The Spelling Bee

But the real excitement began with the spelling classes. The first was
open to all children under fourteen. At the invitation, boys and girls
walked bravely to the front and joined the line till it reached from
one side of the room to the opposite. A teacher from a neighboring town
gave out the words. The weeding-out process soon began. Some fell down
on simple words, others handled difficult ones with ease and spelled
glibly through some which many of the older people present had
forgotten existed. Soon the class narrowed down to two. Back and forth,
back and forth the words rolled until the teacher pronounced one of the
old standby catch-words. One of the contestants shook his head,
puzzled, and surrendered.

There was more music, several recitations by the children, a spelling
class for older people, more music, then a General Information class,
whose participants were asked such questions as, "Who is State
Superintendent of Schools?" "How many legs has a fly?" "How many teeth
has a cow?" "Which color is at the top of the rainbow arch?" The amazed,
puzzled expressions on the faces of the questioned afforded much
merriment for the others. It was frequently necessary to wait a moment
until the laughter was suppressed before other questions could be asked.

A geographical class was equally interesting. "How many counties has
Pennsylvania?" sent five persons to their seats before it was answered
correctly. Others succeeded in locating such queer names as
Popocatepetl, Martinique, Ashtabula, Rhodesia, Orkney, Comanche.

A little later the last spelling class was held. It was open to
everybody. The line was already stretched across the schoolroom when
Lyman Mertzheimer, home for a few days of vacation, entered the
schoolhouse.