. 
 Dangerous experiment though ; mustn't try it 
 over again. Now for the emetic. Here, Polly, 
 Dolly, somebody, hold his nose for him 
 here goes " 
 
 The pain and grief of Mr. and Mrs. Gilmore 
 it would be hard to describe. Oh, if children 
 only knew how they make their parents suffer 
 when they do wrong, we do believe they
 
 ANOTHER FLUKEY. 105 
 
 would be more careful and conscientious. So 
 thought Mrs. Osborne, who sympathized truly 
 with her afflicted friends, with the weight of 
 her own sorrow lying heavily upon her heart. 
 
 Tristram stood transfixed. For a few mo- 
 ments he was lost in thought ; then, with great 
 vehemence, he exclaimed, 
 
 " Now, father, I'll tell you what. I know, 
 I'm almost sure, those awful boys have done 
 it on purpose. They've done it just to spite 
 us. They've got hold of these little fellows, 
 and made them smoke just to bother us and 
 then crow ; " and his indignation scarcely 
 knew bounds. 
 
 " I'll find out, you see if I don't," he con- 
 tinued, speaking more to himself. "Before 
 this sun sets, I'll find out." 
 
 " That's right, my boy ; be earnest," said 
 the doctor ; " ferret it out, and don't let 'em 
 come it over you. You Corner boys are doing 
 a noble thing down there to school. I've 
 heard about it. Go ahead, Tris, and you'll 
 never be sorry." 
 
 And he did succeed in finding out what the 
 boys in question took no pains to conceal, but 
 rather boasted over. 
 
 "We've made Me Gilmore smoke," they
 
 106 TILE WINTER SCHOOL. 
 
 said, "and we'll make every boy in school 
 smoke or chew before we wind up." 
 
 Oh, no, you won't, wicked ones, not by a good 
 many. Right is stronger than wrong, and 
 must prevail. Some of you, we rather hope, 
 will be converted from your bad habits, yea, 
 all of you, and for ever shun a poison which 
 is fast destroying soul and body.
 
 A THREEFOLD EVIL. 107 
 
 CHAPTER XV. 
 
 A THREEFOLD EVIL. 
 
 OF course, in these two well-regulated fam- 
 ilies an offense of so serious a nature was not 
 carelessly passed over. Very grave were , the 
 conversations held with the two boys by their 
 respective parents, and before the next Thurs- 
 day the little culprits, with mortified but res- 
 olute air, subscribed their names to the anti- 
 tobacco pledge, and were found, with the 
 school, attentive listeners at Miss More's sec- 
 ond lecture. 
 
 ~NoY were they the only addition to her 
 audience. Mr. and Mrs. Clark, according to 
 agreement with their children, were on hand 
 at the appointed hour, and asked permission 
 to hear her remarks. Mrs. Osborne, too, de- 
 siring to give, by her personal interest in the 
 occasion, all the help she could to the little 
 penitent Willie, came over to the school house, 
 accompanied by aunt Nancy, and asked the 
 same privilege. 
 
 Somewhat diffident the young teacher felt at 
 the thought jof speaking before those so much
 
 108 THE WINTER SCHOOL. 
 
 older than herself. But she was not one who 
 allowed feelings of reluctance to prevent her 
 from doing her duty ; and, strong in the con- 
 scious wish and purpose to benefit to her 
 utmost capability the youth intrusted to her 
 care, she quickly put under control any ris- 
 ing of annoyance at the intrusion, and calmly 
 proceeded to her lesson. 
 
 The subject this afternoon was, The various 
 Methods of using Tobacco. The timid lec- 
 turer remarked, 
 
 " The ingenuity of man has been taxed to 
 invent methods of preparing this poisonous 
 article, and we can not help thinking, with 
 King James, that an inspiration from the 
 spirits of darkness has aided depraved and 
 sensual men in making it an instrument of 
 such prevalent and fruitful evil. The plant is 
 dried, cooked, and compounded, ground, rolled, 
 cut, and mixed, so that people, by snuffing, 
 chewing, and smoking, may obtain to the ut- 
 most its deleterious qualities. 
 
 " Snuff-taking is supposed to have origin- 
 ated in Paris, with the famous Catharine de 
 Medicis. It is recorded of her, that she 'used 
 tobacco in the form of a powder,' thus insti- 
 tuting a practice for which the French people 
 have been notorious to the present day. Since
 
 A THREEFOLD EVIL. 109 
 
 that time the Germans, English, and Scotch 
 have also become quite addicted to it. Of all 
 the methods of using tobacco this is the most 
 execrable. People have to stuff, push, cram, 
 and sniff, in order to make the snuff stay in the 
 nose, and by dint of their various contrivances 
 they do get a portion of it up, while the rest 
 is all spilled upon their clothes or wiped off 
 upon their handkerchiefs, presenting a filthy 
 and repelling appearance to every person of 
 neatness and delicacy. The particles which 
 are retained lodge in the cavities of the head, 
 and produce the most disastrous consequences. 
 A clergyman recently died of a disease of the 
 head, and, on examination, a large quantity 
 of hardened Scotch snuff was found there. 
 He had a brother, an officer in the army, who 
 was also an inveterate snuff-taker. He carried 
 his snuff loose in his pocket, because he said 
 the opening of a snuff-box on the field of bat- 
 tle, or while on review, was inconvenient ! 
 
 "The only recommendation that is given 
 for snuff-taking is, that the custom is a socia- 
 ble one. This is more than can be said in 
 favor of smoking. Smokers can not be social, 
 as all the powers of speech, as well as all the 
 faculties of their being, are brought into requi- 
 sition in the engrossing act of smoking. This
 
 110 THE WINTER SCHOOL. 
 
 method of using the poison produces a sort of 
 intoxication, stimulating the brain, and espe- 
 cially quickening the imagination, so that 
 many students and literary men consider it 
 quite essential to success in their studies. 
 Even ministers of the gospel sometimes feel 
 that they can not arrange their ideas for a 
 sermon without the aid of 'a good cigar.' 
 
 "The custom of smoking is supposed to 
 have been known to the Chinese from time 
 immemorial. In India and Burmah, in South 
 America and the Sandwich Islands, both sexes 
 smoke ; and it is not uncommon for the mother 
 to take the lighted pipe from her mouth and 
 put it to the lips of her nursing infant. But 
 these are barbarous and half-civilized people. 
 Alas, that in Christian countries we should 
 ihid this wretched custom almost as prevalent ! 
 The Germans, French, Spaniards, English, 
 and Americans smoke a large portion of their 
 time. . Even women in our own enlightened 
 country, where better employment and more 
 refined enjoyment may be had so freely, are 
 beginning to imitate the habits of less favored 
 communities, and are learning to smoke a weak 
 and delicate article termed 'cigarette.' Let 
 us blush for them ! 
 
 " The practice of smoking has become, from
 
 A THREEFOLD EVIL. -Ill 
 
 its universality, intolerable to persons of re- 
 finement. You can not go any where in any 
 of our large cities, to any grocery store, res- 
 taurant, hotel, railroad station, steam or ferry 
 boat, but you must inhale the fumes of tobac- 
 co. So regardless are those who are given to 
 this disgusting habit of all the requirements 
 of decency, that it has become a public neces- 
 sity to post placards in every place, excepting 
 the street and the church, ' ]STo smoking 
 allowed here,' as though a sensible and or- 
 dinarily polite man needed a public reminder 
 of his obligation to regard the sensibilities 
 and comfort of those around. What right 
 has a person to pollute and poison the air 
 that others must breathe ? Many persons suf- 
 fer daily from the heedlessness of men in this 
 regard, being made uncomfortable and ill by 
 such poisoned air ; Many an infant, it is be- 
 lieved, has died in its cradle from the tobacco 
 smoke with which its own father has filled 
 the room; and sometimes even from the 
 strong, fetid breath of its parent sleeping in 
 the same bed. 
 
 " Tobacco affords by distillation an oil, one 
 or two drops of which, applied to the tongue 
 of a cat, has destroyed life in a few minutes. 
 Yet every smoker is constantly manufacturing
 
 112 THE WINTER SCHOOL. 
 
 this poisonous oil, and experimenting with it 
 on the most delicate and vital organs of his 
 own body. The cigar especially discharges 
 this poison directly into the mouth of the 
 smoker, and when he swallows the saliva, 
 which he must needs do to some extent, the 
 whole is conveyed to the stomach. You can 
 judge for yourselves what must be the conse- 
 quence to the health. 
 
 " Chewing involves no loss of time, and, for 
 this reason, perhaps, is more in use among our 
 hard-working population, who can only in- 
 dulge in the luxury of a pipe or cigar in the 
 intervals of labor. It is a very prevalent prac- 
 tice, too, in schools and colleges. But if we 
 can say so little in favor of snuffing and smok- 
 ing, can you expect any thing in behalf of 
 this, where the poison comes directly in con- 
 tact with the organs of eating and digestion ? 
 Must not its effect on the health be in this 
 way more immediate, severe, and fatal ? " 
 
 "Why does it not kill, then, at once?" in- 
 quired one of the boys. 
 
 "Probably because the tobacco manufac- 
 tured for chewing, and used by beginners, is 
 prepared in the least concentrated and most 
 palatable form. The habit once fixed, and 
 the system gradually accustomed to the poi-
 
 A THREEFOLD EVIL. 113 
 
 son, it is taken in larger quantities and more 
 crude form. Were it not for this, none would 
 survive to become confirmed chewers. I could 
 relate to you many anecdotes, both serious 
 and amusing, of the inconvenience and sick- 
 ness caused by the first attempts to learn to 
 chew tobacco. But I will reserve them for 
 some other occasion. 
 
 " Next week I will describe more in detail 
 the eifect produced by the poison upon the 
 health." 
 
 8
 
 114 THE WINTER SCHOOL. 
 
 CHAPTER XVI. 
 
 " Miss MORE didn't tell us the whole story 
 about snuff-taking, yesterday," said Bessie 
 Simonson, as the girls and boys clustered 
 about the stove next day at recess. 
 
 " I thought she told us a pretty good one, 
 any how," remarked Tristram. 
 
 "I too," added Benajah; "and father said 
 it was first rate really worth coming three 
 miles to hear." 
 
 While the majority of the school found 
 ample diversion out of doors, when released 
 from study, the little area around the fire 
 was the favorite rendezvous for the older, or, 
 rather, the more sedate and select portion. 
 Here they cracked nuts and ate apples, while 
 they enjoyed much pleasant conversation, 
 discussed popular subjects, held political cau- 
 cuses and religious conferences on a small 
 scale, and compacted and cemented friend- 
 ships for after years. 
 
 Being in the near vicinity of the teacher's 
 desk, she had an opportunity of hearing much
 
 DIPPING. 115 
 
 that, was said, and thus of ascertaining the 
 current of opinion and feeling among the 
 young folks on a variety of topics. Often, in 
 an easy and familiar way, she joined in the 
 conversation, thus giving the weight of her 
 judgment and experience where it was needed. 
 Miss More liked to talk with her scholars ; it 
 opened a pleasant avenue to the heart and 
 conscience. She felt it to be no compromise 
 of dignity or authority to become, for the 
 time being, as one of them, but rather a 
 strengthening of that power by which she 
 swayed her school. Would that all teachers 
 followed her example, and, in the language 
 .of Scripture, "to the weak became as weak, 
 that they might gain the weak" stooped 
 to those younger, more simple and ignorant 
 than themselves, that they might lift them 
 up to a higher standard and sphere. How 
 much precious instruction might in this un- 
 professional way be imparted to the young; 
 how many words in season spoken, to be set 
 in the memory, as " apples of gold in pictures 
 of silver;" how many choice seeds of truth 
 dropped into the open heart, that should 
 spring up and "bear fruit, thirty, sixty, or a 
 hundred fold " 1 
 
 So, on this occasion, hearing the remark of
 
 110 THE WINTER SCHOOL. 
 
 ie, it did not surprise the little group, or 
 h them either, when she stepped down 
 from her desk, and came in among them. 
 
 " Wherein did I come short, Bessie ? " 
 she asked. 
 
 " You didn't mention dipping, Miss More ; 
 and that is quite a common practice." 
 
 " Well, really, Bessie, you have the advan- 
 tage of me. I have seen that word in books, 
 but I confess to utter ignorance of its mean- 
 ing. Enlighten me, do." 
 
 " Do, Bessie, do," cried several at once. 
 
 " When I was at the Water Cure last sum- 
 mer, with mother and aunt Amelia, we be- 
 came acquainted with a Mrs. Monroe, from- 
 Baltimore, who was a patient there. She was 
 a very elegant lady, and had a family of beau- 
 tiful children. She was the life of the house. 
 In the morning we saw but little of her ; but 
 when she was dressed for tea, and came out 
 on the balcony, she made such a splendid 
 appearance with her rich dress and brilliant 
 manners, that she became the center of at- 
 traction. Every one seemed fascinated by 
 her. In dull, rainy weather, and evenings in 
 the parlor, she kept the whole company in 
 good humor with her plays, songs, dances, 
 and various amusements. She got up tab-
 
 DIPPING. 117 
 
 leaux and charades magnificently. We never 
 suspected that it was any thing more than a 
 lively disposition and quick wit, as mother 
 said, that made her so pleasant and agreeable. 
 But one day I went to her room on some 
 errand, soon after dinner. ' 'Ma can't see you,' 
 said her little girl; 'she is brushing her teeth.' 
 Of course I didn't want to interrupt her toilet; 
 so I went away, and waited nearly an hour, 
 and then I called again. "Ma is brushing her 
 teeth; she can't see you,' was the answer 
 again. I didn't know what to make of it, and 
 mother didn't, either. We thought it was 
 strange that she should spend so much time 
 on her teeth, at that hour of day too, and we 
 laughed about it considerably. Aunt Amelia 
 was in our room, and she didn't speak at 
 first; but at last, as if she had been thinking 
 about it, she says, 
 
 " ' I wonder if Mrs. Monroe dips. If she 
 does, that accounts for her uncommon bril- 
 liancy in the parlor.' 
 
 "'Dips? Why, of course,' said mother, 
 laughing. 'Water-cure patients must needs 
 dip more or less.' 
 
