THE RIDGEWAY SPELLING MATCH.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 2593, 17 July 1876, Page 3

THE RIDGEWAY SPELLING MATCH.

(Ctoutanee Marion in the Danbury News.) It was the poetic time of day, the brief period " 'twixt the gloaming and tbe mirk." The milking was over, and Martha Murray was going in from tbe oowpen with a pail of m»lk on her head, and an armful of bark whiob, for kindling purposes, she had stripped from the rail fenoe of the pen while waiting for the oows to come home. She had also taken advantage of that delay to deck her blaok hair with the purple flowers of the sensitive plant, and although she had ne looking glass to admire herself in, she could not help feeling that her appearance was prepossessing, although her eal^o dress was overskirtleee, and her blue oheck apron— more useful than ornamental. Martha was as pretty as Maud Mullor, but unlike that damsel, she was born to blush unseen— that is, unseen by judicial and aristocratio eyes. She was fond of being out of doors, and on this occasion she lingered along the path between the cowpen and dairy until her lagging steps were hastened by tbe voice of her stepmother. "You, Martha Murray, if you don't hurry with that milk, you'd better. You trapse along as if you had forty niggers to wait on you, and here lam witb no milk to make up the batter with. Just look at you bow, puting that greasy, sloppy bucket right down on my clean table ! You haven't got the sense you ought to have heen bom with." Mrs Murray was considered a noteable manager and housewife; in short, her neighbours oalled her a stirring woman, and oertain it was she often stirred ber peace loving husband off to the nearest plaoe of publio entertainment, where he stirred for himself many a comforting glass of ginsling and apple toddy, and it was said that she was fast stirring her stepdaughter into making every reprehensible marriage. But of that anon. " I reckon your par won't come home tonight, Martha," said Mra Murray, aa she bit the coffeepot some quiok blows with the back of a knife blade in order to hasten the dripping, (fer nothing ever did ite work fast enough for Mrs Murray). "I reckon your par won't be at home to-night, and I have kinder promised them Jenkinses to go down and shew 'em how I make up my leave. , so I'll leave you here to take oare of the house by yourself. You ain't scared, are you." "Soared! my lif e and soul ! what would I be scared of P" exolaimed Martha, her faoe growing radiant. She was expecting a visitor that ovening, and muoh preferred a Ute-atete to a oompany of three. "I thought you might be a fool like some other girls/' roturned Mrs Murray, candidly. " I'll be back by nino o'olook, and you km string them peppers to keep you awake till then. If it had been anybody but you, them peppers would ha' been strung long ago, but I never seen a laaier piece in all my born days. If it warn't for them men hanging around here, I don't believe yon would actually take the '-ouble to btush your hair and wash your face. A good time Bill LaOoste will have when he gits you tor a wife. Go and set the table, Martha Murray, and don't keep the supper waiting all night." Taking the above harangue as a specimen •f her conversational powers, it will be seen that Mrs Murray, like Artemus Ward's " noble savage," waa " not oaloulated to make home happy ; " and Martha was muoh pitied by her sympathising neighbours. But that

1 ' * young lady was not so pitiable an object altar all. She was just sixteen, was (sobered* mirers said) aa pretty ac a red wagon, ami laat, but by no means least, had a sweetheart. That swoetheart she was expecting to eea to-night, and as soon ps ber step-mother mam fairly out of the house, she lit a randfoaai went into her little shedroom to primp. Her means of primping were woefully limited, far Mrs Murray's saving propensities extended themselves to everj department of household menage, and Martha's wardrobe wae of tae slenderest. However, a handsome anil aM hair, a pair of remarkably me, black eyee, damask cheeks, and white teeth are yen well to look at, with ne better setting dl than » last year's muslin and faded ribbon. At any rate, William LaOoete seemed te think a*

when he came in tbat night and fosnd Martha stringing peppers. It is aaid that people's affinities are generally their opposite, and tbis seemed to be the ease in the prcasnk y instance, for William LaCoate was not hand-

some in the least, had not even the oharm ef a pleasant expression. He wae tpU anal rowdyish, loud in dress, and swaggering - gait. In the neighbourhood where he lived he was considered a fast man, and »„ dangerous man, and he was > rt by~f masculinity in general, but somehow he had the gift of pleasing women. Whether

