Spotlight on spelling

At the beginning of the 39th annual Hill County Spelling Bee on Tuesday, the rows of chairs in front of the Havre Middle School auditorium were filled with about 70 students, grades five through eight, carefully culled from 13 area schools.

"Schedule," said pronouncer Butch Marshall to the student who had the misfortune to get the first word of the bee in front of the three judges and more than 100 spectators.

The student carefully felt the word out: "S - K - E - D - U - L - E."

Six rounds and about 150 words later, only about 10 students remained, the rest having wrestled unsuccessfully with...