 "'Yes, in the pure water,' said my aunt, 
 quite seriously. ' But I mean something very 
 different. Southern ladies have a practice of
 
 118 THE WINTER SCHOOL. 
 
 using tobacco which they call dipping. They 
 dip a brush, or a soft stick, prepared at one 
 end like a sort of tiny broom, into snuff, and 
 rub their teeth and gums until they are 
 thoroughly permeated with it. You would 
 hardly believe it, but it produces great exhila- 
 ration of spirits a species of intoxication ; in 
 fact, it makes them tipsy. I should really 
 like to know if Mrs. Monroe does this.' 
 
 " Of course we were greatly astonished, for 
 even my mother had never heard of such a 
 thing. My aunt had spent a good deal of 
 time at the South for her health, and she had 
 learned about it there. 
 
 " ' The effect,' said she, ' is similar, I have 
 been told, to that produced on opium-eaters 
 by the use of their favorite drug. It renders 
 them for a time oblivious to all care and 
 trouble, and brings them into a sort of dreamy, 
 happy state, in which they hardly know what 
 they are doing just like a man that has 
 taken wine enough to make him not exactly 
 drunk, but '" 
 
 " Half seas over," interjected Sidney. 
 
 "Yes, I suppose that's about it," replied 
 Bessie, laughing. "Much obliged for your 
 help, Sidney."
 
 DIPPING. 119 
 
 "Well, did you find out? Was it really 
 BO ? " asked Rebecca. 
 
 " Oh, yes, to be sure. After staying there 
 some time, we became better acquainted with 
 her, and found out all about it. She made no 
 secret of it, nor her children either. They 
 thought, I suppose, it was all right. Then she 
 had her governess with her an interesting 
 young widow. This governess took a great 
 fancy to aunt Amelia, and one day she came 
 to her, and asked if she would try to get a 
 new situation for her, as she was going to 
 leave Mrs. Monroe. 
 
 " ' Why do you leave ? ' asked my aunt. 
 
 "'I have tried very hard to remain and 
 get along,' she replied. * I love the children, 
 and get a good salary, but I can't get along 
 at all with Mrs. Monroe. She has a practice 
 of dipping, which produces a terrible" effect 
 upon her. Have you noticed how very in- 
 teresting and entertaining she is in the even- 
 ing?' 
 
 Yes.' 
 
 " c But you notice that she never comes to 
 breakfast ? ' 
 
 " ' Yes, I have remarked it.' 
 
 " ' Well, her brilliancy is an intoxication. 
 Do you know any thing of the custom?'
 
 120 THE WINTER SCHOOL. 
 
 " ' Yes,' said aunt Amelia. 
 
 " ' In the morning the effect of the snuff has 
 passed off, and the reaction is perfectly fright- 
 ful. Her countenance is haggard, her limbs 
 are weak and trembling, and she is nervous 
 and irritable to a dreadful degree. Some- 
 times she acts like a mad creature, and no 
 one can manage her at all but her husband ; 
 and he has to be very stem and severe with 
 her. I have sometimes thought she would 
 kill me for no offense at all. I believe she is 
 really insane for the time, and there is no 
 telling what she may do. I don't want to 
 stay with her any longer] I am afraid, and 
 that's the whole truth.'" 
 
 "How dreadful this is!" said Miss More. 
 " It is something quite new to me, but I am 
 glad to know it. You have given quite an 
 appendix to our yesterday's lesson, Bessie. I 
 hope, my dear scholars, that, knowing these 
 things, we shall all set our faces like a flint 
 against the use of a poison so terrible in every 
 shape ; and that no inducements of appetite, 
 fashion, or vanity will ever lead us to use it." 
 
 " This seems the worst way of any don't 
 you think so, Miss More ? " asked Anna Little. 
 " To take snuff into the nose is awful, but to 
 take it into the mouth oh, I don't see how
 
 DIPPING. 121 
 
 anybody that goes by the name of lady could 
 do such a- thing." 
 
 " Why, Anna, they learn to love it," replied 
 Bessie, "just as the drunkard does his drams. 
 Mrs. Coleman that's the name of Mrs. Mon- 
 roe's governess told me of one lady who 
 became so extremely addicted to this practice, 
 that her husband positively forbade it, and 
 watched her closely ; and what do you think 
 she did ? Why, she tied the snuff in a corner 
 of her pocket handkerchief, and took it after 
 Lor husband had gone to sleep." 
 
 "Horrid, oh, horrid ! " they all exclaimed. 
 
 "I know it, but it's true, nevertheless," 
 said Bessie. " And now I have delivered the 
 lecture I promised you, Tristram," she added, 
 as the bell rang, and they rose to resume 
 their desks. 
 
 " We ought to be thankful, dear young 
 ladies," said Miss More, " that we have been 
 brought up differently, and have been taught 
 to look at this subject in a clearer atmos- 
 phere. That practice will never seem so 
 odious to the children of Mrs. Monroe as it 
 does to you. They will, probably, follow in 
 the footsteps of their mother, and in time ruin 
 their own health and morals by the pernicious 
 custom. We should rejoice that we are not
 
 122 THE WINTER SCHOOL. 
 
 in their situation, and must do all we can to 
 enlighten and reform others. Bessie's narra- 
 tive really makes me sad. I pity the poor, 
 silly votaries of fashion of our own sex, who 
 seek to patch up their wasted charms, and to 
 purchase enjoyment and admiration, at the 
 expense of all that is noble and precious in 
 their womanhood." 
 
 Miss Simonson had not exaggerated this 
 vile and wretched practice, to which women 
 in some parts of our country are addicted. 
 We read in a note to Dr. Shew's Prize Essay 
 on Tobacco Diseases, that " in North Carolina, 
 Southern Virginia, and perhaps other districts 
 of the South, ladies, even when traveling upon 
 railroads, are in the habit of dipping. The 
 process consists in having a small piece of 
 wood, (dog-wood or hickory, or perhaps other 
 kinds of wood,) about the size of a cigar. 
 One end of this is chewed till it becomes a 
 sort of brush, or broom, after which it is 
 dipped, more or less frequently, into a snuff- 
 box, kept for this purpose. Companies of 
 ladies, in these parts, while sitting, of an after- 
 noon or evening, sewing, have their pot of snuff 
 on the table, so that each one can ' take a dip ' 
 now and then. It is likewise a habit to invite 
 one another from house to house, to perform
 
 DIPPING. 123 
 
 in this social way. On these occasions they sit 
 in a row, with apron or napkin in hand, and 
 make dipping the whole business for an hour 
 or two, just as men sometimes smoke and 
 drink together after dinner. Many keep it 
 from their husbands that they dip, consider- 
 ing the practice a disreputable one." 
 
 Alas, alas for woman, that she should 
 descend so low ! * 
 
 * As this chapter has been discredited, we beg leave to ap- 
 pend an extract from Aughey's " Iron Furnace," in testimony 
 of the existence and prevalence of this practice. 
 
 After speaking of the well-known habit of clay or mud eat- 
 ing among the "poor whites " of the South, the author says : 
 " Akin to this is the practice of snuff-dipping, which is not 
 confined exclusively to females of the poor white caste, though 
 scarcely one in fifty of this class is exempt from the disgust- 
 ing habit." He proceeds to describe the manner and un- 
 healthy consequences of the custom, and then adds : " The 
 Petersburg (Va.) Express estimates the number of women in 
 that State as one hundred and twenty-five thousand, one hun~ 
 dred thousand of wliom are snuff-dippers. Every five of these 
 will use a two-ounce paper of snuff per day ; that is, to the 
 hundred thousand dippers, two thousand five hundred pounds 
 a day are necessary, amounting, in one year, to the enormous 
 quantity of nine hundred and twelve thousand pounds. This 
 practice prevails generally among the poor whites, though 
 females of the higher classes are guilty of it."
 
 124 THE WINTER SCHOOL. 
 
 CHAPTEH XVII. 
 
 A PEEP INTO A MINISTER'S STUDY. 
 
 WE have already intimated that of the two 
 boarding places offered to Miss More, she had 
 given preference to the family of Mr. "Wade. 
 
 Mr. Wade was the pastor of Cainpfield 
 upper parish a young man, in his first set- 
 tlement. "With a very helpmeet of a wife, 
 the exact counterpart of himself in Christian 
 amiability of temper and earnestness of pur- 
 pose, the household offered as quiet and pleas- 
 ant a retreat as could be desired. Our young 
 teacher had already, during the summer, made 
 their acquaintance, and felt that to share the 
 delights of their fireside and to enjoy the daily 
 sunshine of their friendship would be a rare 
 privilege. Nor was the pleasure of the an- 
 ticipation altogether on her side. Their esti- 
 mate of her attainments and worth had 
 awakened in them a cordial affection, and 
 when asked by the committee to open their 
 doors to her reception, they assented most 
 cheerfully. 
 
 Already had the trio become as brother and
 
 A PEEP INTO A MINISTER'S STUDY. 125 
 
 Bisters in the family coadjutors in every 
 good word and work, and counselors and 
 comforters in general to one another in their 
 differing, yet arduous, cares. Many and long 
 to be remembered were the hours of peace 
 and quiet pleasure enjoyed that winter in the 
 sunny little parsonage. 
 
 Saturday afternoon had been passed by our 
 young friend in her own apartment, in study 
 and work preparatory to the Sabbath and the 
 ensuing week. As the sun declined, she turned 
 toward the light, still busy with her needle ; 
 but as the shadows gathered more darkly, 
 she carelessly dropped her work, and gazed 
 thoughtfully out of the window. Before her 
 the snow-covered marsh alone intervening 
 the broad ocean spread itself out, an un- 
 broken field of waters, far to the right and 
 left. It lay untossed of winds, tranquil as a 
 summer sea, its blue surface undulating in its 
 natural swell and motion, and the surf rising 
 and breaking on the white beach in its gen- 
 tlest mood. It was in itself a picture of serene 
 and refreshing beauty. Presently, upon the 
 opposite sky, just where it touched and blend- 
 ed with the blue waters, there shot up rays 
 and glimmers of silvery light, the lambent 
 signs of some unseen but approaching glory.
 
 126 THE WINTER SCHOOL. 
 
 A moment more, and a radiant line of solid 
 light appeared on the edge of the eastern 
 horizon. On and up it came, growing every 
 moment in beauty and brightness, until, ar 
 rayed in the fullness of her splendid, radiant 
 attire, the full moon stepped forth in queenly 
 majesty upon the watery, waving pavement 
 A sheet of lustrous brightness fell from her 
 resplendent form upon the sea, and, all along 
 from the distant horizon to the sandy shore, 
 the rippling waters gleamed and flashed like 
 diamonds set in azure. 
 
 " All thy works shall praise thee, O Lord, 
 and thy saints shall bless thee," was the in- 
 voluntary exclamation of the beholder of this 
 magnificent, unlooked-for spectacle ; and she 
 clasped her hands in delight and devout ad- 
 miration. 
 
 " O Lord, how manifold are thy works ! in 
 wisdom hast thou made them all," uttered a 
 gentle voice close beside her. " The heavens 
 declare the glory of God, and the firmament 
 showeth his handiwork." 
 
 "O Lucy," said the first speaker, "have you 
 seen this glorious sight? Was anything ever 
 so beautiful?" 
 
 "I have been watching it with you, Annie," 
 replied the other, laying her arm affectionately
 
 A PEEP INTO A MINISTER'S STUDY. 127 
 
 over the shoulder of her friend. " You were 
 so rapt that you did not notice my entrance. 
 No wonder ! It is a scene that fills the soul 
 with admiration, and lifts it up above and 
 beyond this mortal plane. I have often en- 
 joyed it from this very spot, and it is a spec- 
 tacle that never tires. It is really worth while 
 to live in Campfield, if only to enjoy sunrise 
 and sunset from this open sea. But, Annie, I 
 came to see what had happened to you. What 
 have you been about this long afternoon ? " 
 
 " Oh, busy as usual, getting my lesson for 
 to-morrow, and thinking up next week's work. 
 The fact is, my sister Lucy, I have been brought 
 by my scholars into a wee bit of a scrape." 
 
 " How so ? That's a great acknowledg- 
 ment for a teacher, surely ; " and sister Lucy 
 laughed merrily. 
 
 " They have got up such an enthusiasm on 
 this tobacco question, and, of course, I mustn't 
 be behindhand. So I promised to give them 
 a course of lectures on a subject I know noth- 
 ing about nothing at all. I really don't 
 know where to get my information. I have 
 never seen the stuff used to any extent. My 
 father never used it, and I have no brother " 
 
 " Or lover ? " asked Lucy. 
 
 "I wouldn't have one that used tobacco,
 
 128 THE WINTER SCHOOL. 
 
 any how," replied Annie, blushing. "There 
 was a young gentleman that visited at our 
 house occasionally who smoked. I played 
 checkers with him one evening, and that was 
 enough. The fumes of his breath across the 
 table sickened me." % 
 
 " Perhaps you'll get taken in some day, not- 
 withstanding," suggested Lucy, drawing down 
 her face to a comical length. " Such things 
 have happened, you know." 
 
 " Xot I. I'm too sensitive for that. I can 
 tell a smoker as soon as he comes within 
 speaking distance ; and a chewer I can tell 
 him as far off as I can see him. You couldn't 
 catch me any quicker than I could catch you, 
 little Mrs. Pastoress," replied Annie, playfully. 
 
 " But I did get caught, with all my princi- 
 ples and caution," remarked the minister's 
 wife, more seriously. 
 
 " You ? Impossible ! Clarence doesn't 
 smoke ! " 
 
 " Not now he did." 
 
 "Lucy! What do you say? I can scarcely 
 believe you." 
 
 "'Tis even so. my dear Annie; and since 
 my experience may be one item added to 
 your scanty stock of knowledge on this sub- 
 ject, I will give it to you;" and drawing a
 
 A PEEP INTO A MINISTER'S STUDY. 129 
 
 low seat to the side of her friend, she be- 
 gan : 
 
 "I never dreamed of such a thing before 
 my marriage; and if any one had told me 
 that Clarence smoked, I should have resented 
 it indignantly. Indeed, if I had suspected it, 
 I believe I should have crucified my love by 
 saying no; but after we were married, and 
 settled down here to our work, it all came 
 out. Clarence took it into his head that he 
 couldn't write his sermons unless I would 
 take my work and sit with him in his study. 
 Thursday has always been his sermon day, 
 and as it was a leisure day for me, I agreed 
 to the arrangement very willingly. So the 
 first week, after I had finished my morning 
 work, 'red up,' as aunt Fortune would say, I 
 went into the study. As I opened the door, 
 I was greeted with a cloud of sickening to- 
 bacco smoke. I could scarcely believe my 
 senses. 
 
