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→The Beginning of School Life
==The Beginning of School Life==
About a mile and a half from the farm was a little schoolhouse, gray and weather-beaten. I doubt that it had ever been painted; neither were the seats and desks, but the latter were more or less carved by jack-knives. The front seat was low and without a back. On this seat sat the ABC scholars, when not playing out of doors.
A common punishment for trivial offenses was standing on the floor. I had learned my ABC's and AB AB's, and was beginning words of three letters. When I persisted in pronouncing r-e-d "yed", the teacher thought me stubborn and said: "You may stand on the floor until you will say <u>red</u>." How long I stood there I don't know, it was a weary while. Then my brother told the teacher that I always pronounced "y" for "r". She tested me, and sent me to my seat. This is the only time I remember of being punished at school. Probably I needed the spur, for in a few days I had mastered the sound of the letter "r".
No one in our house had time to read stories to me, and I dearly loved stories, and love them still; so I was very anxious to learn to read. Perhaps I learned as much at home as at school. There was a Bible, an almanac, and "The Guide to Holiness", always on the table. I could spell out the words and ask what they were. I must have been a great bother to my busy mother, but I soon learned to read.
I was taken by my parents to visit some friends. We stayed overnight. There were two daughters about twelve and fourteen. One played the organ while her sister sang. After supper they studied their school lessons, and the older people visited. I had found a book and was oblivious to all else. As soon as I was dressed in the morning, I resumed my reading. After breakfast, my father said: "Well, Fanny, I guess we must be going; I will go and hitch up." "Oh, we <u>can't</u> go", cried I, "I haven't finished my book!" When father saw that our departure would be a tearful one, he turned to the girls and inquired the price of the book, and if they would sell it. So I became the proud possessor of my first "very own book": ''Robinson Crusoe''.
The winter school was taught by a man. He could better face the snowdrifts and manage the big boys. There was usually a "birch" on the teacher's desk: if not, and one was needed, the master would ask: "Who has a jack-knife?" Up went all hands, save one. "John, go and cut me a whip; be sure and get me a good one." Sometimes whips were voluntarily brought at noon and laid on the teacher's desk. But there were other punishments besides whipping, indeed, many sorts.
One day my brother was caught in mischief of some kind. The master asked for a long scarf, a knitted woolen comforter. When one was brought, he tied it under Emory's arms, saying: "You are so bad I am going to hang you." Now I supposed hanging under the arms was as fatal as hanging by the neck. As the culprit was dragged toward a big hook by the door, I gave a piercing scream. Proceedings were stayed; instead of being hung, the naughty boy stood on the floor all of the rest of the afternoon.
Not far from the schoolhouse was a church, without steeple or ornament of any kind, but it was painted white, and so were the long sheds back of it, under which the farmers hitched their horses and wagons during services. Here we always went to meeting and to "Sabbath School", for father and mother were Methodists.
How pleasant seemed the Sabbath morning, with its haste to be on time. When the carriage came to the door, I was the first one in, to hold the horses, while my father changed his coat and locked the door. Then the pleasant drive and the S.S. with its singing and repeating of verses, and after the prayer, the excitement of exchanging our S.S. books. After this there was preaching, and last of all, class-meeting. I do not remember any prayer meetings at the church, but sometimes they were held in private houses. My mother was never too tired to go to prayer meeting, or, if very tired, she still felt it her duty to go. Not liking to go alone, she took me for company. When the night was dark, we carried a lantern.
Quite a distance from our house lived an old man who had been a class-leader for many years. As he was ill and bedridden, the meetings were often at his house. To make the distance shorter, mother and I often went through our pasture, then through a piece of woods, crossing the brook on a fallen log. "Weren't we afraid?" Never, there were no wild animals to hurt us; we never met anyone. The country is safer than the city, especially far removed from village or town.
Arrived at Mr. Wager's, I was given a little chair near his bed, so when sleepy, I could lay my head against it, and take a nap. Sometimes I was awakened by an emphatic <u>"Amen</u>!" or the shout: <u>"Glory to God!"</u> so common among the Methodists in those days, and very real when uttered by this aged Christian, so long ill, and so patiently waiting to be called to his home above.
==Campmeeting and Watchnight==
==Quarterly Meetings==