The Hoosier Schoolmaster | Page 8

Biglow Papers must be the despair of every one who aspires to write on Americanisms. To Mr. Lowell belongs the distinction of being the only one of our most eminent authors and the only one of our most eminent scholars who has given careful attention to American dialects. But while I have not ventured to discuss the provincialisms of the Indiana backwoods, I have been careful to preserve the true usus loquendi of each locution.
BROOKLYN, December, 1871.

CONTENTS.
CHAPTER I
PAGE A Private Lesson from a Bulldog . . . 37
CHAPTER II.
A Spell Coming. . . . . . . . . . . . 52
CHAPTER III.
Mirandy, Hank, and Shocky . . . . . . 57
CHAPTER IV.
Spelling Down the Master. . . . . . . 70
CHAPTER V.
The Walk Home . . . . . . . . . . . . 90
CHAPTER VI.
A Night at Pete Jones's . . . . . . . 97
CHAPTER VII
Ominous Remarks of Mr. Jones. . . . . 105
CHAPTER VIII.
The Struggle in the Dark. . . . . . . 109
CHAPTER IX.
Has God Forgotten Shocky? . . . . . . 114
CHAPTER X.
The Devil of Silence. . . . . . . . . 118
CHAPTER XI.
Miss Martha Hawkins . . . . . . . . . 125
CHAPTER XII.
The Hardshell Preacher. . . . . . . . 133
CHAPTER XIII.
A Struggle for the Mastery. . . . . . 143
CHAPTER XIV.
A Crisis with Bud . . . . . . . . . . 150
CHAPTER XV.
The Church of the Best Licks. . . . . 157
CHAPTER XVI.
The Church Militant . . . . . . . . . 163
CHAPTER XVII.
A Council of War. . . . . . . . . . . 169
CHAPTER XVIII.
Odds and Ends . . . . . . . . . . . . 175
CHAPTER XIX.
Face to Face. . . . . . . . . . . . . 180
CHAPTER XX.
God Remembers Shocky. . . . . . . . . 185
CHAPTER XXI.
Miss Nancy Sawyer . . . . . . . . . . 192
CHAPTER XXII.
Pancakes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 195
CHAPTER XXIII.
A Charitable Institution. . . . . . . 203
CHAPTER XXIV
The Good Samaritan. . . . . . . . . . 212
CHAPTER XXV.
Bud Wooing. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 215
CHAPTER XXVI.
A Letter and its Consequences . . . . 220
CHAPTER XXVII.
A Loss and a Gain . . . . . . . . . . 224
CHAPTER XXVIII.
The Flight. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 228
CHAPTER XXIX.
The Trial . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 234
CHAPTER XXX.
"Brother Sodom" . . . . . . . . . . . 249
CHAPTER XXXI.
The Trial Concluded . . . . . . . . . 254
CHAPTER XXXII.
After the Battle. . . . . . . . . . . 269
CHAPTER XXXIII.
Into the Light. . . . . . . . . . . . 274
CHAPTER XXXIV.
"How it Came Out" . . . . . . . . . . 278

The Hoosier School-Master.
CHAPTER I
A PRIVATE LESSON FROM A BULLDOG.
"Want to be a school-master, do you? You? Well, what would you do in Flat Crick deestrick, I'd like to know? Why, the boys have driv off the last two, and licked the one afore them like blazes. You might teach a summer school, when nothin' but children come. But I 'low it takes a right smart man to be school-master in Flat Crick in the winter. They'd pitch you out of doors, sonny, neck and heels, afore Christmas."
The young man, who had walked ten miles to get the school in this district, and who had been mentally reviewing his learning at every step he took, trembling lest the committee should find that he did not know enough, was not a little taken aback at this greeting from "old Jack Means," who was the first trustee that he lighted on. The impression made by these ominous remarks was emphasized by the glances which he received from Jack Means's two sons. The older one eyed him from the top of his brawny shoulders with that amiable look which a big dog turns on a little one before shaking him. Ralph Hartsook had never thought of being measured by the standard of muscle. This notion of beating education into young savages in spite of themselves dashed his ardor.
He had walked right to where Jack Means was at work shaving shingles in his own front yard. While Mr. Means was making the speech which we have set down above, and punctuating it with expectorations, a large brindle bulldog had been sniffing at Ralph's heels,