 "'Why, Clarence,' I cried, 'what is this? 
 Do you smoke ? ' 
 
 " ' When I'm writing sermons, darling,' said 
 he, quietly. 
 
 " I was speechless, and stood quite still in 
 the doorway, hardly knowing whether to go 
 in or out. 
 
 9*
 
 130 THE WINTER SCHOOL. 
 
 " ' "Won't you stay ? ' he asked. ' Can't you 
 bear it ? Is it very unpleasant to you ? ' 
 
 " ' I can bear any thing my husband can, I 
 suppose,' said I. But I felt very badly. I 
 could have cried like a child. I have been 
 brought up with a great horror of tobacco, 
 and prided myself, that, as it was never used 
 in my mother's house, it never would be in 
 mine. I was disappointed and grieved more 
 than I can tell you. Clarence seemed sorry 
 that I felt so badly about it, and tried to rea- 
 son with me. 
 
 " ' I never smoke but just here,' he said ; 
 ' but here I need it, and take it as a medicine, 
 It helps me wonderfully in composing my 
 mind to my work, in arranging my ideas 
 in short, I .couldn't build a sermon without 
 the aid of a good Havana.' 
 
 "'And those good sermons I have enjoyed 
 so much, then, are the offspring of tobacco 
 smoke,' I said, sorrowfully. 'How are the 
 mighty fallen ! I thought they indicated tal- 
 ent and piety, and emanated from a sacred 
 inspiration.' 
 
 " c My dear, one can not write well unless 
 the physical condition be favorable. A good 
 cigar brings me into just that condition. It 
 allays all nervous irritation, stimulates the
 
 A PEEP INTO A MINISTER'S STUDY. 131 
 
 brain slightly, makes thought flow freely, fan* 
 cy play, and reason clear itself from fogs. 
 Under its influence I can argue, illustrate, 
 enforce truth, in a manner astonishing to 
 myself.' 
 
 " ' If I were a minister,' I said, ' I would go 
 into my study, and, kneeling down, would 
 ask "the Almighty, who giveth understand- 
 ing," for the aid I needed to communicate his 
 message to the people. I would ask for clear 
 perceptions of truth, and mental ability to 
 clothe it in language clear and acceptable to 
 others. I would seek a divine influence to 
 compose my nerves, to lift off the burden of 
 care, to enlighten my mind, quicken my im- 
 agination to inspire me. I would not call 
 to my aid a paltry stem of tobacco for such a 
 purpose.' I spoke warmly, but I felt deeply. 
 The thing seemed to me absurd and wicked, 
 and I was grieved that the one I loved best, 
 and had trusted most, should be guilty of it ; 
 and out of the abundance of the heart my 
 mouth spoke. 
 
 " Clarence took it very good-naturedly. 
 4 Oh,' said he, ' you don't understand. You 
 don't know what it is to have to write ser- 
 mons at just such a time, and often on just 
 Such a subject, whether you feel like it or not.
 
 132 THE WINTER SCHOOL. 
 
 Work that only requires physical activity you 
 can compel yourself to perform ; but mental 
 labor is quite different. I'm sorry you don't 
 like the smoke, darling. But I won't inflict 
 it as a penance upon you. I would rather 
 relinquish the pleasure of your society than to 
 have you suffer.' 
 
 "'Oh, no,' I said, C I shall stay. I must 
 learn to live in any atmosphere my husband 
 is obliged to breathe.' So I took a chair by 
 the open window, and sat down to work. 
 
 " Things weni on so for some time. I 
 thought the matter over a great deal, but 
 could not reconcile myself to it any way. I 
 could only look at it in one light, as some- 
 thing disagreeable to me, and wrong in my 
 husband. But I was not dictator to him ; so 
 I said nothing further about it; but I prayed 
 most earnestly that the Lord would lead him 
 out of what I felt would prove a certain snare. 
 I felt that it would undermine his health and 
 his Christian character ; but above all, that it 
 was degrading the holy work of the gospel 
 ministry. Could divine truth be elaborated 
 and expounded only under the influence of a 
 poisonous drug? Was not the Spirit of God 
 able to do, in answer to prayer, as much as a 
 material stimulant would effect? Did the
 
 A PEEP ESTTO A MINISTER'S STUDY. 133 
 
 preacher of God's holy word need to pollute 
 the medium through which the message of 
 salvation was to come to dying men, by an 
 intoxicating appliance, before it could be made 
 to fulfill its office ? 
 
 " One day, when my husband was over to 
 Sampville on business, I was sent for in great 
 haste to go over to Deacon Ward's. Their 
 little Olivia had been ill, and was then thought 
 to be dying. She was a beautiful child, one 
 of those sweet, engaging little ones whom 
 every body loves ; and to her parents she was 
 a complete idol, the pride and delight of their 
 eyes. I never saw such a distressed family. 
 The house was full of friends and neighbors, 
 weeping and wringing their hands ; and it 
 was really agonizing to witness such grief. 
 They wanted me to pray with them. You 
 can judge what a trial it was. I was so 
 young, and never had had any experience by 
 which I could appreciate their sorrow; and I 
 was timid, too, and bashful under any circum- 
 stances. What could I do ? I couldn't refuse, 
 and yet I felt very unequal to the require- 
 ment. However, I did the best I could, and 
 commended them to the God of all comfort, 
 it was of no use for me to try to comfort 
 them, and then I went home. But I felt
 
 134 THE WINTER SCHOOL. 
 
 dissatisfied and disturbed in my mind that I 
 hadn't done better." 
 
 "That was vanity, my dear," whispered 
 Annie, in a confidential manner ; " don't you 
 think so?" 
 
 "Yes, upon the whole, I think it was," 
 replied Lucy, smiling ; " you probably un- 
 derstand the feeling, or you couldn't have 
 analyzed it so readily. Well, when Clarence 
 came home, I told him what a trial I had been 
 through ; and instead of being sorry for me, 
 and sympathizing, as I supposed he would, he 
 seemed delighted. 
 
 'That's all right,' said he, 'all right. ]\Iy 
 little bashful wife has got to be brought out, 
 and that's just the way. You are a minis- 
 ter's wife, my dear, and are bound to help 
 your husband in all his labors among the peo- 
 ple ; and when he's away, you must step right 
 into his place. Some day, when I am sick, 
 you'll have to go into the pulpit and preach 
 for me,' said he, playfully. 
 
 "'^Tever stepping out of my own sphere,' I 
 replied, laughing; 'but I'll tell you what I 
 can do : I can go into the study and write 
 your sermon if necessary.' 
 
 " * 1 dare say you would fill either position
 
 A PEEP INTO A MINISTER'S STUDY. 135 
 
 extremely well,' said he, with one of his pro- 
 found bows. 
 
 " ' But I must learn to smoke first,' said I. 
 I spoke before I thought. It was a subject 
 we had not broached since that first day ; and 
 when the words were out, I didn't know how 
 they would be received. 
 
 " Clarence looked at me, and smiled a little, 
 but he didn't speak. I thought it struck him 
 rather strangely the idea of my learning to 
 smoke, as a preparation for helping him in his 
 pastoral duties. I confess that the idea was 
 as new to me as the words were sudden ; but 
 it did not pass away so quickly. I turned it 
 over and over again in my mind. ' Suppose 
 I should learn to smoke,' said I to myself, 
 1 and let him see how absurd it would appear.' 
 Why shouldn't a woman smoke as well as a 
 man ? If it is really a sedative, a tranquilizer, 
 surely she needs it more than man. If it 
 affords a healthy exhilaration when important 
 or extra duties demand an increase of activ- 
 ity, why may it not be allowed her as well as 
 her husband ? I made up my mind to try it, 
 and see what the effect on Clarence would be. 
 I practiced when he was not at home. At 
 first, it made me quite faint and sick ; but by
 
 ISO THE WlA-TEB SCHOOL. 
 
 doing it moderately, I accustomed myself 
 gradually to the practice, and could presently 
 do it with quite the air of an amateur. Now 
 came the time to try my experiment ; and I 
 tell you it was not without some trepidation 
 that I entered the study that Thursday morn- 
 ing. I opened my desk by the window where 
 I usually sat, and spread out my paper for 
 writing. Then I went to the table where 
 Clarence sat, selected a cigar from the holder, 
 took a match, and lighted it. I puffed and 
 whiffed as though I were used to it. I did 
 not look at Clarence, but just went to work 
 as if it were an ordinary, every-day occur- 
 rence. But I felt that he was looking at me 
 all the while. He stopped writing, and I knew 
 he was watching me. At last, in a surprised, 
 wondering tone, he said, 
 
 "'Lucy, will you have the goodness to tell 
 me what you are going to do ? ' 
 
 " 'I am going to try my luck at a sermon,' 
 I answered, lifting the cigar from my lips, and 
 waiting leisurely for the smoke to escape. I 
 didn't look at him, but hurried to my seat, for 
 I knew that one look would upset my grav- 
 ity, my courage, and my whole design. He 
 made no reply ; but I knew he was thinking,
 
 A PEEP INTO A MINISTER'S STILDF. 137 
 
 for I didn't hear the scratch of his pen. I 
 went on steadily. I wrote, and smoked, and 
 whiffed away, and poised my cigar, as he did, 
 thoughtfully on my fingers, tipped off the 
 ashes, and spit. Yes, I went through the 
 whole performance ! Oh, dear ! how mean I 
 should have felt doing such dirty business, 
 had it not been that the motive ennobled the 
 occupation for the time being ! The earnest 
 desire of my heart that my husband might 
 see the practice in its true light, through my 
 adoption of it, sanctified the means, to my 
 thinking, and so I kept on. For about ten 
 minutes we sat so Clarence -musing, and I 
 smoking and writing as if my life depended 
 on it. Then he rose and came to me. 
 
 "'Lucy,' said he, 'it is ridiculous. I own 
 it. Look here, darling ; ' and he threw his 
 cigar out of the window as far as he could 
 throw it. It alighted at the foot of that rose 
 bush yonder then full of delicious damask 
 roses. 'I shall never defile my lips with a 
 cigar again, so help me God,' he said, sol- 
 emnly. 
 
 " I looked up at him. A tear was standing 
 in each eye, and I perceived that he was very 
 serious. He didn't treat it as a joke, at all ;
 
 138 THE WINTER SCHOOL. 
 
 and 1 was glad of it. I took the cigar from 
 my own mouth, and threw it so that it fell by 
 the side of his. 
 
 "'./will never smoke again, either,' said I. 
 C I can make any sacrifice my husband can.' 
 
 " l Share in any legitimate, heaven-appointed 
 sacrifice, you may, Lucy,' said he ; but never 
 may I see you participate in a sacrifice of 
 health, character, or Christian feeling. You 
 shall share labor with me, but not transgres- 
 sion. I said the other day that you must be 
 ready to do any thing that I did. Xow I say 
 that I will never do any thing which I would 
 not like to see you do.' 
 
 " When we sat down to tea that evening, I 
 brought in a handful of those beautiful roses, 
 and threw them down on the table. Clarence 
 smiled. He knew w T hat they were designed 
 to commemorate ; and I don't believe he will 
 ever look at that bush, or enjoy the fragrance 
 of the blossoms, without remembering and 
 reiterating his resolution. He pointed to it 
 as we were passing the other day and called 
 it our JRose de Souvenance* His sermons 
 have been better lately than they ever 
 were." 
 
 * Rose of Remembrance.
 
 A PEEP INTO A MINISTER'S STUDY. 139 
 
 "You are a darling, good little woman, 
 Lucy," said Annie, putting her arm around 
 her friend, and kissing her affectionately; 
 "more radiant in the eyes of your husband 
 than that glorious moon shining in upon us 
 so magnificently. You will 'do him good, 
 and not evil, all the days of your life.' "
 
 140 THE WINTER SCHOOL. 
 
 CHAPTER XVIII. 
 
 A DANGEROUS LUXURY. 
 
 THE third lecture day brought quite an ad- 
 dition to Miss More's little audience. Several 
 persons from the neighborhood dropped in, 
 and two families, from the far districts of the 
 town, sent representatives to learn more accu- 
 rately what was going on in the "new school," 
 the fame of which had spread all over Camp- 
 field. Mrs. Deacon Gooch, and her daughter 
 J.annah, came over, and to the astonishment 
 of several of the boys, who were eagerly watch- 
 ing the signs of the times, Bill the refrac- 
 tory, untamable Bill had been induced to 
 remain to hear the lecture with them. Surely 
 the enterprise was growing in favor with the 
 community, and the hearts of Tristram and 
 Sidney were overflowing with joy. 
 
 Miss More announced her subject The 
 Effects of Tobacco upon the Bodily Health. 
 
 " The chief argument in favor of tobacco, 
 among all classes, is, that the health requires 
 it. Xever was there a greater mistake. It is 
 the. most prolific agent of pain and disease
 
 A DANGEROUS LUXURY. 141 
 
 known. Even spirituous liquors are scarcely 
 more destructive to life and health. Dr. Shew 
 has enumerated no less than eighty severe 
 diseases caused by tobacco, many of them the 
 most dangerous to which the human system 
 is liable. It impairs every sense and faculty, 
 consumes every energy, restricts every capaci- 
 ty, so that from the crown of the head to the 
 sole of the foot, not an organ or member can 
 escape its deadly influence. Sight, hearing, 
 smell, taste, each fails before the monster, and 
 every beautiful thing in life, for the enjoy- 
 ment of which these senses were created, is 
 in consequence palled and blighted." 
 
 " If it is so bad," asked Sidney, " why do 
 doctors give it ? 'Most, every body that uses 
 it says that the doctor ordered it." 
 
 " Medical men are themselves often slaves 
 to the use of the filthy weed, and are ignorant, 
 willfully or otherwise, or perhaps unobservant, 
 of its very deleterious effects. But you may 
 note that it is not the truly scientific, learned, 
 or honest physician who will prescribe it, 
 except in extreme cases, or allow its use, 
 unrebuked, among his patients. 
 
