[figure description] Page 076.[end figure description]

In the good old days of fescues, abisslefas, and anpersants,
[3] terms which used to be familiar in this country
during the Revolutionary war, and which lingered
in some of our county schools for a few years afterwards,
I visited my friend, Captain Griffin, who resided
about seven miles to the eastward of Wrightsborough,
then in Richmond, but now in Columbia county. I
reached the Captain's hospitable dome on Easter, and
was received by him and his good lady, with a Georgia
welcome of 1790. It was warm from the heart, and
taught me in a moment, that all the obligations of the
visit were upon their side, not mine. Such receptions
were not peculiar, at that time, to the Captain and his
family; they were common throughout the State.
Where are they now! and where the generous hospitalities
which invariably foilowed them! I see them occasionally
at the contented farmer's door, and at his festive
board, but when they shall have taken leave of these,
Georgia will know them no more.

The day was consumed in the interchange of news
between the Captain and myself, (though I confess it

[figure description] Page 077.[end figure description]

might have been better employed,) and the night found
us seated round a temporary fire, which the Captain's
sons had kindled up for the purpose of dying eggs. It
was a common custom of those days with boys, to dye and
peck eggs on Easter Sunday, and for a few days afterwards.
They were colored according to the fancy of
the dyer; some yellow, some green, some purple, and
some with a variety of colors, borrowed from a piece
of calico. They were not unfrequently beautified with
a taste and skill which would have extorted a compliment
from Hezekiah Niles, if he had seen them a year
ago, in the hands of the “young operatives,” in some of
the northern manufactories. No sooner was the work
of dying finished, than our “young operatives” sallied
forth to stake the whole proceeds of their “domestic
industry” upon a peck. Egg was struck against egg,
point to point, and the egg which was broken was given
up as lost to the owner of the one which came whole
from the shock.

While the boys were busily employed in the manner
just mentioned, the Captain's youngest son, George,
gave us an anecdote highly descriptive of the Yankee
and Georgia character, even in their buddings, and at
this early date. “What you think, pa,” said he, “Zeph.
Pettibone went and got his Uncle Zach. to turn him a
wooden egg; and he won a whole hat full o' eggs from
all us boys 'fore we found it out—but when we found it
out, may be John Brown did'nt smoke him for it, and
took away all his eggs, and give 'em back to us boys;—
and you think he did'nt go then and git a guinea-egg,
and win most as many more, and John Brown would o'
give it to him agin, if all we boys had'nt said we thought
it was fair. I never see such a boy as that Zeph. Pettibone,
in all my life. He don't mind whipping no more
'an nothing at all, if he can win eggs.”

[figure description] Page 078.[end figure description]

This anecdote, however, only fell in by accident, for
there was an all-absorbing subject which occupied the
minds of the boys, during the whole evening, of which
I could occasionally catch distant hints, in under tones
and whispers, but of which I could make nothing, until
they were afterwards explained by the Captain himself.
Such as “I'll be bound Peet Jones and Bill Smith
stretches him”—“By Jockey, soon as they seize him,
you'll see me down upon him like a duck upon a Junebug.”
“By the time he touches the ground, he'll think
he's got into a hornet's nest,” &c.

“The boys,” said the Captain, as they retired, “are
going to turn out the school-master to-morrow, and you
can perceive they think of nothing else. We must go
over to the school-house, and witness the contest, in
order to prevent injury to preceptor or pupils; for though
the master is always upon such occasions, glad to be
turned out, and only struggles long enough to present
his patrons a fair apology for giving the children a holiday,
which he desires as much as they do, the boys
always conceive a holiday gained by a “turn out,” as
a sole achievement of their valor, and in their zeal to
distinguish themselves, upon such memorable occasions,
they sometimes become too rough, provoke the master
to wrath, and a very serious conflict ensues. To prevent
these consequences, to bear witness that the master
was forced to yield, before he would withhold a day of
his promised labor from his employers, and to act as a
mediator between him and the boys, in settling the articles
of peace, I always attend; and you must accompany
me to-morrow.” I cheerfully promised to do so.

