Black Lamb

In touch

Kids can see & hear things that we can't.

May 1st, 2013

BY ELIZABETH FOURNIER

My little girl was up in her loft the other day when I heard her ask someone if they could please move because they were in her way. Minutes later Sofia comes down the stairs and says that Mrs. Butler won’t stop sitting on her bed and she has already asked her nicely to move. Sofia wants Mrs. Butler to like the color pink and summertime, and holding hands all the time in the grocery store and the park. But she doesn’t ever get an answer from her.

We moved into a house in the hills that had sat vacant for years. Vacant of taxpayers but not really vacant of ghouls, the former couple who died in the house. We were aware of this when we signed on the line for the place but we just weren’t phased. We figured we were generous enough to share the space with them — so long as they didn’t do things that would scare the hell out of us.

Sofia sees them, we do not. But that doesn’t stop me from constantly talking aloud to them, explaining cheerfully that we acknowledge we are in their house, and while we are honored to be living in their house (and please notice we didn’t remodel anything in the house we heard they really liked) we would be very, very happy if they played nicely with our child.

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Final exam

March 1st, 2011

BY BLACK LAMB

Could you have passed the eighth grade in 1895?

This is the final exam from Salina, Kansas.
It was taken from the original document on file at the Smoky Valley
Genealogical Society and Library in Salina and reprinted by the
Salina Journal.

Grammar (Time, one hour)
1. Give nine rules for the use of Capital Letters.
2. Name the Parts of Speech and define those that have no modifications.
3. Define Verse, Stanza and Paragraph.
4. What are the Principal Parts of a verb? Give Principal Parts of do, lie, lay and run.
5. Define Case; illustrate each Case.
6. What is Punctuation? Give rules for principal marks of Punctuation.
7-10. Write a composition of about 150 words and show therein that you understand the practical use of the rules of grammar.

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