 " Dr. Shew says, ' It is admitted by physi- 
 cians that there are several articles in the 
 ma'ieria medica which possess all its good
 
 142 THE WIXTER SCHOOL. 
 
 qualities, and are, at the same time, compara- 
 tively safe ; and probably not one patient of 
 ten thousand treated allopathically in any of 
 the more civilized countries, for the past fifty 
 years, has had tobacco administered to him. 
 It is so dangerous a medicine that it is almost 
 never used by the profession. Yet there are 
 those who hold human life so little worth, 
 that, to avoid trouble, or to gain favor with 
 their patrons, they will recommend or allow 
 its use at the choice and discretion of patients 
 themselves. It is easier to tell a man to smoke 
 for a suffering condition of the tonsils and 
 pharynx, than to encounter his prejudices, and 
 lose his custom, by assuring him that smoking 
 has caused that very diseased condition, and 
 nothing will cure it but an utter abandonment 
 of the practice.' " 
 
 "Can you ask questions when you want 
 to ? " asked Bill Gooch of one of his neigh- 
 bors, in a loud whisper. 
 
 " Certainly," answered Miss More, who had 
 heard the inquiry. " I icish you to ask any 
 questions pertinent to the subject. What 
 would you like to know, Gooch ? " 
 
 " I want to know how it happens that folks 
 live to be so old, and chew and smoke all 
 their life long if it is such a poison."
 
 A DANGEROUS LUXURY. 143 
 
 " That is a very important question, since 
 it has been often used as an argument in favor 
 of tobacco. I will answer it in the words of 
 another," said Miss More, as she took up a 
 little book from the table beside her. " ' It 
 has been asserted, in favor of tobacco, that 
 some, who use the article habitually, live to a 
 good old age. The same thing has often been 
 said in favor of alcoholic drinks. We know 
 a man may live, not only " threescore years 
 and ten," but to one hundred years and up- 
 ward, drinking spirits daily for three fourths 
 of his life. Such a case only proves that a 
 man, with a good constitution and regular 
 habits in every thing else, may, in spite of the 
 alcoholic poison, hold out to a great age. The 
 same is true of tobacco. Nor does any one 
 clairn^ that it ever prolongs life.' Dr. Alcott 
 says, ; I have known some persons live to old 
 age in the extravagant use of tobacco ; but 
 they bear a small proportion to those who, by 
 the habit of using it, have been swept into 
 the grave in early or middle life.' " 
 
 "I never heard of any body dying from 
 tobacco," said the skeptical youth. 
 
 " Very likely ; but you frequently hear of 
 deaths from apoplexy, palsy, cancer, bronchitis, 
 consumption, heart disease, insanity. Now,
 
 144 THE WINTER SCHOOL. 
 
 any one of these diseases may be caused, ac- 
 cording to the authority of our most learned 
 medical men, directly by the use of tobacco. 
 One doctor says, 'More people have died, in 
 one year, of apoplexy, since the first introduc- 
 tion of snuff, than died of that disease in a 
 hundred years before.' And this is but one of 
 the many diseases which might be alluded to. 
 
 " But the use of this terrible poison not only 
 originates disease, it aggravates the symptoms 
 of those which have their origin in other 
 causes; so that a tobacco-user often falls a 
 victim to disorders which in a healthy subject 
 might be readily cured. In malarious dis- 
 tricts, or where an epidemic, as cholera or 
 yellow fever, prevails, they are usually among 
 the earliest and greatest sufferers." 
 
 "Dr. Wilcox^told my father to chewfo^* the 
 toothache, any how," said a little girl. 
 
 "That is frequently the excuse for using it, 
 Eliza," replied her teacher, " and probably its 
 occasional use in such a case might be benefi- 
 cial. Its immediate effect is to quiet the 
 nerves and allay pain ; but the opinion that it 
 preserves the teeth, if we can believe those 
 who make the treatment of the teetfi their 
 special business, is a grossly mistaken one. It 
 is stated by dentists that the teeth of tobacco-
 
 A DANGEROUS LUXURY. 145 
 
 chewers are in reality less perfect than those 
 of other people, and that their gums are par- 
 ticularly diseased. 
 
 "*So it has been recommended for dyspepsia, 
 and yet there is not probably a more fruitful 
 cause of this disease. It requires no great 
 degree of intelligence to perceive this fact. 
 Saliva impregnated with smoke and swallowed 
 will preserve whatever food it comes in con- 
 tact with, in the form in which it is found. 
 The stomach, then, instead of performing its 
 work of dissolving the food and preparing it 
 for assimilation with the system, serves only 
 as a receptacle for that which becomes a clog 
 and burden rather than a nutrition and help 
 to the body. The increased quantity of saliva 
 expended in chewing and smoking drains off 
 the vitality of the system, and is another 
 cause of impairing the important function 
 of digestion. The mouth and throat, after 
 having been exposed to this stimulation, lose 
 the power of taste, and it becomes necessa- 
 ry that the food, to be palatable, should be 
 highly seasoned with various exciting condi- 
 ments ; which process, of itself, is a sufficient 
 cause of indigestion. This poisoned saliva 
 affects the liver, kidneys, and every internal 
 organ, deranges the whole bodily machinery, 
 10
 
 146 THE WINTER SCHOOL. 
 
 prevents the legitimate appropriation of food 
 creates intolerable thirst, which strong drink 
 alone will quell ; in fact, it utterly consumes 
 the person. A German physician says, "that 
 of the deaths occurring among men, in Ger- 
 many, between eighteen and thirty-five years 
 of age, o^e half are from the effects of smoking. 
 He asserts that ' tobacco burns out the blood, 
 the teeth, the eyes, the brain.' How can it be 
 otherwise ? Any drug taken daily would pro- 
 duce disease and death, and this is ouejof the 
 most virulent poisons ever discovered. How 
 can people be so blind to its effects, so en- 
 slaved to the appetite, as to use it in spite of 
 its frightful consequences ? "
 
 AN OUT-DOOR SERMON. 147 
 
 ft 
 
 CHAPTER XIX. 
 
 t 
 
 AN OUT-DOOR SERMON. 
 
 DEACON GOOCH was passing in his sleigh 
 just as the little assembly was dispersing from, 
 the school-room door, and perceiving sundry 
 members of his own family interspersed among 
 the various groups, he very naturally stopped 
 to take them in. 
 
 " Upon my word, Sally," exclaimed he to 
 his wife, as her huge proportions clambered 
 into the vehicle, " what on airth brought you 
 down here? Should as soon a' thought o' 
 picking up a salmon on the beach. What's 
 up now?" 
 
 "We heerd. the schoolma'am was goin' to 
 talk this arternoon, and Hannath tuk it inter 
 her head to come down so I come with 
 her." 
 
 " Hannah ? and Bill, too, 'pon my word ! 
 Bless me, you're thick as peas. Come, jump 
 in quick." 
 
 " Oh, father, do ask Miss More to ride ; do," 
 suggested Hannah. " She might as well ride 
 as walk."
 
 148 THE WINTER SCHOOL. 
 
 "To be sure; why, of course 'tis jest as 
 cheap, seem' as I shan't charge nothin'. Make 
 room forher. Holloa, there ! Miss More ! 
 Won't you jump in ? Plenty of room." 
 
 " Plenty of room," repeated Bill, with un- 
 common deference, as he swung out of the 
 box and attached himself to the runners. 
 "Plenty of room; jump in up-a-diddy," 
 shouted the deacon^ in a rude attempt at 
 mingling the polite and playful. " Bless me, 
 you're as light as the eeder down. And so 
 you've raly bin holdin' a meetin'," he con- 
 tinued, as he adjusted the blankets around 
 the little figure. " Tell me, now, what it's 
 all about." 
 
 "About tobacco, father," said Hannah. 
 "Don't you know Major Perkins's wife told 
 us last night about it ; how they had a society 
 down there, and how Miss More delivered 
 lectures ; and I wanted Bill to stay and hear 
 'em, and he wouldn't without I came ? " 
 
 " And you ought to have heerd it," added 
 Hannah's mother. " You wouldn't smoke and 
 chew so, I know, if you only heerd what she 
 said." 
 
 "Wouldn't I? Well, now, I should like 
 to know," said the deacon, as if he would 
 Lave added, "If you think I'm the man to be
 
 AN OUT-DOOR SERMON. 149 
 
 converted by what a woman says, and a 
 young woman at that ! " But he didrft add 
 that. In place of it, he cast what he meant 
 to be a very benignant look upon the young 
 lady. Well he remembered all the serious 
 apprehensions he had felt with regard to her 
 advent in Campiield, and how, since the 
 opening of her administration, he had won- 
 dered often and often by what irresistible 
 charm she had so won upon his turbulent and 
 unruly boy, that, for the first time in his life, he 
 had caused him no trouble with his "schoolin'." 
 "I don't see how she doos it," he said, in an 
 undertone, as he stole a second glance at her, 
 and gathered up the reins ; " there isn't much 
 to her, any how." 
 
 The much of a person, deacon, is to be 
 measured inwardly, not outwardly ; by attain- 
 ments, not stature ; by weight of the spiritual, 
 not the corporeal. 
 
 "Come, now, dew tell, as we're glibbin' 
 along," said he, in a familiar manner. Famil- 
 iarity and condescension he fancied to be po- 
 liteness in such a case as this, where age, and 
 dignity, and mental superiority were brought 
 by circumstances alongside of youth and ap- 
 parent nothingness. Poor, obtuse Deacon 
 Gooch! "Come, now," said he, "give us a
 
 150 THE WINTER SCHOOL. 
 
 sort o' summarium of your lecture can't 
 ye?" 
 
 " She made it out to be regular poison, 
 I tell you," says Bill. 
 
 "Now, ye don't," rejoined the old man; 
 " why, that's truly orful. But every body's a 
 right to their own opinion, of course. So you 
 raly think so do ye, Miss More? I've lived, 
 nigh on to sixty years, and it hasn't pisoned 
 me yet." 
 
 "Now, don't laugh and make fun, father," 
 said Hannah, seriously; "you just let Miss 
 More tell you her reasons for not using to- 
 bacco. I wish you would." 
 
 "Oh, well, sartain. To be sure, I'd like 
 first rate to hear. I'm an old man, but chil- 
 dren's wiser than their parents nowadays. 
 'Tisn't to be expected that young folks should 
 know quite as much as the old folks ; but then 
 this one's a schoolmistress, and head and 
 shoulders over common folks, I s'pose ! " and 
 he gave a low bow, and what might have 
 been intended as a mocking 1 or a complimen- 
 tary look at the young lady. 
 
 What strange, ill-mannered, disagreeable 
 people there are in this world ! If we only 
 could navigate in and out the ways of life 
 around all such persons, coming in contact
 
 AN" OUT-DOOR SEEMOX. 151 
 
 only with the well-bred, refined, and charm- 
 ing, how comfortable it would be ! So thought 
 our young friend, as she turned, involuntarily, 
 tp hide the feeling of disgust and aversion 
 that rose within. But a desire to do good 
 triumphed. This man's son was her pupil; 
 and for her pupils, like a little heroine that 
 she was, she could adventure much. She had 
 noticed, with pleasure, Bill's attendance upon 
 the afternoon's exercises, and believed the 
 good seed had been well received into his 
 heart; and to nurture and develop this into 
 the healthy fruit of good practice she was 
 ready to use her endeavors. So, smothering 
 all her antipathies and disgusts, she addressed 
 herself, with a pleasant smile and a frank, 
 modest demeanor, to the conversation. 
 
 " There is scarcely time for me to give you 
 now, Mr. Gooch, all the motives for not using 
 tobacco ; but I can mention some of them." 
 
 "Go on, go on," urged the deacon; "I'll 
 drive round the triangle. It's wonderful good 
 sleighing, and 'taint very cold, nuther." So, 
 pulling up the buffalo, and giving it a sort of 
 authoritative tuck around the form of his 
 companion, accompanied by a familiar " Gee 
 up, Billy," to his old nag, he composed himself 
 to listen.
 
 152 THE WINTER SCHOOL. 
 
 " You will allow me to speak plainly, Mr. 
 Gooch." 
 
 " Sartain, sartain to be sure." 
 
 " I don't think it is becoming in a sensible 
 man, and especially in a Christian, to use to- 
 bacco, in the first place, because the habit is 
 so excessively filthy. It is offensive to every 
 feeling of taste and refinement." 
 
 " Ha, ha, ha ! you're a woman ; that speaks 
 right out straight. Nobody but a woman 
 would think of such a reason. "We men don't 
 stand so on the nice. Ha, ha ! Well, to be 
 sure, women do have to do the cleanin' up ; 
 but then that's all they're fit for, pretty much." 
 
 An indignant glance burned in the mild 
 eyes of the young lady, and her first impulse 
 was to close her lips henceforth to the coarse, 
 unappreciative being beside her. But grace 
 triumphed. 
 
 " Mr. Gooch," said she, " you may not think 
 much of that reason; so we will not enlarge 
 upon it. It is, in reality, the least of the rea- 
 sons to be urged against the practices of which 
 we are speaking. Still I think it is not so 
 small a matter that a person should make 
 himself repulsive to his family and associates, 
 by the filthiness of his personal habits. If 
 the tables were turned, and woman should
 
 AN OUT-DOOR SERMON. 153 
 
 be guilty of such an outrage upon decency, 
 the custom would speedily be condemned. 
 But a more important consideration is the 
 health. Tobacco is pronounced by medical 
 men to be the most pernicious and poisonous 
 of all plants. Used in any form, it deranges 
 the system, causes various diseases, and hurries 
 its victim to the grave before he has lived out 
 half his allotted time." 
 
 " Guess, when a man dies, his time's come ; 
 that's my doctrine, young or old, my young 
 woman." 
 
 " The design of our Creator, without doubt, 
 was, that man should live to a good old age, 
 and die, as fruit falls when it is fully ripe ; but 
 owing to the habitual violation of natural 
 laws, very few fulfill their destiny in that re- 
 gard. Of all the violations of nature, none 
 can be more flagrant or fatal than the daily 
 use of a positive poison. But the effect of 
 tobacco upon the constitution is insidious, 
 and, therefore, not readily credited. People 
 will believe that any thing, rather than a pet 
 indulgence, produces the disastrous and grow- 
 ing infirmities they deplore. But there is 
 another consideration which I should think 
 would influence people. It is the eifect upon 
 the purse."
 
 154 THE WETTER SCHOOL. 
 
 Here Miss More felt that she had reached a 
 strong point. She knew, from observation 
 and hearsay, that the deacon was very fond 
 of his money. Nothing but the bare neces- 
 saries of life was accorded to his family, and 
 had it been suggested to him to use the money 
 which he annually expended on tobacco, in 
 appliances of taste and adornment about his 
 dwelling, he would have resented it as a ruin- 
 ous extravagance. So blind is selfishness. 
 