The Captain and I rose before the sun, but the boys
had risen, and were off to the school-house, before the
dawn. After an early breakfast, hurried by Mrs. G.
for our accommodation, my host and myself took up

[figure description] Page 079.[end figure description]

our line of march towards the school-house. We reached
it about a half hour before the master arrived, but
not before the boys had completed its fortifications. It
was a simple log pen, about twenty feet square, with a
door-way cut out of the logs, to which was fitted a rude
door, made of clapboards, and swung on wooden hinges.
The roof was covered with clapboards also, and retained
in their places by heavy logs placed on them. The
chimney was built of logs, diminishing in size from the
ground to the top, and overspread inside and out with
red clay mortar. The classic hut occupied a lovely
spot, overshadowed by majestic hickorys, towering poplars,
and strong armed oaks. The little plain on which
it stood, was terminated at the distance of about fifty
paces from its door, by the brow of a hill, which descended
rather abruptly to a noble spring, that gushed
joyously forth from among the roots of a stately beach,
at its foot. The stream from this fountain scarcely
burst in view, before it hid itself beneath the dark shade
of a field of cane, which overspread the dale, through
which it flowed, and marked its windings, until it turned
from the sight, among vine-covered hills, at a distance
far beyond that to which the eye could have traced it,
without the help of its evergreen belt. A remark of
the Captain's, as we viewed the lovely country around
us, will give the reader my apology for the minuteness
of the foregoing description. “These lands,” said he,
“will never wear out. Where they lie level, they will
be as good fifty years hence as they are now.” Forty-two
years afterwards I visited the spot on which he stood,
when he made the remark. The sun poured his whole
strength upon the bald hill which once supported the sequestered
school-house—Many a deep-washed gully met
at a sickly bog, where gushed the limpid fountain—a
dying willow rose from the soil which nourished the

[figure description] Page 080.[end figure description]

venerable beach—flocks wandered among the dwarf
pines, and cropt a scanty meal from the vale, where the
rich cane bowed and rustled to every breeze—and all
around was barren, dreary and cheerless. But to return.

As I before remarked, the boys had strongly fortified
the school-house, of which they had taken possession.
The door was barricaded with logs, which I should have
supposed would have defied the combined powers of the
whole school. The chimney, too, was nearly filled with
logs of goodly size; and these were the only passways
to the interior. I concluded, if a turn-out was all that
was necessary to decide the contest in favor of the boys,
they had already gained the victory. They had, however,
not as much confidence in their outworks as I had,
and therefore had armed themselves with long sticks;
not for the purpose of using them upon the master, if the
battle should come to close quarters, for this was considered
unlawful warfare; but for the purpose of guarding
their works from his approaches, which it was considered
perfectly lawful to protect, by all manner of jobs and
punches through the cracks. From the early assembling
of the girls, it was very obvious that they had
been let into the conspiracy, though they took no part in
the active operations. They would, however, occasionally,
drop a word of encouragement to the boys, such as
“I would'nt turn out the master; but if I did turn him
out, I'd die before I'd give up.” These remarks doubtless
had an emboldening effect upon “the young free-borns,”
as Mrs. Trollope would call them; for I never
knew the Georgian of any age, who was indifferent to
the smiles and praises of the ladies—before his marriage.

At length, Mr. Michael St. John, the school-master,
made his appearance.—Though some of the girls had

[figure description] Page 081.[end figure description]

met him a quarter of a mile from the school-house, and
told him all that had happened; he gave signs of sudden
astonishment and indignation, when he advanced to
the door, and was assailed by a whole platoon of sticks
from the cracks: “Why, what does all this mean?”
said he, as he approached the Captain and myself, with
a countenance of two or three varying expressions.

“Why,” said the Captain, “the boys have turned you
out, because you have refused to give them an Easter
holiday.”

“Oh,” returned Michael, “that's it, is it? Well, I'll
see whether their parents are to pay me for letting their
children play when they please.” So saying, he advanced
to the school-house, and demanded, in a lofty tone,
of its inmates, an unconditional surrender.

“Well, give us holiday then,” said twenty little urchins
within, “and we'll let you in.”

