Frank\'s Campaign, or, Farm and Camp
CHAPTER I. THE WAR MEETING The Town Hall in Rossville stands on a moderate elevation overlooking the principal street. It is generally open only when a meeting has been called by the Selectmen to transact town business, or occasionally in the evening when a lecture on temperance or a political address is to be delivered. Rossville is not large enough to sustain a course of lyceum lectures, and the townspeople are obliged to depend for intellectual nutriment upon such chance occasions as these. The majority of the inhabitants being engaged in agricultural pursuits, the population is somewhat scattered, and the houses, with the exception of a few grouped around the stores, stand at respectable distances, each encamped on a farm of its own. One Wednesday afternoon, toward the close of September, 1862, a group of men and boys might have been seen standing on the steps and in the entry of the Town House. Why they had met will best appear from a large placard, which had been posted up on barns and fences and inside the village store and postoffice.
Every piece of furniture in the room had to be "dusted," that is it
was brushed with the evil feather, which somehow or other did stay
on the candidate's nose; and if the spectators clapped and laughed
Shirley could scarcely blame them, for Dozia Dalton had a foolish
lot of truck to be dusted. More than once she halted, but was
promptly prodded on until finally the humiliating task had been
accomplished.
"Good girl!" called out a voice from behind a mask and Judith
quickly stepped up to take off the duster. Juniors favor the
freshman in spite of such conditions.
"O--uch!" protested the culprit. "It is hard!"
"Wait a minute!" cautioned Jane's voice. "This will remove it. Sit
down, sixty-eight."
The unhappy candidate fell into a chair, while someone applied the
alcohol cloth and presently the tiny feather fell with its bit of
sticky felt into the palm awaiting to catch it.
"Keep your hands down," insisted someone, for Shirley never knew
before the glory of a free nose and she just wanted to pet it a
little. But her tormentors intended to fix up any damage they might
have inadvertently perpetrated on the feature, and what coating
didn't come off with the alcohol was quickly covered with Dozia's
CHAPTER I. THE WAR MEETING The Town Hall in Rossville stands on a moderate elevation overlooking the principal street. It is generally open only when a meeting has been called by the Selectmen to transact town business, or occasionally in the evening when a lecture on temperance or a political address is to be delivered. Rossville is not large enough to sustain a course of lyceum lectures, and the townspeople are obliged to depend for intellectual nutriment upon such chance occasions as these. The majority of the inhabitants being engaged in agricultural pursuits, the population is somewhat scattered, and the houses, with the exception of a few grouped around the stores, stand at respectable distances, each encamped on a farm of its own. One Wednesday afternoon, toward the close of September, 1862, a group of men and boys might have been seen standing on the steps and in the entry of the Town House. Why they had met will best appear from a large placard, which had been posted up on barns and fences and inside the village store and postoffice.