 " When we spend money," continued Miss 
 More, " we expect to receive something in 
 return which shall be an equivalent, and even 
 more desirable than the money itself; some- 
 thing that will stand and remain with us in 
 its place. Else why should we make the ex- 
 change ? But money spent for tobacco is 
 whiffed away in smoke, or showered uselessly 
 and indecently around in disgusting expecto- 
 rations. What is left to show for it ? " 
 
 " Well, raly, now, that is a stumper ; but let 
 me see," said the old man, rubbing his hand 
 across his eyes, and giving another encour- 
 aging shout to old Billy, as if to evoke mean- 
 while some idea. " Why, now, my dear young 
 woman, you can say jest that very thing of the 
 rictuals we eat. When they're eat up, there's 
 nothing left, victuals nor money nuther."
 
 AN OUT-DOOR SEEMON. 155 
 
 " But your food has become incorporated 
 into your body, and imparts strength and 
 vitality to it throughout. It makes bones, 
 muscle, blood, nerve power. It helps you 
 work, it helps you think, it helps you enjoy; 
 in fact, it sustains your whole existence. But 
 tobacco gives no support, but " 
 
 "I don' no. I think tobacco's a regular 
 stand by. A good cigar when I'm layin' off, 
 or a mouthful of sweet Cavendish when I'm 
 workin', is victuals and drink too." 
 
 " It is very expensive, however, Mr. Gooch, 
 you will find, if you will take pains to reckon. 
 How much do you suppose you have spent in 
 all your life for it ? I heard your son telling 
 some one, the other day, he meant to have a 
 good farm out West to begin life with, but he 
 didn't know how he should manage to get it, 
 for his father wouldn't have any thing to give 
 him. Now, let us make a calculation if you 
 haven't puffed away and swallowed money 
 enough to buy a tolerable farm out West. 
 How many years have you smoked?" 
 
 " Well, I s'pose I might as well be good- 
 natered 'bout it, seein' as ye're goin' to bring 
 the old man up to the whippin' post. I've 
 been smokin' about forty odd years. I re- 
 member I begun when I was chorin' it down
 
 156 THE WINTER SCHOOL. 
 
 to the Pint, on old Mr. Little's farm ; that's 
 forty-three years ago. But then I hain't 
 chawed all that time. I begun to chaw one 
 winter, when I had the toothache most orful. 
 Let me see 'twas that horrid cold winter, 
 when the water froze to the critters' noses in 
 the sun a year or two after the war." 
 
 " Say it was thirty years ago." 
 
 " Well, yes, 'twas fall that thirty odd, X 
 guess." 
 
 "How much do you smoke a week, Mr 
 Gooch?" 
 
 " I don't scurcely like to tell," said the dea 
 con. " 'Taint hardly fair to make a man con- 
 fess his sins 'fore his family ; howsomever, I'll 
 go it. I didn't begin with cigars ; them was 
 costly those days. I smoked a pipe in old 
 times, and used up about a fourpence ha'- 
 penny a week for it. Now that ain't much." 
 
 "Twenty years' use of a pipe cost you, then," 
 said Miss More, after a little mental arithme- 
 tic, " about sixty-five dollars. Twenty years' 
 use of cigars will be how many a week, 
 Mr. Gooch?" 
 
 " Guess," said the deacon, with an attempt at 
 humor; "see, now, if you're Yankee enough." 
 
 " Three a day, I know, is considered a very 
 reasonable allowance."
 
 AJST OUT-DOOR SERMON. 157 
 
 " Well, four a day 's my allowance. I allns 
 treats myself to two after dinner, to help the 
 victuals down." 
 
 "Four a day will not cost less than fifty 
 cents a week. Probably that will be below 
 the real expense, but I will reckon at that. 
 Twenty-six dollars a year, in twenty years, will 
 amount to five hundred and twenty dollars. 
 Add this to the pipe consumption, twenty 
 years before, and the chewing, and we can not 
 make it less than seven hundred dollars 
 smoked and spit away. Mr. Gooch, you have, 
 perhaps, never thought that you have thus 
 absolutely thrown away a valuable farm, or 
 even more than one sufficiently large for your 
 son to begin business on." 
 
 Miss More paused. The chimney of the 
 little white cottage was just coming in sight 
 behind the hill, and in another moment a 
 vigorous "whoa" brought old Billy to a stand- 
 still at the gate. 
 
 " You're a cute one," said the deacon, as he 
 handed the hitherto despised schoolmistress 
 out from the buffalo robes, seemingly a 
 good deal larger than when she stepped in. 
 "You've shut me up. No woman ever did 
 it before."
 
 158 THE WINTER SCHOOL. 
 
 It was a rough but hearty acknowledg- 
 ment of the potency of her words and argu- 
 ments. We may hope the profound impres- 
 sion made on the deacon's mind will be 
 enduring and salutary.
 
 HOW TO MAKE MONEY. 159 
 
 CHAPTER XX. 
 
 HOW TO MAKE MONEY. 
 
 FOLLOWING up the train of thought which 
 she had started in her conversation with 
 Deacon Gooch, Miss More "decided that the 
 economic view of the tobacco question should 
 engross her next lecture. And believing that 
 this would be with some of her pupils the 
 most influential consideration, she gave notice 
 in school of the particular manner in which 
 she would treat the subject, and invited all the 
 boys, particularly the older ones, to be present. 
 
 "I know that all of you, boys," she said, 
 " will be interested sooner or later in the art 
 of making money, and if you will remain at 
 the next lecture, I will let you into a very 
 important secret about it." She was grati- 
 fied to see Gooch, Perkins, and several of 
 the others who had persisted in holding back 
 from the enterprise, in their respective places 
 on this occasion, eager listeners to what she 
 might have to say. 
 
 " The art of making money lies mainly in 
 knowing how to save it. The saying of Frank-
 
 160 THE WINTER SCHOOL. 
 
 lin, c A penny saved is a penny earned,' Las 
 proved the solid foundation of many a large 
 fortune. Saving may be carried to the ex- 
 treme of miserly penuriousness, and result only 
 in misery ; but directed by wise motives and a 
 proper discretion, it puts in our hands the 
 means of self-improvement and elevation, and 
 makes us mediums of great usefulness to our 
 fellow-creatures. It is, therefore, quite proper 
 that we all, and especially you who are in the 
 very beginning of life, should look into this 
 matter carefully, and learn how we may be 
 truly economical and prudent. To spend 
 money for what is really beneficial to us is 
 right ; to minister by it only to some animal 
 appetite is foolish ; to use it for what is posi- 
 tively injurious is worse than folly it is sin. 
 
 " The loss of money to the individual is 
 but a fraction of the waste involved in the 
 consumption of tobacco. Every thing valua- 
 ble is sacrificed to it ; and before I come to 
 the calculation of individual expense, I want 
 to lay before you some items of more general 
 consideration. 
 
 " In the first place, we may look at the 
 waste of human life. In the United States 
 the direct loss of life from tobacco is esti- 
 mated to be m any hundred every year. When
 
 HOW TO MAKE MONET. 161 
 
 we consider the loss of labor, of property, of 
 intellectual resources, and of moral power in- 
 volved in this loss of life, this fact becomes 
 truly appalling. Add to this the loss of time 
 and money caused by the prolonged ill health 
 of multitudes more, the poverty and suffering 
 inflicted upon innocent relatives and friends, 
 and the evil can scarcely be computed. The 
 pauper tax alone in this country caused by 
 the use of tobacco is said to be three millions 
 of dollars a year ! 
 
 " It includes a great waste of valuable land 
 and labor. The consumption of tobacco, in 
 this country alone, requires five and a half 
 million acres of the richest land to be kept 
 constantly under its cultivation. If this im- 
 mense area of land were devoted to the rais- 
 ing of corn, wheat, cotton, flax, and other 
 useful products of the soil, would so many of 
 the inhabitants of this world be left to suffer 
 in hunger and rags ? The soil used for its 
 growth, moreover, soon becomes worn out, 
 and in some of our states, large districts of 
 deserted wilderness are seen where formerly 
 tobacco plantations flourished now good for 
 nothing. In regard to the labor expended in 
 this infamous service -ni in 1840, one tenth of 
 the entire population of the United States 
 11
 
 162 THE WINTER SCHOOL. 
 
 were engaged in raising and manufacturing 
 tobacco. And this number, on account of the 
 increasing demand for the article, is every 
 year growing larger and larger. Besides all 
 this waste, many large conflagrations, destroy- 
 ing millions of dollars' worth of property, 
 have been caused by carelessness in the use 
 of pipes and cigars. All this must be brought 
 in to swell the amount of waste of property 
 from this one bad habit. 
 
 " The waste of time, especially in taking 
 snuff", is not to be overlooked. It may amuse 
 you to listen to the calculation of the Earl of 
 Stanhope. * Every professed snuff-taker, at 
 a moderate computation, takes" one pinch in 
 every ten minutes. Every pinch, with the 
 agreeable ceremony of blowing and wiping 
 the nose, and other incidental circumstances, 
 consumes a minute and a half. One minute 
 and a half out of eveiy ten, allowing sixteen 
 hours to a snuff-taker's day, amounts to two 
 hours and twenty-four minutes out of every 
 day, or one day out of ten. One day out of 
 ten amounts to thirty-six and a half days in 
 the year. Hence, if we suppose the practice 
 of forty years' standing, two entire years of 
 the snuff-taker's life will be dedicated to tic- 
 kling his nose, and two more to blowing it.
 
 HOW TO MAKE MOXEY. 163 
 
 The expense of snuff, boxes, and extra hand- 
 kerchiefs, is another consideration, showing aa 
 great an encroachment on his means as his 
 time. The time and money lost to society, 
 if properly applied, would furnish a fund suf- 
 ficient to defray England's national debt.' 
 
 " The actual loss in money it is difficult to 
 realize, on account of its magnitude. In the 
 United States it is said to be thirty millions 
 of dollars annually, making an average of one 
 dollar and forty cents to every man, woman, 
 and child in the country. The expense of 
 the practice to individuals will be more easily 
 comprehended by you, and I wish you to pay 
 particular attention to the figures. It is a 
 very moderate cigar-smoker who spends only 
 six cents a day ; yet that sum, put to com- 
 pound interest, would in thirty years amount 
 to more than three thousand dollars and 
 this for a single person ! How much good 
 this sum of money would do, if properly ap- 
 plied! But there are multitudes who spend 
 double that sum. Many spend twenty-five 
 or even fifty cents a day in tobacco. The 
 students in some of our colleges pay annually 
 from six to eight thousand dollars for this vile 
 luxury. The cigar bill of many a clerk ex 
 cceds his board bill. The hard-working ma
 
 104 THE WINTER SCHOOL. 
 
 who thinks he can not furnish the means of 
 education to his children, and the Christian 
 of small income who declines aiding in a pro- 
 posed charity, will each spend thirty, fifty, or 
 a hundred dollars a year for tobacco. The 
 thirty millions of dollars, which is considered 
 a low estimate of the annual loss to this 
 country through the use of tobacco, would 
 provide every district in the land with a free 
 school, every hamlet with a free church, and 
 every pauper with a good home. Think of it ! 
 If appropriated to the spread of the gospel, it 
 would carry the glad news of salvation and 
 the elevating influences of civilization to all 
 the inhabitants of the globe. What a weight 
 of guilt and responsibility lies, then, at the 
 door of all who are addicted to this habit, 
 and especially of Christians who are slaves to 
 such a wicked and expensive appetite ! 
 
 " Save the money, then, boys, that you may 
 be tempted to use for tobacco. Save it for 
 your own improvement, and for the good of 
 your fellow-creatures. The wealth you will 
 thus accumulate will not merely be that of 
 dollars and cents, but soundness of body, ac- 
 tivity of mind, nobleness of heart, solidity of 
 principle, powers and facilities of usefulness,
 
 HOW TO MAKE MONEY. 1\).J 
 
 and eternal happiness the true riches, un- 
 counted and enduring." 
 
 " Mr. Rugg, over the creek, told father, the 
 other day, that he couldn't afford to take a 
 newspaper; and he smokes the whole con- 
 tinual time," was the comment of Josiah 
 Clark, as he passed out of the school room 
 that afternoon. 
 
 " He's always borrowing ours," added Mar- 
 cus. " He'd better save his cents, I think." 
 
 "And his senses too," remarked Sidney, 
 " If he don't mind, they'll go before long."
 
 166 THE WESTER SCHOOL. 
 
 CHAPTEE XXI. 
 
 THE WORKING LEAYEX. 
 
 DEACON GOOCH meditated profoundly on 
 the problem which his juvenile instructor had 
 demonstrated to him. But he was equally 
 profound in his silence upon the subject, 
 though that conversation and the subsequent 
 week's lecture were familiarly discussed and 
 commented upon in the family. The fact was, 
 he was placed in very embarrassing circum- 
 stances. How could he, the head of the fam- 
 ily, a man of such sagacity, the oracle of his 
 domestic circle, where an opinion was never 
 allowed free ventilation unless it had received 
 its origin and imprint from himself, how 
 could he stand up before his family and ac- 
 knowledge himself in error ? Besides, appe- 
 tite stood in his way. He had no idea of 
 relinquishing his favorite indulgence oh, no! 
 There were reasons enough in favor of his 
 holding on to his quid and his cigar. To be 
 sure, vague suspicions were now continually 
 floating in his mind that it was the poison 
 that lurked in the sweet morsel which caused
 
 THE WOKKING LEAVEN. 167 
 
 all the disagreeable and growing ailments of 
 which he found himself the victim. But he 
 was an old man, and the dear solace of his 
 weary hours could not be given up. The 
 pecuniary considerations moved him ; but he 
 had lost more that way than he ever should 
 again, and it was too late now to help that. 
 He could, however, compromise the matter 
 with his conscience. He would use his en- 
 deavors to prevent his son from following in 
 his footsteps. "All lie can save that way will 
 be clear gain," he said to himself, " and if there 
 is any truth about its spilin' the health, why, 
 he'll save that too." 
 
 So, on Sunday evening, after tea, having 
 ruminated on the subject for ten days, the 
 deacon spoke. 
 
 " Bill," said he, " I've been a-dwellin', ever 
 sence that day we druv the schoolma'am hum, 
 on what she said about tobacker." 
 
 The deacon paused. 
 
 "Well," said Bill. 
 