Open the door of the Academy,” (Michael would allow
no body to call it a school-house)—“Open the door of
the Academy this instant,” said Michael, “or I'll break
it down.”

“Break it down,” said Peet Jones and Bill Smith, “and
we'll break you down.”

During this colloquy I took a peep into the fortress, to
see how the garrison were affected by the parley. The
little ones were obviously panic struck at the first words
of command; but their fears were all chased away by
the bold determined reply of Peet Jones and Bill Smith,
and they raised a whoop of defiance.

Michael now walked round the Academy three times,
examining all its weak points with great care. He then
paused, reflected for a moment, and wheeled off suddenly
towards the woods, as though a bright thought had just
struck him. He passed twenty things which I supposed
he might be in quest of, such as huge stones, fence-rails,

[figure description] Page 082.[end figure description]

portable logs, and the like, without bestowing the least
attention upon them. He went to one old log, searched
it thoroughly, then to another, then to a hollow stump,
peeped into it with great care, then to a hollow log, into
which he looked with equal caution, and so on.

“What is he after?” enquired I.

“I'm sure I don't know,” said the Captain, “but the
boys do. Dont you notice the breathless silence which
prevails in the school-house, and the intense anxiety with
which they are eying him through the cracks?”

At this moment Michael had reached a little excavation
at the root of a dog-wood, and was in the act of putting
his hand into it, when a voice from the garrison exclaimed,
with most touching pathos, “Lo'd o' messy, he's
found my eggs! boys let's give up.”

“I wont give up,” was the reply from many voices at
once.

“Rot your cowardly skin, Zeph. Pettibone, you
would'nt give a wooden egg for all the holidays in the
world.”

“If these replies did not reconcile Zepheniah to his
apprehended loss, it at least silenced his complaints. In
the meantime, Michael was employed in relieving Zeph's
store-house of its provisions; and truly its contents told
well for Zeph's skill in egg-pecking. However, Michael
took out the eggs with great care, and brought
them within a few paces of the school-house, and laid
them down with equal care, in full view of the besieged.
He revisited the places which he had searched, and
to which he seemed to have been led by intuition; for
from nearly all of them did he draw eggs, in greater or
less numbers. These he treated as he had done Zeph's;
keeping each pile separate. Having arranged the eggs
in double files before the door, he marched between
them with an air of triumph, and once more demanded

[figure description] Page 083.[end figure description]

a surrender, under pain of an entire destruction of the
garrison's provisions.

“Break 'em just as quick as you please,” said George
Griffin, “our mothers 'll give us a plenty more, won't
they Pa?”

“I can answer for your's, my son,” said the Captain;
“she would rather give up every egg on the farm, than
see you play the coward or traitor, to save your property.”

Michael finding that he could make no impression
upon the fears or the avarice of the boys, determined to
carry their fortifications by storm. Accordingly, he
procured a heavy fence-rail, and commenced the assault
upon the door. It soon came to pieces, and the
upper logs fell out, leaving a space of about three feet
at the top. Michael boldly entered the breach when by
the articles of war, sticks were thrown aside, as no longer
lawful weapons. He was resolutely met on the half demolished
rampart by Peter Jones and William Smith, supported
by James Griffin. These were the three largest
boys in the school; the first about sixteen years of age,
the second about fifteen, and the third just eleven. Twice
was Michael repulsed by these young champions, but
the third effort carried him fairly into the fortress. Hostilities
now ceased for a while, and the Captain and I
having levelled the remaining logs at the door, followed
Michael into the house. A large three inch plank, (if
it deserve that name, for it was wrought from the half
of a tree's trunk, entirely with the axe,) attached to the
logs by means of wooden pins, served the whole school
for a writing desk. At a convenient distance
below it, and on a line with it, stretched a smooth log,
resting upon the logs of the house, which answered for
the writers' seat. Michael took his seat upon the desk,
placed his feet on the seat, and was sitting very compo

