| Vol. II.—No. 62. | Published by HARPER & BROTHERS, New York. | Price Four Cents. |
| Tuesday, January 4, 1881. | Copyright, 1880, by Harper & Brothers. | $1.50 per Year, in Advance. |
MR. CHALKER'S RUSE.
BY FRANK H. TAYLOR.
Every country boy in New England knows that the village school-house isgenerally located upon the top of the bleakest hill in the neighborhood,and is the sport of every eddying gust of wind that drives down from thegreat pine wilderness of Maine, heaping the great drifts across the roadand about the door for the children to break through, and then shakethemselves free of the clinging snow like so many young Newfoundlands.
And where, by any chance, was there ever a school-house containing astove that didn't roast the scholars seated near it, and leave theothers to freeze?
All wide-awake boys who know the pleasures of skating will agree with methat however cold and stormy