 "I think I'm beginnin' to git a realizin 
 sense of what a wasteful-like job it is to 
 smoke and chaw so long as I have. 'Tis a 
 fact, it costs orful." 
 
 He paused again. 
 
 "Well," says Bill.
 
 168 THE WINTER SCHOOL. 
 
 "Jest think, now, of seven hundred dollars 
 used up and thrown away." 
 
 "Nor that ain't all, neither," said Bill, aided 
 in his arithmetic by the computations of Miss 
 JVlore's last lecture. "If you had put that 
 tobacco money out at interest, year by year, 
 'twould have come to as much as five thou- 
 sand dollars by this time." 
 
 This was a new view of the subject, and 
 the deacon opened his eyes. 
 
 "It can't be helped now," said he ; "it's too 
 late. But I'll tell ye now, Bill, what I've 
 thought on." 
 
 "Well, what is it?" asked Bill. 
 
 " I've thought if you, now, for instance, now 
 you're young, and in your prime, leaves off 
 usin' the stuff, I'll jest give ye all ye save till 
 ye're free." 
 
 " Principal and interest too ? " inquired the 
 sagacious Bill. 
 
 " Ye see I has to fisd it now, and 'twon't 
 cost any more in the long run ; and if I give 
 it to ye all together, why, then you'll have 
 suthin' to start with. You're seventeen years 
 old now, and 'twill be four years 'fore you're 
 free. Four years now reckon up your cigars, 
 and see how much 'twill come to." 
 
 u 'Twon't be much," said Bill, in a disap-
 
 THE WORKING LEAVEN. 169 
 
 pointed tone.' " I don't smoke four or five a 
 day, as you do." 
 
 " Pooty nigh on to it, I guess." 
 
 " No, sir ; I don't get more than two, any 
 how ; and that ain't nothing." 
 
 "Wouldn't be worth saving, eh? Well, 
 count it three, now. I guess it's that in the 
 gin era! average." 
 
 "That would only be twenty-two dollars, 
 even money." 
 
 "Well, every little helps; that's, let me 
 see, that's eighty-eight dollars, in all." 
 
 "I can do better than that," said Bill, with 
 a brightening face. " You give it to rne every 
 year, and I'll get a six per cent, added to it. 
 I tell ye, 'twill pay." 
 
 " Well, I've got no 'jection to that. Then, 
 seein' you've been sech a good boy, like, this 
 winter, I'll begin when school leaves off, and 
 I'll pay you for work round the farm jest as I 
 pays Israel Jones. That '11 add a neat little 
 sum to it." 
 
 " Agreed," says Bill. " But now I'll tell ye, 
 father. " If you'd quit smoking too, " 
 
 " Oh, my boy, I can't, can't do no sech 
 thing, 'twould rack my constitution orful to 
 'tempt it." 
 
 "Better try."
 
 170 THE WINTER SCHOOL. 
 
 " 'Tisn't possible, Bill. I'm an old man, ye 
 see, and past my prime. 'Twouldn't do, I'm 
 persuaded." 
 
 The entrance of farmer Jones put an end 
 to the conversation ; but Bill appeared pretty 
 well satisfied with his bargain, and rubbed 
 his hands over it in great glee as he re- 
 hearsed the matter to Hannah, in the course 
 of the evening. 
 
 " I'll sign to-morrow," said he, " see if I 
 don't ; and make money out of it too. That's 
 what I call a strike, old girl;" and he gave 
 Hannah a very unceremonious twirl to the 
 further side of the big chimney place. 
 
 " You should do it because it's right, Bill," 
 said she, " not for the sake of the money. 
 That would be a great deal better, I'm sure." 
 
 " Can't afford to do right for nothing, when 
 I have to do with the old man," said the un- 
 dutiful youth. " Should come out of the little 
 end of the horn if I did." 
 
 That week the hearts of Tristram and Sid- 
 ney were made glad by the addition of the 
 names William Henry Gooch and 'Samuel 
 Hildreth Perkins, in broad, round hand to the 
 list of members of the Campfield Boys' Anti- 
 Tobacco Society.
 
 A FOE TO TRUE MANHOOD. 171 
 
 CHAPTER XXII. 
 
 A FOE TO TRUE MANHOOD. 
 
 SAID Miss More at the fifth meeting of the 
 society, 
 
 "I have already set before you, my dear 
 pupils, the effects of tobacco upon a man's 
 health and his purse ; but we have not yet con- 
 sidered all its bearings upon himself. For a 
 man is not to be measured by his physical 
 condition or his external circumstances. True 
 manhood consists in character, in the position 
 of the individual toward the future and eter- 
 nal. A man is a man according as he fulfills 
 the great end of his being, which is to grow 
 out of the low, carnal, and earthly, into the 
 spiritual and holy into likeness to God his 
 Creator. Now, it is proved beyond a doubt, 
 that this practice which we are considering 
 debases the man ; holds him down from this 
 upward growth, hinders the development of 
 the spirit, chains him to the sensuous by a 
 mean and perverted appetite. We have seen 
 how the use of tobacco in every form affects 
 the senses. The eye is dimmed, the ear ob-
 
 f7'2 THE WINTER SCHOOL. 
 
 structed, the smell deadened, the taste par- 
 alyzed. Must not the mind, therefore, to which. 
 these senses are the avenues, suffer correspond- 
 ingly ? It can not be otherwise. Professor 
 Hitchcock says, and his testimony is sup- 
 ported by many eminent men, ' It tends di- 
 rectly to debilitate the organs of the intellect ; 
 and we can not take a more effectual course to 
 cloud the understanding, weaken the memory, 
 unfix the attention, and confuse all the mental 
 operations, than by entailing on ourselves the 
 whole hateful train of maladies which spring 
 from the use of tobacco. It may seem to 
 soothe the feelings, and for a time to quicken 
 the operations of the mind; but to what pur- 
 pose is it that the machine is furiously run- 
 ning and buzzing after the balance wheel is 
 taken off?' 
 
 " The use of this poison in our schools and 
 colleges is very common, but teachers are 
 waking up to the enormous evil and providing 
 against it. It would be a desirable thing if 
 teachers and professors would unite to forbid 
 the use of tobacco in the institutions under 
 their charge. The fatal effect now showing 
 itself in the check of physical growth and the 
 enfeeblement of intellectual faculties would 
 in this way be effectually prevented.
 
 A FOE TO TRUE MANHOOD. 173 
 
 "The use of tobacco spoils the disposition. 
 It is asserted by those who have had oppor- 
 tunities of observation, that tobacco-users are 
 universally irritable in temper. 'They are 
 snappish to their wives, churlish to their 
 children, and cross to every body and every 
 thing.' Another writer says, 'Tobacco pro- 
 duces a perpetual souring of the temper, a 
 cross-grained, ill-natured, repelling, or depraved 
 state of combativeness.' Horace Greeley says, 
 ' Chewing and smoking tend directly to black- 
 guardism.' We may all testify from our own 
 observation that it produces bad manners, and 
 leads to badness of heart. 
 
 "Impurity of morals is one of the most 
 obvious effects of this practice. If, as Jeremy 
 Taylor, declares, ' cleanliness is next to godli- 
 ness,' then the very filthiness to which the 
 use of this weed unavoidably leads must needs 
 tend to a correspondingly impure state of the 
 heart. Fowler says, 'The constitutional effect 
 of tobacco is to pervert and vitiate the entire 
 being, from the crown of the head to the sole 
 of the foot, in all the ramifications of mind 
 and functions of body.' From this vitiated 
 state of body and mind, it can be but a short 
 step to outwardly dissipated and wicked 
 courses. And if you will look around, you
 
 174 THE WINTER SCHOOL. 
 
 will see for yourselves that this is true. How 
 many tobacco-users are intemperate, vicious, 
 and dissolute ! 
 
 " This practice is very inconsistent with re- 
 ligion. How can a true, living Christian be a 
 slave to any appetite, and particularly to one 
 so disgusting, so degrading, so thoroughly 
 evil as this ? And what can be more incon- 
 sistent than for a man, whose business it is to 
 preach purity, to be himself the victim of so 
 dirty a habit ? One of their own number has 
 boldly said, 'If there ever was a weed whose 
 roots went down till they drew sap from be- 
 low, it is tobacco. And a snuffing, smoking, 
 chewing, spitting minister is not fit to stand 
 in ordinary congregations, or to live in ordi- 
 nary families.' Some of you may one day 
 stand in the sacred desk. If you do, seek to 
 purge out from yourselves every impure habit, 
 that you may be examples to your flock of 
 all you teach. 
 
 " Our remarks, if carried out to an extreme, 
 would seem to imply that no one who used 
 tobacco in any form could have any preten- 
 sions to be a gentleman or a Christian. Of 
 course you will understand that there are 
 various degrees of devotion to the habit, and 
 that those who are addicted to it start from
 
 A FOE TO TRUE MANHOOD. 175 
 
 various and widely differing points o* refine - 
 ment. But I want you to know and feel that 
 the tendency of the habit is Decidedly down- 
 ward. It deteriorates the whole being. It 
 prevents the development of the lofty and 
 noble within, and facilitates the growth of 
 evil and impurity. No one, however strong- 
 minded, however pure, however upheld by 
 the restraints of genteel and refined society, 
 of domestic associations, elevated tastes, or 
 professional position, but suffers from it. And 
 who can think of it for one moment in con- 
 nection with the purities and celestial refine- 
 ments of our immortal existence, without a 
 shock ? If our principles and habits here have 
 an intimate bearing upon our condition in the 
 other and eternal life, as we believe they 
 do, into what affinities of those upper circles 
 can we imagine a tobacco-loving minister, or 
 Christian, to be finally introduced. He who 
 hath within him the hope of heaven, of being 
 like Christ^ when he ' shall see him as he is,' 
 must follow the recommendation of the apos- 
 tle, and purify himself even as He is pure.' "
 
 176 THE "WINTER. SCHOOL. 
 
 CHAPTER XXIII. 
 
 CHARLIE MERRILL. 
 
 IN a distant district of the large out-spread- 
 ing town of Campfield rose the costly and 
 splendid mansion of Captain Azariah Merrill. 
 Where the sweet pine woods shed their de- 
 licious and healthful fragrance through all the 
 air, and by their dense growth sheltered the 
 atmosphere from the searching sea fogs which 
 prevailed at certain seasons near the shore, 
 this charming spot had been scooped out 
 from the forest, a fancy lodge in the vast 
 wilderness, the owner said, and arranged 
 with all the taste, and skill, and beauty its 
 eccentric proprietor could command. It was, 
 indeed, a domain to be admired for the sub- 
 stantial elegance of its structures, the richness 
 of its landscape, the cooling delights of its 
 magnificent groves, which considerate hands 
 had spared here and there from the old forest 
 growth, and for the abundance of every luxu- 
 ry which modern culture could supply. The 
 simple country people called it "the forrin 
 place," so unlike was it to any thing their
 
 CHARLIE MEEEILL. 177 
 
 untraveled eyes had ever beheld. Indeed, 
 it would forcibly remind the more cultivated 
 spectator of the superb English villas of which 
 ' he had read, or perhaps might have seen, 
 and lead him to conclude that Captain Mer- 
 rill had brought from his visits to other climes 
 pleasant and substantial memories. 
 
 Captain Merrill was a proud man. In the 
 first place, he prided himself on being a Camp- 
 field boy, " born and bred in a fishing smack," 
 who had pushed his way, through the pro- 
 fession most in vogue in that sea-bordering 
 and seafaring community, to wealth and dis- 
 tinction. In the second place, upon the de- 
 lightful home which his money had built, and 
 to which he had retired for the remainder of 
 his days, as far away, for health's sake, from 
 his native element as he could, without en- 
 tirely forsaking his parental township. In 
 the third place, he was proud of his beautiful 
 wife, who could not be excelled (in his opinion) 
 in the whole state for personal charms. The 
 pair constituted the upper two of Campfield, 
 there being not enough of equal affluence and 
 position to form an " upper ten," in all that 
 plain, old-fashioned town. 
 
 Mrs. Merrill was a sister of Mrs. Lawrence, 
 the mother of the redoubtable Jim, with whom 
 12
 
 178 THE AVIXTI:K SCHOOL. 
 
 the reader is already slightly acquainted* 
 The two sisters, by reason of the differing 
 successes of their husbands, had become 
 quite removed from one another in point of 
 worldly means and social consideration. Still 
 they preserved for each other much of the old 
 sisterly love, and their families freely associ- 
 ated. There was, it is true, a little "feeling" 
 between them on some points. Mrs. Law- 
 rence imagined that Lucy had grown rather 
 " stuck up " within the last ten years, and there 
 was no accounting for the strange notions she 
 had got into her- head about her house and 
 children. Mrs. Merrill contended that as long 
 as her ideas were her own, and she had means 
 to carry them out, no one need to interfere, 
 and that, if Ann were situated as she was, she 
 would probably think and do very much the 
 same. Xo doubt they were both right in a 
 degree ; but in one thing they both acted like 
 good-hearted, sensible Yankee women they 
 did not suffer these little antagonisms to hin- 
 der the pleasant flow of family affection. They 
 were scrupulous in keeping up the visits of 
 the two households, making it a rule, from 
 which neither had deviated for years, to take 
 tea with each other every week. Thursday 
 was the day appointed for the meeting, with
 
 CHARLIE MERRILL. 179 
 
 the understanding that, if the weather was 
 unsuitable, it should be postponed to the first 
 fair day thereafter. Had it not been for this 
 prescribed form, rigidly observed, their widely- 
 divergent circumstances would have resulted 
 iu a gradual estrangement of the two sisters 
 and their children. 
 
 This visit served another excellent pur- 
 pose. The rubbing together of their individ- 
 ual thoughts and feelings, and the preserving 
 meanwhile of an amicable spirit, did them both 
 a positive good. Though there might have 
 been a little condescension on the one side, 
 and a shadow of envy on the other, this 
 weekly attrition burnished their ideas, giving 
 them definite shape and purpose, and led each 
 one to define her position in sentiment and 
 opinion more clearly than she would other- 
 wise have done. Thus the standard of char- 
 acter grew more positive and correct in both, 
 as in many respects they modified and moder- 
 ated the thoughts and feelings of each other. 
 
