They ought to go separate, with a driver for
every span. This must be a lesson for the future."
"It is an ill wind that blows no one any good," says the proverb. Our
disaster proved a bonanza to old Tommy Goss; he set his traps there all
winter, near the frozen bodies of the horses, and caught marten,
fishers, mink, "lucivees," and foxes by the dozen.
CHAPTER XXXI
CZAR BRENCH
The loss of Master Joel Pierson as our teacher at the district school
the following winter, was the greatest disappointment of the year. We
had anticipated all along that he was coming back, and I think he had
intended to do so; but an offer of seventy-five dollars a month--more
than double what our small district could pay--to teach a village school
in an adjoining county, robbed us of his invaluable services; for
Pierson was at that time working his way through college and could not
afford to lose so good an opportunity to add to his resources during the
winter vacation.
We did not learn this till the week before school was to begin; and when
his letter to Addison reached us, explaining why he could not come,
there were heart-felt lamentations at the old Squire's and at the
Edwards farm.
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