nut and oak to the mighty valley below, and across to the far blue
wall of the Alleghenies.

The one-roomed, log-built schoolhouse stood a mile from the road across
the mountains, upon a higher level, in a fairy meadow below the mountain
clearings. A walnut tree shaded it, Thunder Run leaped by in cascades,
on either side the footpath Allan had planted larkspur and marigolds.
Here, on a May morning, he rang the bell, then waited patiently until
the last free-born imp elected to leave the delights of a minnow-filled
pool, a newly discovered redbird's nest, and a blockhouse in process of
construction against imaginary Indians. At last all were seated upon the
rude benches in the dusky room,--small tow-headed Jacks and Jills, heirs
to a field of wheat or oats, a diminutive tobacco patch, a log cabin, a
piece of uncleared forest, or perhaps the blacksmith's forge, a small
mountain store, or the sawmill down the stream. Allan read aloud the
Parable of the Sower, and they all said the Lord's Prayer; then he
called the Blue Back Speller class. The spelling done, they read from
the same book about the Martyr and his Family. Geography followed, with
an account of the Yang-tse-Kiang and an illustration of a pagoda, after
which the ten-year-olds took the front bench and read of little Hugh and
old Mr. Toil. This over, the whole school fell to ciphering. They
ciphered for half an hour, and then they had a history lesson, which
told of one Curtius who leaped into a gulf to save his country. History
being followed by the writing lesson, all save the littlest present
began laboriously to copy a proverb of Solomon.

Half-past eleven and recess drawing on! The scholars grew restless.
Could the bird's nest still be there? Were the minnows gone from the
pool? Had the blockhouse fallen down? Would writing go on forever?--The
bell rang; the teacher, whom they liked well enough, was speaking. _No
more school!_ Recess forever--or until next year, which was the same
thing! No more geography, reading, writing, arithmetic, and spelling; no
more school! Hurrah! Of course the redbird's nest was swinging on the
bough, and the minnows were in the pool, and the blockhouse was
standing, and the sun shining with all its might! "All the men about
here are going to fight," said Allan. "I am going, too. So we'll have to
stop school until the war is over. Try not to forget what I've taught
you, children, and try to be good boys and girls. You boys must lea