 One of the peculiar notions of Mrs. Merrill, 
 which met with the decided disapprobation 
 of her sister, was her antipathy to district 
 schools. Not in the general, but in the par- 
 ticular. Not for others ; oh, no. They were 
 the wisest and best of institutions ; for how
 
 180 THE WINTER SCHOOL. 
 
 else could the "masses" be educated? But 
 for her own children she preferred sele<j 
 schools, the Academy at Sampville, the Fe- 
 male Seminary at Great Plains, or kindred 
 institutions. Mrs. Lawrence called this pride ; 
 Mrs. Merrill, prudence. Mrs. Lawrence con- 
 sidered it an offensive ambition ; Mrs. Mer- 
 rill contended it was only a propriety of 
 their superior worldly position. In accordance 
 with this idea, Sarah and Lucy Merrill were 
 every day transported to the before-mentioned 
 Academy, for the development of their men- 
 tal faculties; and Charles, the only son of the 
 household, was in a family boarding school at 
 Lee's Point. 
 
 It happened, as the ladies sat together in 
 Mrs. Merrill's elegant sitting room, one Feb- 
 ruary afternoon, that their conversation turned 
 upon the anti-tobacco mania at the central 
 district. 
 
 "You never saw such a fuss as they are 
 making down there at the Corner," said Mrs. 
 Lawrence. "Every body is talking about 
 tobacco, and the boys and girls that go there 
 to school can't think of any thing else. Wher- 
 ever you go, to church, or sewing society, or 
 visiting, it's the one thing tobacco. Why, 
 if there was half as much stirring-up on re-
 
 CHARLIE MERRILL. 181 
 
 ligion, they'd say we had a revival. .7" call it 
 the tobacco-revival." 
 
 "But you approve it, sister, of course." 
 " Well, I don't know. I can't see the use 
 of making such a fuss about any thing. I'm 
 sure I don't see the harm of smoking and 
 chewing in a moderate degree. If folks go 
 into excess about it, why, of course 'twould be 
 wrong extremes are always bad. But every 
 body uses tobacco ; and what's the use of try- 
 ing to put down what every body likes, and 
 every body will have? Besides, I can't see 
 that it injures people so much as they seem 
 to represent it down there." 
 
 "I don't think any thing can be worse, sister, 
 excepting ardent spirits. I am perfectly con- 
 vinced that it is productive of the greatest part 
 of the diseases from which people are suffer- 
 ing. Think what abstinence from tobacco 
 has done for my husband. Why, nights and 
 nights, for years, the captain spent in his chair, 
 unable to lie down for that terrible phthisic ; 
 and yet he kept on smoking and chewing, - 
 you know seafaring people are always given 
 more or less to the habit, until a doctor we 
 met down in Bath, told him to give up to- 
 bacco. 'I can't, no way,' says the captain. 
 ' It's meat and drink, heat and cold, business
 
 182 THE WIXTEB SCHOOL. 
 
 and sleep to me.' 'And 'twill be death, be- 
 fore long, if you keep on,' said the doctor ; 
 ' so you can have your choice.' It was very 
 hard to give it up, but the captain is equal to 
 any thing he undertakes; and he conquered 
 the appetite to his entire satisfaction, and his 
 health canie up as the appetite went down. 
 He's just as well now as any body, and his 
 old complaints never trouble him, excepting 
 when he takes cold. Now that we know how 
 many evils arise from the use of tobacco, we 
 set our faces against it. I wouldn't have a 
 child use it for the world." 
 
 Mrs. Lawrence smiled suspiciously. 
 
 " Charlie never smokes, I suppose," said 
 she. 
 
 " Charlie ? Why, I'd as soon think of 
 smoking myself, or buying cigars for Sarah 
 and Lucy." 
 
 " Boys get into such ways, sometimes, with- 
 out their mothers' knowing it," remarked Mrs. 
 Lawrence a remark of which her sister 
 took no notice. 
 
 Why should she? She had perfect con- 
 fidence in her absent son. The subject had 
 been so often and thoroughly canvassed in 
 the family since the Bath doctor had issued 
 his salutary prescription for the captain, that
 
 CHARLIE MERRILL. 183 
 
 the children all understood it well. They 
 knew that their parents had come to view to- 
 bacco as a poison, and that its use would never 
 more be tolerated within their sphere. Be- 
 sides this, Mrs. Merrill, with true motherly 
 fidelity, had administered private and par- 
 ticular advice to her son on the subject, and 
 begged of him, by all that was sacred and dear 
 in self-respect, in the good opinion of the truly 
 refined, and in the possession of undefiled 
 moral principles, never to touch the filthy 
 stuff. No one could have been surer than 
 she of the perfect integrity of a son. 
 
 "Had a letter from Charlie to-day, 'ma," 
 said the captain, at the tea table. " He'll be 
 home next week, Friday. He sent for money 
 to pay his shoe bill." 
 
 " Shoe bill ! " repeated the mother. " I'm 
 sure I thought he had boots and shoes enough 
 to carry him through th<3 quarter." 
 
 " Ah, boys are great stavers," said the cap- 
 tain. " They don't feel .much concern for 
 their soles till they're gone, and then they 
 must get 'em patched up somehow;" and he 
 laughed at the joke he had attempted. Alas 
 for the captain's wit it was not equal to his 
 good nature. 
 
 " J sent him five dollars," he added, as he
 
 184 THE WINTER SCHOOL. 
 
 helped himself a second time to the fried 
 oysters of delicate hue and exquisite relish 
 before him. "I suppose that will pay the 
 cobbler. Wish the boy was here this minute, 
 to help me eat these shell fish."
 
 SHOEMAKER'S FEN-DINGS. 185 
 
 CHAPTER XXIV. 
 
 SHOEMAKER'S FINDINGS. 
 
 AT the, appointed time Charlie came, and 
 the week following, Mrs. Lawrence was again 
 at her sister's. As the short, winter's after- 
 noon closed in upon them, the social party 
 drew together around the glowing grate, to 
 chat by firelight, while Sally, the very best 
 of all Yankee help, was spreading the table 
 most invitingly for supper. Suddenly the 
 door opened, and a stranger was ushered into 
 the apartment. 
 
 "How d'ye do, Captain Merrill? Hope I 
 see you well," said the man, in a rough voice, 
 and advancing, in a bungling manner, toward 
 the group. 
 
 " You have the advantage of me 1 , sir," said 
 the captain, rising. 
 
 " Yes, sir ; I'm Duncan, the shoemaker at 
 Lee's Point. Was a friend of your son's, sir. 
 Ah, there he is. How d'ye do, Master Mer- 
 rill ? Hope I see you well, sir ; " bowing fa- 
 miliarly. 
 
 Charlie appeared embarrassed, hesitated,
 
 186 THE WINTER SCHOOL. 
 
 hemmed once or twice, and finally corrob- 
 orated the self-introduction of the visitor, 
 saying, 
 
 "Yes, father; the shoemaker, Mr. Duncan." 
 
 " I had a small account to bring in," said 
 the man, fumbling in his pocket ; " the balance 
 of Master Merrill's bill." 
 
 " His bill, I thought, was paid." 
 
 " His shoe bill ; yes, sir. Didn't amount 
 to much that didn't. But the young gen- 
 tleman hadn't funds enough to pay the other, 
 and said he'd settle it next quarter. But as I 
 happened to be down to Campfield Comer, 
 and money's allers 'ceptable to poor folks, I 
 made up my mind I'd jest call on the road 
 home and git it." 
 
 " This bill is for what do I understand, 
 Mr. Duncan?" 
 
 " Cigars, sir, cigars. You see there's no 
 place at Lee's Point where the boys ventur* 
 to go for to git their 'backer, 'cause they're 
 watched so plaguy close. So, as they hev to 
 come to the shoemaker's pooty often, they 
 jest 3ontrived it 'mong theirselves that I 
 should keep a nice little 'sortment of the best 
 kinds, so they could be s'plied without the 
 master's knowin' on it. So that's the way on 
 it. Master Merrill's bill is a small one he
 
 SHOEMAKER'S FINDINGS. 187 
 
 uses it quite moderate. Some uses it orful, 
 and treats too. Why, they make nothin' of 
 rumiin' up twenty or thirty dollars." 
 
 The captain was astounded. He let the 
 man run through his story without an inter- 
 ruption ; then, taking out his wallet, he paid 
 the eight dollars and thirty-five cents, placed 
 the receipted bill within its folds, and opening 
 the door, shut it upon the retreating form of 
 the shoemaker without a syllable. 
 
 Meantime the cheerful solar had been light- 
 ed, and the seething tea urn placed upon the 
 table ; but a shadow had fallen on the faces 
 which had been just now radiant with pleas- 
 ure. Charlie had taken refuge, for the mo- 
 ment, behind the newspaper. He hardly 
 knew how to calculate upon the effects of 
 the unpleasant disclosure. " I wish this good- 
 for-nothing aunt of mine was out of the way, 
 at any rate," thought he ; " she'll crow so, and 
 go spreading it all about. It does please her 
 so to get a little bit of gossip about us ! " 
 
 The captain was very angry at what had 
 transpired so angry that he dared not speak. 
 He waited until his passion was cooled, and 
 his heart had passed from its feverish violence 
 to the mood of sorrow ; and when he spoke, 
 it was in tones of unusual tenderness.
 
 188 THE WLN'TEE SCHOOL. 
 
 " My son, I used to smoke. I smoked fcr 
 thirty years, night and day; even when I 
 turned into my berth at night, it would often 
 be with a cigar in my mouth. But I suffered 
 for it, you know how, and now when I 
 see the folly of my ways, and warn my son 
 against the evil consequences of such a course, 
 is he going to set aside the counsel of his father 
 as nothing worth ? And above all, will he 
 prosecute his willful habits in such a mean, 
 underhand way as this ? Bad as the smoking 
 is, Charlie, it is nothing to be compared with 
 lying and deception. Deceiving your teach- 
 ers, deceiving your parents, who placed such 
 confidence in you ! Oh, my son, there is no 
 surer road to ruin than this ! " 
 
 The captain paused. 
 
 "I shall never do so again, father never," 
 said Charles, hurriedly. It was all he could 
 say. 
 
 But when he sat alone, face to face with his 
 mother, and she, with all her mother's love, 
 looked down into the depths of his eyes, and 
 simply said, "How could you do so, Charlie?" 
 then his tongue was loosed, and he spoke. 
 
 "Mother," said he, "I tell you, honestly, I 
 couldn't help it. I didn't want to disobey 
 you, and I didn't like cigars but I couldn't
 
 SHOEMAKEE'S FINDINGS. 189 
 
 help it. You see I'm so large, mother, that I 
 had to go with all the big boys. 'Twould 
 have looked strange enough to see me, big 
 enough to be a man, playing with the little 
 boys that were just my age, for I passed for 
 seventeen or eighteen years old. And the 
 large boys all smoked, mother every one of 
 them. At first I didn't ; I told them I didn't 
 want to, and I didn't like it well enough, 
 and all that. They laughed, and made all 
 manner of fun of me, and played jokes on me 
 ever so many times ; and I couldn't hold out. 
 I smoked for peace' sake, mother, and noth- 
 ing else in the world. And you see I was 
 afraid to tell you and father, and I felt real 
 bad about it too. I ain't so wicked as you 
 and father think I am, I know." 
 
 The word passed round among his cousins, 
 and out into the village through the lips of 
 the communicative aunt Lawrence, just as 
 Charlie expected. There was a little air of 
 triumph, too, in the way the story was first 
 told. 
 
 " So much, you see, for family boarding 
 schools," said Mrs. Lawrence, "where the 
 boys are taken such beautiful care of, and 
 watched over so splendidly! I declare, it 
 isn't a fortnight since I told Lucy she'd bet-
 
 190 THE "WTNTEB SCHOOL. 
 
 ter look out, or Charlie would smoke, like tho 
 rest. I did enjoy it so, when that old clumsy 
 shoemaker came blundering into the parlor! 
 and I thought Charlie would sink right into 
 the floor if he could. 'Twas too good." 
 
 And whenever Charlie appeared, after that^ 
 at the Corner, he was always greeted with, 
 " How d'ye do, Master Merrill ? shoes worn 
 out?" "Want your boots mended to-day, sir?" 
 Hard on shoes ain't you, Charlie ? " " Shoe- 
 maker's bill grows large," or some such rude 
 allusion to a most unwelcome topic. What 
 could he do ? He was mortified beyond ex- 
 pression. He was not corrupt at heart, was 
 sincerely sorry for his fault, and resolved never 
 again to repeat it ; but " he didn't want," he 
 said, "to go making confessions to all the 
 insolent boys of the street." It became really 
 a punishment for him to appear outside his 
 home. 
 
 One day he screwed up his courage to meet 
 the trouble. He was standing in the Post- 
 Office door, waiting the opening of the daily 
 mail, when the unfeeling Jim Lawrence shout- 
 ed across the street, at the top of his voice, 
 
 " Hallo, boots ! What's the price of new 
 soles?" and instantly a crowd of boys gath- 
 ered on the spot some laughing, some echo-
 
 SHOEMAKER'S FINDINGS. J91 
 
 ing the joke, and some looking, with eager 
 curiosity, at the object of the fun. 
 
 Charles walked boldly across the road, and 
 stood before them. He was taller, though not 
 older, than his cousin and most of his com- 
 panions, and as he stood erect, and in a firm, 
 manly voice uttered his determination, he re- 
 ally awed the group into silence and respect. 
 
 " Boys," said he, " your jokes, I know, I 
 have deserved ; but they've grown old now, 
 and dry, and what's the use of making fun of 
 a fellow when he's done wrong ? I know I 
 have done wrong I own up. But I shall 
 never do that thing again. I've taken the 
 pledge, boys, and joined the Society, and 
 never will tobacco soil my lips again. So 
 now wind up your jokes, and let me alone. 
 And you all go with me in this thing, and 
 you never '11 be sorry I'm sure of that." 
 
 Most of the boys received this speech with 
 loud cheers. " Hurrah for Charlie Merrill ! " 
 and, "Done with the shoemaker!" were heard 
 on all sides ; but when Charlie turned round 
 to say a private word in the ear of his cousin, 
 the pale-faced boy had skulked away, and was 
 nowhere to be seen.
 
 192 THE WINTER SCHOOL. 
 
 CHAPTER XXV. 
 
 A FAREWELL DISCOURSE. 
 
