An’ we learned to purnounce a heap mo’ words than either one of us has ever needed to know, though there has been times, sech ez when my wife’s mother took the phthisic an’ I had the asthma, thet I was obligated to write to the doctor about it, thet I was thankful for my experience in the blue-back speller. Them was our brag-words, phthisic and asthma was. They’s a few other words I’ve always hoped to have a chance to spell in the reg’lar co’se of life, sech ez y-a-c-h-t, yacht, but I suppose, livin’ in a little inland town, which a yacht is a boat, a person couldn’t be expected to need sech a word—less’n he went travelin’. I’ve often thought thet ef at the Jedgment the good Lord would only examine me an’ all them thet went to school in my day, in the old blue-back speller ’stid o’ tacklin’ us on the weak p’ints of our pore mortal lives, why, we’d stand about ez good a chance o’ gettin’ to heaven ez anybody else. An’ maybe He will—who knows? But ez for book-readin’, wife an’ me ain’t never felt called on to read no book save an’ exceptin’ the Holy Scriptures—an’, of co’se, the seed catalogues. An’ here Sonny, not quite twelve year old, has read five books thoo, an’ some of ’em twice-t an’ three times over. His _Robinson Crusoe_ shows mo’ wear ’n tear ’n what my Testament does, I’m ashamed to say. I’ve done give Miss Phœbe free license to buy him any book she wants him to have, an’ he’s got ’em all ’ranged in a row on the end o’ the mantel-shelf. Quick ez he’d git thoo readin’ a book, of co’se wife she’d be for dustin’ it off and puttin’ up on the top closet shelf where a book nach’ally belongs; but seem like Sonny he wants to keep ’em in sight. So wife she’s worked a little lace shelf-cover to lay under ’em, an’ we’ve hung our framed marriage-c’tificate above ’em, an’ the corner looks right purty, come to see it fixed up. Sir? Oh, no; we ain’t took him from none o’ the other schools yet. He’s been goin’ to Miss Phœbe’s reg’lar now—all but the exhibition an’ picnic days in the other schools—for nearly five months, not countin’ off-an’-on days he went to her befo’ he settled down to it stiddy. He says he’s a-goin’ there reg’lar from this time on, an’ I b’lieve he will; but wife an’ me we talked it over, an’ we decided we’d let things stand, an’ keep his name down on all the books till sech a time ez he come to long division with Miss Kellog. An’ ef he stays thoo that, we’ll feel free to notify the other schools thet he’s quit. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ HER FIRST HORSE SHOW By DAVID GRAY