nce
block, on one foot--(_a la_ gander) for winking at his sweetheart in
time of books, for failing to know his lessons, and for "various and
sundry other high crimes and misdemeanors."

A twist of the fiddler's bow brought a yell from the fiddle, and in
my dream, I saw the school come pouring out into the open air. Then
followed the games of "prisoner's base," "town-ball," "Antney-over;"
"bull-pen" and "knucks," the hand to hand engagements with yellow
jackets, the Bunker Hill and Brandywine battles with bumblebees, the
charges on flocks of geese, the storming of apple orchards and hornet's
nests, and victories over hostile "setting" hens. Then I witnessed the
old field school "Exhibition"--the _wonderful_ "exhibition"--they call
it Commencement now. Did you never witness an old field school
"exhibition," far out in the country, and listen to its music? If you
have not your life is a failure--you are a broken string in the harp of
the universe. The old field school "exhibition" was the parade ground of
the advance guard of civilization; it was the climax of great events in
the olden times; and vast assemblies were swayed by the eloquence of the
budding sockless statesmen. It was at the old field school "exhibition"
that the goddess of liberty always received a broken nose, and the
poetic muse a black eye; it was at the old field school "exhibition"
that _Greece_ and _Rome_ rose and fell, in seas of gore, about every
fifteen minutes in the day, and,

The American eagle, with unwearied flight,
Soared upward and upward, till he soared out of sight.

It was at the old field school "exhibition" that the fiddle and the bow
immortalized themselves. When the frowning old teacher advanced on the
stage and nodded for silence, instantly there _was_ silence in the vast
assembly; and when the corps of country fiddlers, "one of which I was
often whom," seated on the stage, hoisted the black flag, and rushed
into the dreadful charge on "Old Dan Tucker," or "Arkansas Traveller,"
the spectacle was sublime. Their heads swung time; their bodies rocked
time; their feet patted time; the muscles of their faces twitched
time; their eyes winked time; their teeth ground time. The whizzing
bows and screaming fiddles electrified the audience who cheered at every
brilliant turn in the charge of the fiddlers. The good women laughed for
joy; the men winked at each other and popped their fists; it was like
the charge of the Old Guard at Wat