It was very lonely. Over his
shoulder the boy saw indistinct shapes that followed after, and
hid themselves whenever he looked squarely at them. Then,
suddenly, he saw before him in the gloom, a gaunt white specter
waiting for him - waiting to get him, its arms spread wide out in
menace. He was of our breed, though, this boy. He did not turn
and run. With God knows what terror knocking at his ribs, he
trudged ahead to meet his fate, and lo! the grisly specter proved
to be a friendly guide-post to show the way that he should walk in.
Brother (for you are my kin that went with me to public school, in
the life that you have lived since you first read the story of
Harry and the Guide-post, has it been an idle tale, or have you,
too, found that what we dreaded most, what seemed to us so terrible
in the future has, after all, been a friendly guide-post, showing us
the way that we should walk in?
McGuffey had a Speller, too. It began with simple words in common
use, like a-b ab, and e-b eb, and i-b, ib, proceeding by gradual,
if not by easy stages to honorificatudinibility and
disproportionableness, with a department at the back devoted to
twisters like phthisic, and mullein-stalk, and diphtheria, and
gneiss. We used to have a fine old sport on Friday afternoons,
called "choose-up-and-spell-down.
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