[figure description] Page 084.[end figure description]

sedly, when with a simultaneous movement, Peet and
Bill seized each a leg, and marched off with it in quick
time. The consequence is obvious—Michael's head first
took the desk, then the seat, and finally the ground, (for
the house was not floored,) with three sonorous thumps,
of most doleful portent. No sooner did he touch the
ground, than he was completely buried in boys. The
three elder, laid themselves across his head, neck and
breast, the rest arranging themselves ad libitum. Michael's
equanimity was considerably disturbed by the
first thump—became restive with the second, and took
flight with the third. His first effort was to disengage
his legs, for without them he could not rise, and to lie in
his present position, was extremely inconvenient and undignified.
Accordingly, he drew up his right, and kicked
at random. This movement laid out about six in various
directions upon the floor. Two rose crying—“Ding his
old red-headed skin,” said one of them, “to go and
kick me right in my sore belly, where I fell down and
raked it, running after that fellow that cried `schoolbutter.”
[4]

“Drot his old snaggle-tooth picture,” said the other,
“to go and hurt my sore toe, where I knocked the nail
off, going to the spring, to fetch a gourd of warter for
him, and not for myself n'other.”

[figure description] Page 085.[end figure description]

“Hut!” said Capt. Griffin, “young Washingtons
mind these trifles! At him again.”

The name of Washington cured their wounds, and
dried up their tears in an instant, and they legged him
de novo. The left leg treated six more as unceremoniously
as the right had those just mentioned—but the
talismanic name, had just fallen upon their ears before
the kick, so they were invulnerable. They therefore
returned to the attack without loss of time. The struggle
seemed to wax hotter and hotter, for a short time
after Michael came to the ground, and he threw the
children about in all directions and postures, giving some
of them thumps which would have placed the ruffle-shirted
little darlings of the present day, under the discipline
of paregoric and opodeldoc for a week; but these hardy
sons of the forest, seemed not to feel them. As Michael's
head grew easy, his limbs, by a natural sympathy became
more quiet, and he now sued for peace, offering
one day's holiday as the price. The boys demanded a
week; but here the Captain interposed, and after the
common, but often unjust custom of arbitrators, split the
difference. In this instance the terms were equitable
enough, and were immediately acceded to by both parties.
Michael rose in a good humor, and the boys were
of course. Loud was their talking of their deeds of
valor, as they retired. One little fellow, about seven
years old, and about three feet and a half high, jumped
up, cracked his feet together, and exclaimed, “by gingo,
Peet Jones, Bill Smith and me can hold any Sinjin that
ever trod Georgy grit.” By the way, the name of St.
John, was always pronounced “Sinjin,” by the common
people of that day; and so it must have been by
Lord Bolingbroke himself, else his friend Pope would
never have addressed him in a line so unmusical as


“Awake my St. John, leave all meaner things.”

[figure description] Page 086.[end figure description]

Nor would Swift, the friend and companion of both,
have written

HALL.

eaf262.n3

[3] The fescue was a sharpened wire, or other instrument, used by
the preceptor, to point out the letters to the children.

Abisselfa is a contraction of the words “a, by itself, a.” It was
usual, when either of the vowels constituted a syllable of a word, to
pronounce it and denote its independent character, by the words just
mentioned, thus: “a by itself, a-c-o-r-n corn, acorn.”—“e by itself,
e-v-i-l, evil, &c.

The character which stands for the word “and” (&) was probably
pronounced by the same accompaniment, but in terms borrowed from
the Latin language, thus: “& per se (by itself) &. Hence, “anpersant.”

eaf262.n4

[4] I have never been able to satisfy myself clearly, as to the literal
meaning of these terms. They were considered an unpardonable insult
to a country school, and always justified an attack by the whole
fraternity, upon the person who used them in their hearing. I have
known the scholars pursue a traveller two miles to be revenged of the
insult. Probably they are a corruption of “The School's better.”
“Better,” was the term commonly used of old, to denote a superior,
as it sometimes is in our day—“Wait till your betters are served,” for
example. I conjecture therefore, the expression just alluded to, was
one of challenge, contempt and defiance, by which the person who used
it, avowed himself the superior in all respects, of the whole school,
from the preceptor down. If any one can give a better account of it,
I shall be pleased to receive it.