Page:The Granite Monthly Volume 6.djvu/197

 MISS ANN ORR.

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��MISS ANN ORR— A REMINISCENCE.

��BY CLARA CLAYTON.

��The subject of this sketch was a •'schoolmistress" well-known in many towns of New Hampshire more than thirty years ago ; her fame as a faith- ful teacher and successful manager of unruly scholars was somewhat exten- sive, and I am sure there must be, among the readers of this magazine, more than one man or woman who could furnish many interesting and profitable facts in regard to her life and work. From what I am able to learn of her history I am led to believe that she was born in Bed- ford, N. H., and was a descendant of John and Margaret Orr, who were among the very early settlers of that place.

What I have to say is said more for the purpose of calling out more upon the same subject from those better qualified to furnish it. than from any hope of doing justice to it in the least degree myself.

My acquaintance with Miss Orr was not extensive, being limited to a few weeks' pupilage in a village school of which she was the winter teacher. I was a little girl, not over eight years old, but if I should live to be eighty, probably "among the pictures that hang on memory's wall" Miss Orr and her school in the old brick school- house would still stand out in bold re- lief.

On the first day of school I associa- ted her in my mind with the bible verse which I had recited to my Sun- day-school teacher the Sunday before : •'Stand in awe and sin not ;" and from that day to this, a vague relation be- tween this person and the text has always existed in my mind. Even now I find myself inclined to write her name Awe. Surely in her presence the offender had reason to " stand in awe," and he soon learned that his

��only safe course was to "sin not" against her.

Her physique was masculine, medium height, broad-chested, a countenance that could face any emergency, and a voice tuned to the requirements of the occasion.

Dressed in a black bombazine gown, with a round cape of the same mate- rial, just reaching to the bottom of the waist, where hung, suspended from her apron-belt, always, a pair of scissors, the sight of which, accompanied by her gestures and warning words, often made little ears tingle with fear. She was not a young woman, as I remem- ber her, but, I should say, considerably past the meridian of life.

School was opened every morning with reading a chapter in the bible (and prayer, 1 think, but I am not pos- itive about the latter), each scholar reading a verse in turn, all remaining in their seats. When one dullard read in the parable of the vineyard " This is the hair-comb, let us kill hi///," the burst of merriment which followed was suddenly and instantly squelched by the stentorian command " Silence !" emphasized by a stamp of the foot which threatened the very foundations of that ancient educational structure. Not a face dared to wrjnkle after that.

She had a frequent habit of sneez- ing, anil her sneeze, like her whole na- ture, was broad, generous, decided and emphatic ; consequently the first im- pulse of every boy and girl in the room was to respond to it with a smile at least, which, if encouraged, would ea- sily have widened into a roar ; but no such opportunity was ever given. The sneeze always contained a codicil. All in the same breath with it, like a percussive attachment, followed the explosive " Silence !" accompanied, always, by an emphatic stamp of the

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