g, that he hoped the children of the present day would
appreciate their advantages and grow up to be useful men and women,
adding that all the schooling he had received was three winter terms in
a log school-house, one entire end of which was occupied by the
fireplace, and which had no glass windows, the light being admitted
through holes cut in the logs and covered with greased foolscap-paper.
No other remarks being offered, the audience was dismissed, and the
children began in an excited hurry to collect their possessions, and bid
their teacher good-by as if for a life-long parting. Some of them even
shed tears, and this occasioned the cynical remark from a by-stander,
"Them Mays children needn't to take on so: the school-ma'am will have to
call at their house often enough before she gits her money."

Soon the spot was deserted, and the squirrels came down from the trees
to retake possession of their old haunts, to scamper across the
platform, to sniff at the fallen rose-petals of the bouquets, and to
nibble the crumbs of cake and bread dropped from the lunch-baskets.

The next outing for the people of Buck Creek neighborhood was the
county fair, which occurred in September. They went in spring-wagons, in
farm-wagons, in buggies, and on horseback, starting early in the
morning, and taking an ample supply of provisions for themselves as well
as feed for their horses.

The sunshine poured down hot upon them, and there was much dust, but
they were happy. There were crowds of people from all the surrounding
country; there were displays of vegetables, fruit, honey, butter, in
tents and sheds,--in short, all the products of a farming region; there
were cakes, loaves of bread, glasses of jelly, and jars of pickles and
preserves, made by farmers' wives; and in the department allotted to
needle-work there were quilts of various patterns and various claims to
public notice: one had three thousand five hundred and forty-four pieces
in it, and was made by a great-granddaughter of Daniel Boone, the
pioneer; another was pieced by an old lady of eighty-one without the aid
of glasses. Among the live-stock were fat cattle and prancing
three-year-old colts, with red or blue ribbons fastened to their manes,
indicating that they had received the first or second prize, and fat
hogs; there were various breeds of poultry in coops, and before each
stall or pen or coop stood a group of spectators, admiring, commenting,
or asking questions o