it were on account of the dangere he had passed while a spy in the Confederate servioe, whether it were because he footed * Byron, whioh waa an accomplishment net pea> sessed by his fellows, whether it were on

acoount of bis recklessness and bravadoes** tain it was that William LaOoete waa aa

popular with one sex as he wae underrated

by the other. He oalled himself a carpenter, but the jobs he received were few and far

between, and how he supported himself waa one of the many mysteries that are likely te - remain unsolved by mortal. MaHha was rather afraid of him, but the unpleasant state of affairs at home had obliged her to£slli& love with somebody, and William LaOoete happened to be the man. *' Have you heard the news ?" asked tbat gentleman, as he seated himself by the window, and commenced catting off a chew af tobacco.

'•No, I don'fc bear nothing; Fm kept a* olose at heme," returned ¥^#, " There's going to be a spelling match down to Greenwood schoolhouse/'

"Is there P La, I haven't been to a spelling match since I quit school. I reckon I have most forgot how to spell by this tima." " Yon and me is going there together, ainl we P"

" Fd like to go if mar wouldn't ont n about it."'

"Ah! ITI talk the old woman into it. IU and her is great oroniee." " Kin you spell good, William ?*» " To be sure I kin. Spellin' comes by natar, and I don't see what folks make sich a fow

about it for. Anybody aa is got eoaunoa sense knows how to spell.'* " WeU, Tm most afraid to take a band afc it. I kin spell to suit myself, but that might not be the spelling-book way." « Well, then, yon had better jest act bade on a bench and listen. Howsomever, yon mnst be sure to go, for Harry M'Mullen lowi that he ia going thar with the prettiest gai in this settlement, and I want to show bim a prettier one." "Who is he going with?" aaked Martha, with considerable interest

" Old Semple's red-headed daughter." " And he aays she is pretty ! He most ba' said that just to hear himself talk." And Martha looked at ber own pretty twee in the window-glass, whiob, with darkneee for a back-ground, made a very respectable mirror, and tossed her head.

"There is no accounting for tastes. Harry M'Mullen says yoa are a fool to be keepmg oompany with me." " Harry M'Mullen had better mind his own business. Taint nothing to hia who I keep company witb, and who I don't." "Don't you mind him. Se ain't got no better sense."

"Oh! I don't mind him a lat. People used to say me and him wae eweet on one another, but they didn't know what tbey waa talking about. Molly Sample ia welcome to bim if she wants him."

Ihe following Eriday afternoon caw Martha and her admirer wending their way toward* the Greenwood school-house. After travelling down a long, red, rutty lane with a flourishing cornfield on one side, and a woods pasture on. the other, tbe equestrians entered a forest oi blue jacks, and after fording a shallow onef, overhung with elms that were overrun with bullaee viaee, a few minotee* ride brought them in front of the school-house, a log building with a great day chimney at one end. There was a scarcity of windows in thie temple of learning, but tbis deficiency waa amply made up by a saper-abundanee of immense cracks, and on this occasion the door swung hospitably open on its wooden hinges. Quite a nnmber ef horses were hitched to the chinquapin trees around the schoolhouse, and home-spun riding skfr ? were banging in every direction. The inside of the building corresponded with the outside . Desks and benches wore unstained except with age and ink. Tbe wide-open fireplace bad a clay hearth, and tbe floor waa charred in many places where burning logs had rolled down upon it. A gnat black board leaned against tbe wall, and a long hickory switch reposing on top of it wae good circumstantial evidence that tbe pedagogue who then ofl* oiated at Greenwood abjured moral suaeior. A large number ot spellers and listeners were collected, and the spelling match had begun when Martha and her escort entered tbe

house. The former slid away into a corner and seated herself in the shadow of a stent neighbour, but tbe latter immediately took his place in the line of battle, without saying with your leave or by your leave, Mr Jenkins, the schoolmaster, stood in front of tbe fireplace, with an abridged dictionary in bis band, and the spellers were ranged in two long lines facing each other, but were fast being mowed down by the orthographical scythe. Irreligious, sacrilegious, judgment, separate— each brought down ite victim, and sibyl oaused the fall of many. There waa mucb laughter, and a little quarrelling and bad temper. At laat came William LaOoste's turn. (To be continued.)