 " 1 SHALL present to you to-day, my dear 
 young friends," said the indefatigable teacher, 
 " a summary of the reasons why you should 
 never use tobacco yourselves, or, in the lan- 
 guage of the pledge you have signed, ' en- 
 courage these filthy habits in any of your 
 companions, while you belong to this school, 
 or as long, as you live. 7 
 
 " ' Prevention is better than cure.' If I 
 were to address an assembly to-day of those 
 who have long been confirmed lovers of the 
 poisonous weed, all the urgent motives and 
 strong arguments for their reform which I 
 might bring forward, would probably fall pow- 
 erless, or nearly so, before the gigantic strength 
 of the appetite that binds them. But I rejoice 
 that I am speaking to the young, to those who 
 are as yet untrammeled by such fatal cords, 
 and I have a hope that what I shall say will 
 impress your hearts and your consciences, 
 and remain with you for evermore. 
 
 "I have already in my former lessons on
 
 A FAREWELL DISCOURSE. 193 
 
 this subject, as I have explained the poisonous 
 nature of the plant, its deteriorating effect 
 upon the whole bodily economy, on the mind, 
 the manners, and the morals, together with its 
 useless waste of property, presented to you 
 incidentally many of the most important ar- 
 guments against it. Why should you adopt 
 a habit so excessively filthy as this, making 
 yourself a disagreeable companion wherever 
 you go ? Why should you defile the ground 
 on which you tread with your disgusting ex- 
 pectorations, so that none can walk by your 
 side, or follow in your steps, without contract- 
 ing pollution to their garments ? What right 
 , have you to vitiate the very atmosphere, the 
 element which God himself has created as a 
 pure medium of life and health to all, by your 
 fetid breath ? By what law of politeness and 
 etiquette is a person allowed to go into the 
 dwelling of another to contaminate the air 
 and mar its neatness ? By what law of liberty 
 and equal rights is he permitted to make the 
 stage coach, the steamboat, the railroad car, 
 unfit for the conveyance of the public by his 
 indecencies ? It would seem that the very 
 filthiness of the habit would restrain any well- 
 bred youth of respectable associations from 
 contracting it. 
 
 13
 
 194 THE WINTER SCHOOL. 
 
 " And what right have we to expend tLs 
 vitalities and energies of the bodies God has 
 given us on a mere sensual gratification? 
 The suicide is execrated by mankind univer- 
 sally ; and is it any worse for a man by a vio- 
 lent and sudden blow to wrench away the 
 life that God has imparted, than to do it by a 
 process of slow but sure destruction ? 
 
 " And when we go higher yet, and willfully 
 demoralize, pervert, and destroy the functions 
 of our spiritual nature ; when we unfit, by vile 
 and wicked courses, our undying souls for the 
 employments and enjoyments of a future and 
 nobler state of existence ; when we hold down 
 the spirit from its upward flights in truth and 
 holiness by such base and vile clogs, ho^ 
 shall we dare to appear before our Creator ? 
 How shall we excuse ourselves when our holy 
 Judge shall summon us to account for the tal- 
 ents he has intrusted to our charge ? Oh, my 
 dear pupils, when the great Master endowed 
 us with faculties of body and mind, and placed 
 us in a world which needed every purifying 
 and renovating influence for its redemption, 
 he did not design that we should devote our 
 time, and money, and energies, to debasing 
 sensual gratifications. We must give account 
 of our stewardship at last. I hope it may not
 
 A FAREWELL DISCOURSE. 195 
 
 be said at that final day to any one of you, 
 through the pursuance of these vile practices, 
 or from any other cause, 'Depart from me, ye 
 unprofitable servants, into outer darkness.' 
 
 " But there are two considerations which I 
 have not yet enlarged upon, that I wish to 
 press upon your attention this afternoon. One 
 is the insidiousness and fatal power of this 
 habit. It comes upon a person by slow de- 
 grees almost imperceptibly. The first act 
 is, perhaps, a thoughtless one, or done from 
 social considerations, or in what is considered 
 a jovial mood; from vanity, or lack of moral 
 courage; or from various reasons which are 
 at the time perfectly satisfactory ; and before 
 the victim is aware, the fangs of the viper are 
 fastened upon him. No habit gains ground 
 more rapidly, or proves such a slavery, as this. 
 It holds its victims with an iron grip, from 
 which very few have the courage or the will- 
 power to extricate themselves. Will you, 
 then, form it ? Will you plant the tree whose 
 Upas shade will surely blight every prospect 
 and interest of your being for time and for 
 eternity? This tremendous power of the 
 habit constitutes the most important argu- 
 ment against its formation. Stand aloof, boys, 
 from its terrible grasp, and let it never be
 
 196 THE WINTER SCHOOL. 
 
 said that you were ruined by tobacco, or that 
 your example has led on another fellow-crea- 
 ture to ruin. 
 
 " The other reason I would present to you 
 more fully is this : that the habit almost always 
 leads, sooner or later, to intemperance. To- 
 bacco, either chewed or smoked, produces 
 thirst, which water or common drinks can not 
 satisfy. Dr. Trail says, ' The torpid and pal- 
 sied mouth and throat incessantly crave some- 
 thing strong and pungent to rouse them to a 
 state of sensibility.' Was there ever a bar 
 room, or grog shop, where the two practices, 
 smoking and drinking, were not going on to- 
 gether ? In Xew York, I have been told that 
 the liquor stores and tobacco shops are alike 
 open, and have more business on Sunday than 
 on any other day of the week. It is the uni- 
 form testimony of those who have observed 
 the habits of the tobacco-user closely, that 
 they are strongly allied, and very speedily 
 lead, to intemperance. Says one distinguished 
 physician, i It is the most ready and common 
 stepping-stone to the use of spirituous liquors.' 
 Another says the free use of tobacco is 'paving 
 the way to drunkenness ; ' another, that there 
 is a 'close connection between tobacco and 
 stimulating drinks.' * Whoever uses tobacco
 
 A FAREWELL DISCOURSE. 197 
 
 will, sooner or later, come to be fond of ex- 
 citing drinks.' 
 
 " Flee, then, my young friends, from a habit 
 which is in itself so pernicious, and the pre- 
 cursor of such fatal consequences. Touch 
 not, taste not, handle not.' 
 
 " And if, in your efforts to reclaim others, 
 you should be met by the hopeless assertion, 
 ' It is too late ; we can not throw off so strong 
 a habit,' do all you can to encourage hope ; 
 and stimulate exertion in the right direction. 
 It is a difficult habit to cure, but it can be 
 done. The idea that the sudden cessation of 
 the practice will prove injurious is a false one. 
 Criminals who have been arrested and placed 
 where they could not get it have never suf- 
 fered in consequence. Even old men who 
 are sent to our prisons and houses of correc- 
 tion, and thus obliged to give up tobacco 
 suddenly, have never experienced bad conse- 
 quences from it. Indeed, they improve in ap- 
 pearance, and have better health, without it. 
 
 " But one who wishes to reform must not 
 think of defeat. With a strong will, and a 
 constant reliance on divine Power for help, 
 we can resist the strongest influences to evil, 
 and throw off the yoke of the most imperi- 
 ous foe. And we are sure that resisting
 
 198 THE WINTER SCHOOL. 
 
 evil, overcoming sm, throwing off the bon- 
 dage of Satan, can never lead to injurious 
 effects. When time has been given for the 
 forces of the system which wrong courses 
 have enfeebled to rally, they will recuperate 
 and afterward sustain themselves in strength 
 and nobleness. Obedience to the laws of na- 
 ture brings in its train good of every form 
 and nature."
 
 WHAT BECAME OF THEM. .199 
 
 CHAPTER XXVI. 
 
 WHAT BECAME OF THEM. 
 
 THE winter school had come to its closing 
 day. The administration of the female teach- 
 er was pronounced a decided success. The 
 rod, for -the first time, had been entirely ig- 
 nored, and moral suasion had taken its place. 
 Motives of honor, affection, and conscience 
 had been sufficient to enforce obedience, dil- 
 igence, punctuality, and general subordina- 
 tion. In only two instances had appeal been 
 made to parental authority. The parents of 
 the pupils, the honorable committee, the pu- 
 pils themselves, and the lookers-on about the 
 town, were uniformly pleased with the pros- 
 perous issue of the experiment. "If they 
 hadn't learned so much," it was said, "the 
 children certainly had behaved better than 
 they ever did before, and that was some- 
 thing gained." 
 
 Miss More, too, was encouraged by the re- 
 sults attained. She felt that her efforts had 
 not been without profit. Impressions had 
 been made in many instances upon the heart,
 
 200 THE WINTER SCHOOL. 
 
 and she thought she could already see in sev- 
 eral individuals the upspringing of the good 
 seed. The zeal and interest manifested upon 
 the subject of tobacco was certainly one good 
 fruit which had grown from her application 
 of moral truth ; and earnestly she hoped and 
 prayed that it might deepen and extend. "I 
 expect every one of you," she said to the boys 
 in parting, " to grow up total abstinence men, 
 both as pertains to liquor and tobacco. If 
 you do not form the habits of chewing and 
 smoking while young, you probably never 
 will. A person may in mature life descend, 
 from the force of circumstances, to the prac- 
 tices of intemperance ; but it is generally con- 
 ceded that the habit of using tobacco is formed 
 in youth. If I should ever meet you in after 
 years, or hear of you, as undoubtedly I shall, 
 my first expectation will be to learn thit you 
 are stanch anti-tobacco men. And bo'.h you 
 and the girls too must use every endes for, in 
 your own families and throughout the town, 
 to reclaim others from these evil habits, and to 
 diffuse light and knowledge upon the sojbject. 
 See if you can not persuade the snuff-takers and 
 tobacco-chewers among your acquaintances to 
 give up their favorite indulgence, and appro- 
 priate the money to some charitable or useful 
 purpose."
 
 WHAT BECAME OF THEM. 201 
 
 "That's the way grandma Sheffield does," 
 interrupted Miss Gilmore. " She used to 
 spend as much as five dollars a year for 
 snuff, and now she gives it to the Missionary 
 Society. And she says it gives her a great 
 deal more satisfaction than the snuff ever 
 did." 
 
 " Her example is a worthy one. If all the 
 snuff-takers in Campfield would 'give the* 
 money they expend in that useless way to 
 purchasing a Sunday School or District 
 School Library, or to the sustaining of some 
 young person of their acquaintance in get- 
 ting an education, or appropriate it to the 
 help of a home missionary, to the building 
 up of a feeble church, or the planting of a 
 Sunday School where one has never existed, 
 how much good might be accomplished ! 
 good that would bear to be looked at, that 
 would give true satisfaction and pleasure, 
 when we come to a review of this earthly 
 state." 
 
 When Miss More left, the members of the 
 Society brought her several dollars, which they 
 had contributed among themselves, requesting 
 her to purchase for them tracts on this sub- 
 ject for circulation in their community. The 
 commission was promptly fulfilled, and when
 
 202 THE WINTER SCHOOL. 
 
 the parcel arrived at Campfield, it was found 
 to contain, in addition, a gift from their kind 
 friend, consisting of a handsomely printed 
 certificate of membership for each one of her 
 pupils whose name had been enrolled upon 
 the list. These were received with acclama- 
 tions of pleasure by all, and sacredly kept, 
 not only as reminders of their principles, but 
 as mementoes of affection from their loved 
 and respected teacher. Should any one of 
 my little readers ever visit Campfield, he will, 
 no doubt, find some of these still hanging, 
 neatly framed, in the simple parlors of the 
 country people. Some have been carried to 
 other and distant homes, by those who alone 
 would attach any value to them. For the 
 pupils of the "New School" have not re- 
 mained in statw quo any more than the rest 
 of the world. ' They have followed the course 
 of human life, have grown up, married, set- 
 tled, entered professions and business pursuits 
 of various kinds. "Would you like to know 
 something about them? 
 
 Our gentle little Lucy Clark married a 
 minister, and is leading a quiet, useful life, in 
 the midst of a rising family and a loving 
 people, in a frontier town of her own native 
 etate. Bessie Simorison is a prosperous mer-
 
 WHAT BECAME OF THEM. 203 
 
 chant's wife in the far-off state of Iowa. Re- 
 becca is teaching fulfilling her part in life 
 well, as a loved and successful guide of the 
 youthful mind in the pursuits of knowledge, 
 forgetting not, like the teacher she takes 
 pleasure in remembering, the cultivation of 
 the heart and the conscience. Anna Little 
 is married, too. Oh, yes, she and Tristram 
 have united hands and hearts. May their 
 lives flow on peacefully and happily together. 
 Sidney has chosen a sailor's life for himself, 
 and now rejoices in the title of Captain. 
 Captain Barnes is a man distinguished for his 
 goodness rather than for his moneyed success. 
 " I have never drank, I have never smoked, 
 and never chewed; I have given all men 
 their just dues," says the captain himself; 
 "but Providence has always seemed to smile 
 against me. If I hadn't been honest, I might 
 have made a fortune ; but, somehow, I always 
 have felt that a clean heart was better than a 
 full purse." We feel so, too, and we verily 
 believe the hour will come, if not in this life, 
 in that which is close at hand, when the radi- 
 ant smile of God will dawn upon that patient, 
 humble soul, and crown him with immortal 
 honor, joy, and enduring riches. 
 
 Poor Jim Lawrence is dead. In less than
 
 204 THE WINTER SCHOOL. 
 
 two years after the close of that winter school, 
 his emaciated form was laid in the quiet grave- 
 yard of Campfield. Was he a victim of to- 
 bacco ? The doctor talked of pulmonary 
 complaints ; the neighbors said he had con- 
 sumption; his parents thought it inherited 
 scrofula. But who can doubt, that with the 
 taint of inherited disease within him, his early 
 and extravagant use of tobacco developed the 
 disease, dried up all the resisting and recuper- 
 ating forces in his system, and facilitated his 
 death? Xor is his an isolated case. Many 
 ii young man, whose death is recorded in our 
 daily papers, and whose physician makes out 
 a certificate of consumption, if the truth were 
 known, if facts were investigated, would be 
 enrolled as a victim of this terrible but fash- 
 ionable poison. When shall redress come ? 
 
 Where shall help come from ? Boys, from 
 you. Begin right. Set your faces as a flint 
 against the use of tobacco in any form. Hold 
 your pledge sacred as your life, as your eter- 
 nal interests; and with the pure principles 
 of the rising generation on this vital point 
 will be inaugurated a new era in virtue and 
 religion.
 
 This book is DUE on the last 
 date stamped below 
 
 lOm-ll, '50 (2555)470
 
 UC SOUTHERN REGIONAL LIBRARY FACILITY 
 
 AA 000475237 4 
 
 PZ6 
 B81>